Peanuts, oranges, and chocolate, oh my!

Must be Samichlaus time.

I know you only got your Samichlaus sack yesterday, but really, who can eat that many peanuts?

Time to put them to use—in the form of cookies.

(But what is a Samichlaus sack? For more on that, see here.)

The browned butter method below is a variation on a theme from Cook’s Illustrated, who use it in their phenomenal chocolate chip cookies. It gives your cookie a deep caramel flavour.

This recipe is also part of an international project by Silvie at Citronelle and Cardamome, who organized an advent calendar of recipes by bloggers all over the world. See all the fabulous Christmas recipes here.

200 g sugar

1 tbsp orange zest

175 g butter

2 tbsp molasses

1 tbsp vanilla paste or extract

1 egg and 1 egg yolk, room temperature

250 g flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

75 g chocolate, chopped

75 g peanuts, chopped

Preheat your oven to 190 C.

Put the sugar in a large bowl and, using your fingers, rub in the orange zest.

Now, brown your butter. In a medium pot, add the butter and cook over medium heat until it smells nutty and starts to turn brown.

Add the browned butter and molasses to the sugar mixture and whisk well.

Add the vanilla, egg and yolk to the sugar mixture and whisk well.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt.

Gently fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients.

Fold in the chopped chocolate and nuts.

Form ping-pong sized balls with your cookie dough, place on parchment-lined baking sheets, and press down into discs.

Chill the dough for about 30 minutes in the fridge or freezer (or outside on a chilly day).

Bake for about 11 minutes, or until you can smell the cookies and the tops have just set.

• When melting the butter, don’t use a pot with a black bottom or it will be difficult to see when the butter changes colour.