Hot 'n' Nutty Cookies

Description
Contributed by Catsrecipes Y-Group
 * Makes 2 dozen cookies.

Ingredients

 * ¾ cup unsalted butter, softened
 * 1 cup sugar
 * 1 cup packed brown sugar
 * 2 cups peanut butter, smooth or crunchy
 * ½ cup macadamia nuts, chopped (optional)
 * 2 eggs
 * 1 tbsp vanilla extract
 * 1 tbsp Tabasco pepper sauce
 * 3 cups flour
 * 1 tbsp salt
 * 1 tbsp baking soda

Directions

 * 1) Preheat oven to 350°F.
 * 2) Lightly butter and flour a cookie sheet.
 * 3) In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar.
 * 4) Stir in peanut butter and macadamia nuts.
 * 5) Mix until well blended.
 * 6) Add eggs, vanilla and Tabasco pepper sauce.
 * 7) Mix until well combined.
 * 8) In another bowl, mix together flour, salt and baking soda.
 * 9) Add to nut mixture and stir until blended.
 * 10) Spoon about 1 heaping t.
 * 11) Of batter on prepared cookie sheet.
 * 12) Coat the tines of a fork in flour and score each cookie in a criss-cross pattern.
 * 13) Bake 15 to 17 minutes or until edges begin to turn golden.
 * 14) Set aside to cool on racks.

Gilding the lily
Other nuts (particularly pecans) can be successfully substituted. Most tabasco recipes call for fairly modest amounts of what is, in fact, quite a hot hot sauce; resist the temptation to add more to these cookies, however. The heat level is just right.

One hundred and twenty five years after Edmund McIllheny first concocted the hot pepper sauce that has come to be called Tabasco, his descendants still make this quintessential condiment. Located on Avery island, a salt mount rising out of the Louisiana bayou, the company crushes red ripe Central America grown hot peppers, mixes them with salt mined from the island and ages the potent mash that results in white oak barrels for up to three years. The fiery purée is then blended with vinegar and stirred frequently for weeks before being strained and bottled. While a dash or two will enliven almost any dish, these double nutty cookies are a particularly unusual but otherwise delicious application of the hot stuff.