Cinq Centimes (Senegalese Peanut Cookies)
Abuja, Nigeria · Voir toutes les recettes
Aperçu
Cinq centimes are vanilla and cinnamon sugar cookies topped with peanut butter and chopped peanuts. They are sold in markets across Senegal, particularly in Dakar, and they are named after money: cinq centimes is French for five cents, a reference to their original small size, like coins. **These contain peanuts twice over, as a topping and as chopped nuts, and neither appears in the name.** The peanut is not incidental to Senegal. Groundnuts were the colonial cash crop that reshaped the country's agriculture under French rule, and they remain central to both the economy and the cooking: mafe, the peanut stew, is close to a national dish. A peanut-topped cookie sold for coins in a Dakar market sits squarely in that context rather than being a novelty. The base is a plain butter and sugar cookie with cinnamon and vanilla, chilled before rolling. Chilling matters more than it sounds, cold dough holds its shape as it bakes rather than spreading, which is what keeps these small and neat. One error in the source: its method gives an oven setting ten times higher than any domestic oven reaches, which is a misplaced decimal point. The corrected figure is used in the method below.
Note de Patrimoine AFN
Cinq centimes are Senegalese cookies topped with peanut butter and chopped peanuts, sold in markets particularly in Dakar. The name is French for five cents and refers to their original small, coin-like size. Groundnuts have been central to Senegalese agriculture and cooking since the colonial period.
Ingrédients
Les mentions alimentaires sont fournies par les contributeurs à titre indicatif. Elles ne sont pas vérifiées par AFN et dépendent des produits que vous achetez. En cas d’allergie grave, vérifiez vous-même chaque ingrédient. Cuisine, allergies et votre propre jugement
Préparation
- 1
Sift the flour into a large bowl. Whisk in the salt, sugar, vanilla essence and cinnamon.
- 2
Pour the cooking oil into the dry ingredients and mix for three minutes.
- 3
Beat the egg and work it into the mixture, followed by the melted butter.
- 4
Knead to a dough that is neither too sticky nor too hard.
- 5
Divide the dough into balls and chill them in the fridge for about an hour. This is what stops the cookies spreading in the oven.
- 6
Lightly flour your work surface and roll the dough out to the thickness you want.
- 7
Cut shapes with a cookie cutter and set them on a greased baking sheet.
- 8
Bake at 180°C for about 20 minutes, or until lightly browned.
- 9
Move the cookies to a cooling rack. Once completely cool, spread peanut butter over each one and top with chopped peanuts.
Notes de l’Africook
- These contain peanuts in two forms. Say so when you serve them, nothing in the name indicates it.
- Chill the dough properly. An hour in the fridge is what keeps the cookies small and neat instead of spreading into each other.
- Top them only once completely cool. Peanut butter on a warm cookie slides straight off.
- Keep them small. The name refers to their coin-like size and larger ones lose the point.
- Use a peanut butter that is firm rather than runny, or the topping will not stay put.
- They keep well in an airtight tin, though the topping softens after a day or two, top them as you serve if you are making them ahead.
Questions fréquentes
Do these contain peanuts?
Yes, twice, peanut butter spread over each cookie and chopped peanuts scattered on top. Neither the name nor the appearance of the base cookie indicates it, so it is worth saying clearly when serving them to anyone whose allergies you do not know. There is no version of this cookie without peanuts, since the topping is what distinguishes cinq centimes from an ordinary sugar cookie.
Why are they called five cents?
Because that is what cinq centimes means in French, and it refers to their original size, small and round like a coin. Senegal was a French colony until 1960 and French remains the official language, so French names on Senegalese street food are entirely ordinary. The name does not describe the price today; it stuck from an earlier era in the same way many food names do.
Why do peanuts matter so much in Senegalese food?
Groundnuts were the colonial cash crop that reshaped Senegalese agriculture under French rule, and they remain central to both the economy and the cooking. Mafe, the peanut stew, is close to a national dish, and peanuts appear in sauces, snacks and sweets throughout. A peanut-topped cookie sold in a Dakar market is part of that context rather than an unusual flavour combination.
The recipe says to heat the oven to 1800 degrees. Is that right?
No, that is a misplaced decimal point in the source, and no domestic oven goes anywhere near it. The intended figure is 180°C, which is a standard cookie-baking temperature and is what is given here. It is worth mentioning because the error is the kind that gets copied from recipe to recipe, and 180°C for around 20 minutes is what produces the lightly browned cookie the method describes.
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