Peanut Butter Cookies

I can never have too many sweets these days. So when I was wanting a cookie, I found a peanut butter version at the cafeteria and it was pretty good. Since I had that one cookies was wanting more!

Two days later I made these.

The basic, traditional peanut butter cookie.

They turned out so well. They are super simple to mix together too.

From a Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook

1/2 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup peanut butter

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 egg

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

Granulated sugar in a shallow bowl

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Prepare cookie sheets with a Silpat or parchment paper.

In a large mixing bowl beat butter and peanut butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add the granulated sugar, brown sugar, baking soda and baking powder. Beat until combined, scraping sides of bowl occasionally. Beat in egg and vanilla until combined. Gradually beat in the flour.

Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Roll in additional granulated sugar to coat. Place 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Flatten by making crisscross marks with the tines of a fork.

Bake for about 7-8 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to let cool.



Praline Blondies

Last week I was on the hunt for unique recipes to make for the cookie reception after our church choir concerts on Sunday (yesterday). And since the treats were going to be on a cookie buffet, I wanted them to be just small little bites.

This recipe is from Real Simple's 50 Best Holiday Cookie Recipes. I love blondies and praline so I was really hoping it would be a winner. Turns out it was and each little square was gobbled down quickly.

These turned out so well I just might make them again. Afterall, I only got one small piece from this batch and that just wasn't enough for me!

Blondies:

nonstick cooking spray
1 cup all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs

Topping:
3 tablespoons packed light brown sugar
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup confectioners’ sugar
1/2 cup chopped pecans

a few tablespoons of milk, if needed

Heat oven to 350° F. Spray an 8-inch square baking pan with the cooking spray. Line the pan with 2 crisscrossed pieces of parchment, leaving an overhang on all sides; spray the parchment with the cooking spray.

Make the blondie: In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
In a medium saucepan, melt the butter over medium-low heat. Remove from heat and mix in the brown sugar and vanilla. One at a time, mix in the eggs; mix in the flour mixture until just combined (do not overmix).

Spread the batter into the prepared pan and bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with moist crumbs clinging to it, about 25 minutes. Cool completely in the pan. You can put the pan in the fridge to hurry the cooling process along.

Make the praline topping: In a small saucepan, heat the brown sugar and butter over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until bubbling, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat and whisk in the vanilla, 1 tablespoon of water, and confectioners’ sugar until smooth. If mixture is clumpy that means you cooked the sugar too long (what happened to me) so add milk, 1 tablespoon at a time, and whisk really well until smooth. Spread over the cooled blondies and sprinkle with the pecans. Let the topping set, 10 to 15 minutes.

Holding both sides of the paper overhang, lift the cake out of the pan, transfer to a cutting board, and cut into squares. Store the blondies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.

Madeleines

After we ate our Special Chicken, Adam asked what the funny red silicone pan sitting on the counter was for. I told him it's my madeleine pan and that I want to make some in the near future. Well since he put the idea in my head which caused and instant sweet tooth, I found a recipe and got to it right then.

I know I say a lot of the recipes I try are easy but this one is truly so easy! I guess the most difficult part to overcome is having a madeleine pan. I was out shopping one day and saw the silicone one I have on big-time sale and just bought it on a whim. I'm very happy I did! I need another one now...

While studying in Paris, I remember buying these little cake-cookies in large packages in the grocery store and by the piece at corner bakeries.

There are several madeleine recipes out there. The basic recipe I use is from Cookies Unlimited by Nick Malgieri.

2 large eggs
pinch salt
1/2 cup sugar
finely grated zest of a medium orange
1 cup flour
8 tablespoons (1 stick butter), melted
confectioners sugar for finishing
two madeleine pans, buttered and floured

Set rack in the middle level of the oven and reheat to 375 degrees.

In a medium bowl, by hand, whisk together the eggs and salt until frothy, about 15 seconds. Whisk in the sugar in a stream, then the orange zest. Use a rubber spatula to fold in the flour, then the melted butter. Use a large soup spoon to fill the cavities in the molds about 2/3 full.

Bake the madelines for about 20 minutes, until they are well risen, firm and a golden color.

Remove the pans from the oven and unmold the madeleines immediately onto racks to cool. If you reuse the pan like I did, wash it and butter and flour it again.

Dust the madeleines with powdered sugar before serving.


Next time I want to make chocolate madeleines: Substitute 2/3 cup flour and 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted after measuring, for the flour. Add 1 teaspoon vanilla extract.

Sweet Valentines

Rebecca and Jesse came over on Saturday night to watch the Olympics with Adam and I. They came bearing Valentines cookies and a sweet Valentine to Baxter from her kitty, Izzie (Bax and Izz have a love-hate relationship - it stems from the first time they met...).

Bec made lovely, huge heart shaped cookies from my recipe.

They were a perfect treat! Thank you!

Chocolate White Chocolate Chunk Cookies

I made these during the snow storm last week. They turned out very well, which in my book means they didn't get too hard nor did they flatten out. These are a good anytime treat but I warn you, they are had to stop eating. Give them away as gifts!

This recipe is from the Baker's Chocolate Classic Recipes.

2 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup butter, softened

1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

4 squares (4 ounces) Bakers Chocolate, melted, cooled slightly

1 package (12 ounces) white chocolate chunks or chips

1 cup chopped nuts (optional but I used)

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl; set aside.

Beat butter and sugar in large bowl with electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla; beat well. Stir in melted chocolate. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in chocolate chunks and nuts. Drop by heaping tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.

Bake 11-12 minutes or until cookies feel set to the touch. Remove cookies from sheet onto wire cooling racks.

I like to have large chunks of nuts in my cookies!

Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies

I recently stumbled upon a blog called Our Best Bites. It has the most clever and delicious recipes and amazing photos to go along with them. While everything sounds so appetizing - I already made sweet potato fries I found on the site, I wanted to make something easy and enjoyable for everyone to take along to Thanksgiving dinner at Adam's sister's house. I stumbled across peanut butter sandwich cookies and they sounded devine. I whipped them up while keeping a watchful eye on our new puppy who walked around the living room and eventually came over and decided to take a nap with his head resting on my feet while I formed the cookies.

cookies:
1 cup butter flavored Crisco
1 cup creamy peanut butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 eggs
3 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

filling:
1 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup real butter, softened
4 cups powdered sugar (I used about 3 1/2 cups. You be the judge)
2 teaspoon vanilla
5-6 Tablespoons milk

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Cream shortening, peanut butter and sugars together until light and fluffy. Add in vanilla and eggs one at a time. In a separate bowl whisk together flour, baking soda and salt and add to the dough. Mix to combine.

Roll into balls about the size of a quarter, roll in sugar, place on cookie sheet (I lined it with parchment) and make the fork criss-cross print. Remember to keep the cookies small because they will be sandwiched. They can be placed pretty closely together on the baking sheet.
Bake cookies for 6 to 7 minutes. I baked mine for 6 minutes and that seemed to be perfect. Remove from pan and place on cooling racks.

To make filling, whip the peanut butter and butter together until smooth. Add powdered sugar and vanilla. Then add milk one tablespoon at a time. You may not need it all. You want the filling to be on the thick side; it should just have enough milk to make it spreadable.

Once cookies are cool, place a generous amount of filling on one cookie and sandwich it with another. Store in airtight containers.

Cookies ready for the oven.

Waiting to turned into sandwiches.


The finished product!

DMB

The concert Arielle has been waiting for since I bought the tickets in March finally came last Friday... Dave Matthews in Hershey. Arielle is a huge fan and knows all his songs and everything about him. Luckily a little over a week before the concert Arielle gave me their latest cd to listen to in my car so I was well prepared. They played lots of songs from their new album, several of which I love. But before the concert, Arielle made us some great treats:

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Spicy Pretzels:

3/4 cup vegetable oil

1 package Ranch dressing mix

1 1/2 teaspoon garlic salt

1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 teaspoon lemon pepper

15 oz. pretzels

Mix all ingredients together. Place on a baking sheet. Bake for 2 hours at 200 degrees. Let cool completely on baking sheet and store in air-tight container.

Son of a Peach Cookies

These are a great soft, cakey cookie. We had just bought some fresh peaches in Adams County the week before.

Oh and the name... After I had one of these cookies, I had to run out in the pouring down rain in my long flowy skirt and when I got back in the car, I was soaked and yelled 'son of a peach' and the name stuck. ha!

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1/2 cup butter, softened

1 cup sugar

1 egg

2 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon ground ginger

1/8 teaspoon ground cloves

3 medium peaches, peeled, pitted and chopped

Heat oven to 375 degrees.

In a medium bowl, mix all dry ingredients.

In the bowl of a mixer, beat butter and sugar until well mixed. Add egg and mix. Slowly mix in dry ingredients until well blended. Stir in peaches by hand. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto a cookie sheet. Bake for 8 minutes.

Picnic Loaves

This is a favorite. We make it for church potlucks, parties, picnics, tailgating... It's from a Taste of Home Cookbook.

2 loaves Italian bread
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 teaspoons Italian seasoning (we use McCormick brand)
½ lb roast beef
¾ lb provolone cheese
16 basil leaves
3 small tomatoes, sliced (or however much you like)
¼ lb hard salami
10 oz. salad greens
½ lb turkey
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
Salt and pepper

Cut loaves in half horizontally. Hollow out some of the bread, being careful not to go get too thin against the crust. Mix the oil and garlic together. Brush oil on the cut side of the 4 pieces of bread then sprinkle with Italian seasoning. On the bottom loaves, begin building the sandwich in this order: beef, cheese, basil, tomato, salami, salad greens, turkey & onion; sprinkle with salt and pepper and repeat layer. Place the top of the loaves on the layers. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least one hour before slicing.

Sisters

The rain was over by the time the show started and we ended up having a great evening!

And I'm loving this song.

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Giant Sugar Cookies

The other day I was in the mood to make cookies. It was late in the evening so I wanted something easy. There are stacks of Food Magazines all around our house so I grabbed a few and began thumbing through. The magazine features a cookie recipe each month in the very back of the book (the Cookie Jar section). I found the April 2007 edition in which there is a Giant Sugar Cookie recipe. So off to the kitchen I go...

2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar, plus more for sprinkling
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup sour cream

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, with one rack in upper third and another in lower third. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt and baking soda; set aside.

Using an electric mixer on med-hi, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy, 2 to 4 minutes. Add egg and vanilla; beat well to combine.

With mixer on low, add half the flour mixture followed by sour cream, then remaining flour mixture; mix just until smooth (Dough will be stiff; I had to finish mixing it with a wooden spoon).

Drop mounds of dough, each equal to about 3 tablespoons (I used a 1/4 cup of dough), 3 to 4 inches apart, onto two ungreased baking sheets (I still used an Exopat); sprinkle with sugar. Bake until edges of cookies are just firm and tops are barely beginning to brown - I did 20 minutes but I think it was too long. I would recommend starting at 17 or 18 and keep a close eye on them. Also, rotate the sheets half way through baking. Transfer cookies to a rack to cool. I got 11 cookies from this recipe.

These were huge and so good! I think I will put colored sugar on them next time, just to make them more colorful. These are also great gift-giving cookies - stack a few, wrap them in cellophane and tie a ribbon and tag around them. Very cute!

Chewy Chocolate Cookies

Last evening I was in the mood to bake something sweet. Mary recommended I make these Chewy Chocolate Cookies from Cooks Illustrated. She made chocolate chip cookies from CI and gave me one and I was thorougly impressed with the size (mine usually don't stay thick). I was not disappointed with this recipe! Mary recommended that you use a 1/4 cup to measure out the size of the dough balls. I did and I got 16 cookies from the dough, exactly what the recipe calls for. I baked mine for 10 minutes. Make sure you let the cookies rest on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before you move them to the cooling rack, otherwise they will easily fall apart.

Mary and I were just talking about the complexity of CI recipes. CI recommends fancy, expensive chocolate and they give you instructions on how to chop it. If you're a foodie and you have all day and a ton of money to pour into your baking, I can see how it would be appealing to use the best chocolate chunks and spent lots of time on getting them to be the correct size, but for everyday people who have lots of other things to do, there are ways to cut corners in these recipes - like the use of chocolate chips here - and the results are still wonderfully delicious.

I like that these cookies are so big because one will definitely satisfy your sweet tooth If you're making for a crowd, doubling the recipe would be easy and beneficial.

1/3 cup granulated sugar, plus 1/2 cup for coating

1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

3/4 cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon table salt

1/2 cup dark corn syrup

1 large egg white

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter , softened

1/3 cup packed dark brown sugar

4 ounces bittersweet chocolate , chopped into 1/2-inch pieces (here, I used semi-sweet chocolate chips because it is what I had)

1. Adjust oven racks to upper- and lower-middle positions and heat oven to 375 degrees. Line 2 large (18- by 12-inch) baking sheets with parchment paper - I used a Silpat. Place ½ cup granulated sugar in shallow baking dish or pie plate. Whisk flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt together in medium bowl. Whisk corn syrup, egg white, and vanilla together in small bowl.

Hershey's cocoa powder is always a staple in our house!

CI says that by using the dark corn syrup, it cuts back on the amount of white sugar in the recipe.

2. In stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment, beat butter, brown sugar, and remaining 1/3 cup granulated sugar at medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Reduce speed to medium-low, add corn syrup mixture, and beat until fully incorporated, about 20 seconds, scraping bowl once with rubber spatula. With mixer running at low speed, add flour mixture and chopped chocolate; mix until just incorporated, about 30 seconds, scraping bowl once. Give dough final stir with rubber spatula to ensure that no pockets of flour remain at bottom. Chill dough 30 minutes to firm slightly (do not chill longer than 30 minutes).

The dough is very dense. By refigerating it, it makes forming the balls easier and less sticky.

3. Divide dough into 16 equal portions; roll between hands into balls about 11/2 inches in diameter. Working in batches, drop 8 dough balls into baking dish with sugar and toss to coat. Set dough balls on prepared baking sheet, spacing about 2 inches apart; repeat with second batch of 8. Bake, reversing position of the baking sheets halfway through baking (from top to bottom and front to back), until cookies are puffed and cracked and edges have begun to set but centers are still soft (cookies will look raw between cracks and seem underdone), 10 to 11 minutes. Do not overbake.

I don't know if the picture does the size of the dough balls justice. They were huge! I don't think I've ever made a single cookie with so much dough. I also got a ruler out to make sure they were 1.5 inches.

4. Cool cookies on baking sheet 5 minutes, then use wide metal spatula to transfer cookies to wire rack; cool cookies to room temperature.

The cookies don't end up being huge but they are very heavy. Still chewy though!