Brownie Peanut Butter Cups

Ohhhhh... Jennifer . I don't know you. But somehow... somehow, you manage to read my mind. Somehow you manage to post the most delicious looking chocolatey, peanut buttery, pecan-filled, hazelnut laced recipes and for that, I thank you. I also hope that you find imitation to be a form of flattery instead of a nuisance, since I tend to make the recipes you've blogged about and then immediately put them on my blog, as well.

Digressing... I know that I've gone on ad nauseum about how much I love chocolate and peanut butter together. So, I won't go into the fact that it's a veritable divine partnership of flavors. No, I'm just going to say that if you, too, like Chocolate and Peanut Butter together... then you should try this recipe.

Peanut Butter Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

I’m kind of a routine eater. I eat essentially the same thing for breakfast every morning, I eat at the same 4-5 restaurants for lunch and eat the same thing at each restaurant. It’s not that I’m not adventurous when it comes to eating… because, I can be. It’s that I’m generally too lazy to try new things. I mean… the old stand-by is stable and for sure. I don’t want to have to read a menu or think up something new to have for breakfast.

Eventually, though… I get bored. It takes a long time to happen, but it does. Such is the case of the bananas that had been sitting on my kitchen counter for a week or so. My favorite way to eat bananas is in cereal. So, when I’m not eating much cereal… I’m not eating many bananas. I only like bananas when they are bright yellow, still a little green at the stem and devoid of any black or brown spots. At the onset of even one brown fleck, the banana is essentially dead to me and must be used up in a recipe.

Which is why I was looking for a new banana recipe...for whatever reason I have become a peanut butter fanatic in recent months, so I was really feeling like I wanted to try some sort of peanut butter and banana combination. And… with bananas and peanut butter… why not throw some chocolate chips and pecans in there, right??

Yum. These were delicious.. but you know…I might add more peanut butter and more chocolate chips next time.

I made half a batch and got 10 muffins.

Peanut Butter Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

Also… so.. I really need to figure out how to manipulate my camera to blur the background more and focus in on the actual baked good. I also need to learn how to notice shadows when I’m taking pictures instead of later when I’m looking at them on the computer. Hopefully the issue is my skills and not my camera, cause I really don't want to have to buy a new camera.

Chocolate-Peanut Butter Cake with Cream Cheese and Butterfinger Frosting

My family never celebrates anything on the correct date. Like, seriously, my immediate family is allergic to pre-set schedules. I don't even think my parents own a calendar. It kind of drives me crazy in a way, but I'm used to it by this point. Their constant spontaneity has turned me into a little bit of an OVERplanner.

It's refreshing in a way. To know that they live life by their seat of the pants. A lot of people are too scared to do that (me). A lot of people like to know when they aren't going to be in town in advance so they can pre-plan the previous weeks in preparation for the trip(me).

Anyway... long story short. My family celebrated Easter one weekend after Easter. Ham, deviled eggs, the whole bit. Strangely missing were easter baskets, but whatever. I'm 28, I'm not going to complain about that. Too much.

So, family get togethers are awesome for me, because I get to make a full-size recipe of something decadent. I searched through my recipe folder and came across this recipe. It was noted as being from Bon Appetit originally. But, I'm sure I got this recipe from someone else's blog. Unfortunately, I didn't put that blog link on the recipe (like I usually do).

I really enjoyed making this cake. I made it in about 3 different stages in about 3 different days and I eagerly anticipated the final day... putting all the delicious components together. But, I think I had overloaded on all the individual components to the point where the final product wasn't as awesome as I had expected it to be. It was delicious, don't get me wrong. But, not quite as delicious as I thought it was going to be.

A few notes on the cake: It's supposed to be a 3 layer cake, but I only have two cake pans, so I made it a two layer cake. For whatever reason, I didn't split the filling recipe in half though, which is why my filling is SO thick. But, it was good that it was thick, because it wasn't too rich at all. My cakes seriously feel in the centers, as you can tell by the cake. I probably should have ran my knife along the edges as soon as I pulled it from the oven and I probably should have leveled the layers out with a serrated knife. Life and Learn.

Anyway, this cake is really good (the peanut butter cake is very light in peanut flavor, I think I would add more peanut butter next time, but it's so moist!) and though it seems kind of daunting, it's totally not.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake with Cream Cheese and Butterfinger Frosting

Begin preparing the cake one day before.

Filling:
2 1/4 cups heavy whipping cream
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
12 oz bittersweet or semi-sweet chocolate, finely chopped (I used semi sweet chips)
1/2 cup old-fashioned (natural) chunky peanut butter (I used smooth JIF)

Cake:
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
10 tbsps unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup old fashioned (natural) chunky peanut butter
1 pound brown sugar
4 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk

Frosting:
1 1/2 8 oz packages of cream cheese, room temperature (basically 12 oz of cream cheese)
2 cups powdered sugar, divided
6 tbps unsalted butter, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup chilled heavy whipping cream
Butterfinger candy bars, coarsely chopped

For filling:
Bring cream and sugar to simmer in saucepan, whisking to dissolve sugar (this took me a LONG time, I dont think I had the heat up enough to start). Remove from heat. Add chocolate; let stand 1 minute. Whisk until smooth. Whisk in peanut butter. Chill uncovered overnight.

For cake:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter three 9 inch diameter cake pans with 1 1/2 inch high sides. Line bottoms with Parchment paper (I then buttered the parchment paper, too). Sift first 4 ingredients in a medium bowl. Set aside. Using an electric mixer, beat butter and peanut butter until blended. Beat in sugar. Beat in eggs, 1 at a time, then vanilla. At low speed, beat in flour mixture in 4 additions alternately with buttermilk in 3 additions.

Divide batter among pans and spread evenly. Bake cakes until tester inserted in center comes out clean, about 25 minutes. Cool cakes 5 minutes. Turn out onto racks, peel off parchment paper. Cool cakes completely.

For frosting:
Using electric mixer, beat cream cheese 1 1/4 cups powdered sugar, butter, and vanilla in large bowl to blend. Whisk whipping cream and 3/4 cup powdered sugar in bowl until mixture holds medium-firm peaks. Fold into cream cheese mixture in 3 additions; chill until firm but spreadable, about one hour.

Place one cake layer, bottom side up, on a 9 inch round tart pan bottom. Spread half of filling. Place another layer, bottom side up, on work surface. Spread with remaining filling; place atop first layer. Top with remaining cake layer, bottom side up.

Spread frosting over top and sides of cake. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover with cake dome; chill. Let stand at room temperature 2 hours before continuing). Press candy onto top and sides of cake.

Makes 12 servings
Bon Appetit

Peanut Butter- Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

There are two types of people in this world. Those who love Martha Stewart and those who don't. I happily fall into the first category. I love Martha Stewart. I love that she highlights that women can still be independent and successful (and single!) but also be very domestic as well. It's not one way or the other. You can be a career-minded woman while also having a completely straight and beautifully folded linen closet and also throw together a dinner party at the last minute. It is possible. And that's the woman I strive to be. Independent, successful, and also a whiz at home.

That being said, I peruse Martha's website quite often and came across this recipe. Now, what's not to love about cookies that have peanut butter, chocolate chips, and Oatmeal in the title?!?!

These cookies were absolutely delicious! They are definitely in my favorites category. They are sweet and chewy and so satisfying. Although, they really aren't that peanut buttery. But, it doesn't matter. They are delicious!

Notes on the recipe: I didnt use natural peanut butter and instead of adding peanuts, I added reese pieces. Yum.

Now... if only I could figure out a menu for my family st. patricks day dinner this weekend. Hmmm.... Maybe I should consult Martha...

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

416 people can't be wrong. Right? 416 rave reviews of a cookie recipe can only mean one thing: EXCELLENT COOKIE. When I saw these cookies on Anna's site Cookie Madness and I read the reviews of them on allrecipes.com I couldnt help but want to make them immediately. I actually went out that night and bought reese pieces so that I could make these cookies.

I took the suggestions of the reviewers on allrecipes.com and used half shortening/half butter and I also used half light brown sugar and half dark brown sugar.

The cookies turned out good. But, they weren't like WOW these cookies are amazing (which was how most of the reviews were written). I felt like these cookies fell kind of flat. It's like, they weren't chocolatey enough and they certainly weren't peanut buttery enough.

Recipe

White Chocolate Covered Peanut Butter Sandwiches

White Chocolate and Peanut Butter aren't two flavors I'd ever think of putting together. I happen to love white chocolate and I love peanut butter, but sometimes love for two separate things doesn't translate to love for combining them into one thing. Take for example... Chocolate and Blueberries. I love chocolate. I love blueberries. Chocolate covered blueberries?? Yuck. That sounds disgusting.

My aunt Loretta brought a mess load of these little suckers to our family christmas dinner. I think it was her, it was either her or her daughter Susan, either way... it came from their family. I picked one up and bit into it, expecting it to be a white chocolate covered oreo.

Much to my delight, it wasn't. It was actually two crackers with peanut butter on the inside. Brilliant! I ate wayyy too many of these at Christmas, but decided to give them a whirl at home.

Super easy. I actually only made 3 last night. I melted just one square of the White Almond Bark and it was enough to cover 3 really well (with just a little left over). A nice mini snack. Delicious.

White Chocolate Covered Peanut Butter Sandwiches

White Almond Bark

Peanut Butter

Ritz Crackers

Assemble Peanut Butter Sandwiches with the crackers. Microwave the almond bark as directed on package. Dip and coat the sandwiches with the white chocolate. Lay out on a piece of parchment paper or wax paper to dry.

Peanut Butter Cookies

I run. Not just for exercise or for the stress relief, but just because I really enjoy it. I haven’t always been a runner though. I’ve only been running for about 2 years It’s gone from being something that I just wanted to see if I could do… to something that I have to do.

Ever since I started kicking my mileage up to train for marathons, I notice that I crave salt so much. I contribute that to the fact that I always sweat buckets when I run, and I’m depleting my electrolytes and salt reserves when I run (who know if the salt part is really true, but it sounds good, doesn’t it?).

Previous to these random and serious salt cravings, I never really thought much about peanut butter cookies. They were never sweet enough for me. I preferred sweeter, chocolatey desserts. Not anymore. Now, I'll get these urgent and random salty, sweet cravings. I rummage around in my kitchen, I eat some popcorn (with extra salt added to it), then I immediately eat some hershey kisses. Salty and then sweet. In that order.

A couple of months ago, I made flourless peanut butter cookies Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies . I don’t even really like peanut butter cookies that much. But those cookies were so deliciously sweet and salty, that I have been craving them ever since. I keep opening my freezer hoping to see one that I forgot about, but alas, they’re all gone and have been for awhile now.

Since I started this blog, I hate baking the same recipe twice. Mainly because I feel like I can’t really blog about something more than once. It’s too boring. So, even though I’ve been wanting to make those cookies again, I’ve refrained.

So, this weekend, I really wanted those salty-sweet cookies, and I decided to make these cookies instead. Smitten Kitchen Peanut Butter Cookies

I chose to use half shortening instead of butter (and actually now that I type this, I think I actually forgot to add the water that you are supposed to add when you substitute shortening for butter in a recipe, ooops) and I didn’t use chopped peanuts. I used chocolate chips and m&ms.

These were really good cookies. But, honestly…. I still prefer the flourless ones. They did satisfy my salty sweet craving, though. At least for a time.

Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies

Some things just taste better with something else. For instance, peanut butter tastes better with chocolate and caramel tastes better with chocolate, where pecans taste better with caramel, and potatoes taste better with butter, bagels taste better with cream cheese...

Okay, you know where I'm going with this... some things work better in a package deal rather than solo. And it's not that you dont like those things singularly, it's just that you like them better with their complimentary other half.

This is what I think about when I see peanut butter cookies. What can I add to make them even better? In this case, I added chopped up hershey milk chocolate bars and reese pieces (finally done with those!).

These cookies are good. Very rich, but good. They are super peanutty (obviously), and so next time, if I don't reese's pieces to use up, I'll likely add a bunch of chocolate chips to cut the rich, saltiness of the peanut butter.

Great cookies though and so simple. Who knew that you could make peanut butter cookies with flour or butter (well, without butter, I can understand.. but without flour, too!) Amazing!

I found the recipe here.

Chocolate Stuffed Peanut Butter Brownies

Halloween. What a great holiday. You get to dress up and people give you candy. I mean, what genius thought that up??? Brilliant! But, when you become an adult and no one you know throws a costume party, the best part of halloween is... getting candy for 50% & 75% off. I stocked up this year, with the intention of using the candy in some recipes!

The first recipe I came up with is for something I printed awhile back. It's for Chocolate Stuffed Peanut Butter Brownies. They are basically peanut butter cookies made in bar form with bits of reese peanut butter cups and chocolate chips (I used cut up hershey bars).

Let me take a moment to talk about peanut butter. I like peanut butter, but I'm not crazy over it, unless it has chocolate with it. The mixture of chocolate and peanut butter is awesome, but I'm not one to just eat peanut butter cookies. I mean I'll eat them, but I won't choose them over chocolate cookies. So, these brownies were an interesting pick for me. They are super rich and pretty gooey, but yummy! I think if I make them again, I might add more chocolate to the recipe, but overall. A delicious take on brownies and a great way to use up Reese Peanut Butter Cups and hersey bars!

Ugghh.... sometimes I hate blogger, like when it won't accept new paragraphs. Uggh..

The Redemption Cookies...

(angels singing in the background)

Now... this my friends... this is a cookie recipe.

So, I was a little disappointed by the last cookies I made... Alton Brown's Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies, but I did not let that defeat me. I soldiered on and decided to make a peanut butter cookie.

I used to make peanut butter cookies a lot when I was a kid, because we always had the ingredients for them. But the recipe I used was out of an old cookbook and made the kinda soft but sandy type. Well, I wanted a chewier (of course) but crispy around the edges type.

So, I found a recipe for Mrs. Fields Chewy Peanut Butter Cookies on recipezaar and then I doctored it up a bit (using peanut butter chips, reese peanut butter cups, and shorterning instead of butter).

They turned out so incredibly rich and decadent. Yum. Definitely a cookie for when you are in the mood for something sweet and rich. You can only eat a couple, so bask in the wonderfulness of every bite.. thank you Mrs. Fields. Thank you.

Reese's Cup Peanut Butter Cookies

makes about 36ish cookies.

2 cups flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 1/4 cup packed brown sugar

1 1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 cup butter flavored shortening

6 tsp water

3 large eggs

1 cup creamy peanut butter

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 10oz package of reese peanut butter chips

36-40 minature reese peanut butter cups.

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

Mix dry ingredients and set aside.

On medium speed, in a large bowl, blend sugars with shortening and the 6 tsp of water, mix till grainy consistency. Add eggs, peanut butter (hint: spray the measuring cup with cooking spray before you measure the peanut butter so that the peanut butter slides right out) and vanilla extract. Beat until fluffy. Carefully stir in flour mixture with a wooden spoon and then barely mix on low speed with mixer until incorporated. Add the peanut butter chips and stir.

Drop by cookie scoop 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake until the edges are lightly browned, about 15 minutes (with my medium cookie scoop), as soon as you remove them from the oven, place a reese cup down in the center of the cookie and allow to cool for a minute before placing on a cooling rack.

Pour a glass of milk and enjoy...

They look like little fried eggs... weird.