Peanut Butter Cup Surprises--I Copied an Amazing Baker--Jenny from Picky Palate

When I saw these, I knew they would be a treat I would have to make--and soon.  So I made them for a yummy treat for Family Home Evening on Monday.  (You can read more about Family Home Evening here--but in short, we set aside every Monday night to do things together as a family, we have a gospel lesson--short and sweet for kids attention, we have some type of activity and we have a treat.  It is usually always fun!)

Back to these "treats".  Take a look at Jenny's on the link above.  Her creations and goodies are always so amazing, well done and look great.  Mine always just look so-so, but they still taste GREAT!  (And how cute is this plate I found at Target!)

So here's the deal.  Or I guess, the recipe:

Peanut Butter Cup Surprise Cookies, adapted slightly from Jenny at Picky Palate

1 cup peanut butter (I used 1/4 cup creamy and 3/4 cup crunchy, because that is what I had)

1 cup granulated sugar

1 large egg

Mini Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, unwrapped

about 1 cup mini marshmallows

1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips

2-3 tablespoons heavy cream (I used 3 T. and wish I would have used a little more to make the topping a little more ganache like, mine was a bit thick.)

Candy toppings of your choice (sprinkles would be fun, m&m's and you can see in the picture I topped some with the new Hershey's Kisses I found that look like candy corn and taste like pretty good white chocolate!)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a large bowl, combine peanut butter, sugar and egg.  (I did this with just a spoon, you don't need a mixer.)  Spray the muffin cups well with cooking spray!  Scoop the dough in even amounts in mini muffins pan.  (Jenny made 12, I got 19 from mine.)  I filled each muffin cup pretty much to the top.  Bake for 13-15 minutes until almost done, remove from oven and press a peanut butter cup into the center of each cookie until it is level with the cookie top.  Then top each cookie with 3-4 marshmallows and return to the oven for 2-3 more minutes until mallows are puffed.  Remove from oven and set aside to cool for 10 minutes.

In the meantime, place chocolate chips in microwave safe bowl and microwave in 30 second intervals until melted and smooth.  Stir in 2-3 tablespoons heavy cream until silky and smooth.  (If it thickens too quickly, return to microwave to thin it out again for 15 seconds or so.)   Spoon chocolate over top of cookie and sprinkle or dot with candy. 

  

Just for kicks, I stuck some frozen chocolate chip cookie dough (instead of the pb cup) in a few of these.  They came out with a yummy, gooey cookie dough middle.  I kind of liked these as they contrasted a pb cookie a bit.  And hello, it's cookie dough!

I didn't have mini M&M's, but did have the regular ones, they would be cuter with the smaller ones.  Sprinkles would be cute, too!  These are rich and peanut buttery (duh!) and chocolatey and gooey and sticky and well, yummy!  You gotta try these.  They are super easy, too.  Kids would have fun helping with these as well.

I think these Hershey's Kisses are cute and fun and can't wait to see what else I can do with them! ;)   Hmmm, any ideas?

Another yummy cookie to post--on another day and this one is healthy--it doesn't even have sugar!  Gotta get this weary head in bed!

Stay Tuned For Some Yummy Stuff!

It's been a day!  It started off well with me getting in an hour run, then took a swell turn when Taylor locked us out of the house without keys to get back in OR take him to school in the car--which is what we were trying to do.  We had to call Daddy to come home and rescue us!--That's a longer story, cut short....I wanted to get a few things blogged, but it will be 11 p.m. soon and since I have to get up at 4:50 a.m., I really should get to bed!  But stay tuned.............

Chocolate Reese's Malted Whopper Drops (My Spin on Dorie Greenspans Cookies)

So I've seen all over the place (the food blog world) that this week everyone made Dorie Greenspan's Chocolate Malted Whopper Drops for the Tuesday's With Dorie recipe and as I'm about to join TWD, I was a little bummed that I'll miss this one.  I love this cookbook, Baking From My Home To Yours and am excited to join in the weekly group and make lots of the recipes in the book! 

I decided that even though I am not officially part of the TWD bakers, that I would make the Whopper cookies anyway and then I saw at the store the newer Reese's Whoppers that are peanut butter flavored.  Hmm.  It sounded like a fun thing to try.  I knew that Dorie's recipe had Whoppers and chocolate, so I thought I'd do the Reese's Whoppers and Reese's peanut butter chips.  Um, hello--can you say--YUM!  Obviously, the peanut butter and chocolate was a great combo!  The malt is SO good and the peanut butter, well, divine!  I was really hoping these Reese's Whoppers were good, and they really are, so I chopped them the same as the recipe suggest with the chocolate Whoppers and only made a few changes to the recipe.  Ya gotta try these!

Here's the recipe as I made it, but you have to get this cookbook for hundreds more delicious recipes by an amazing baker!

Reese's Malted Whopper Drops  (adapted from Dorie Greenspan's Chocolate Malted Whopper Drops)

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup Carnation Malted Milk Powder

1/4 cup Hershey's unsweetened cocoa powder (plus I added 1 tablespoon Hershey's Dark cocoa)

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup plus 3 tablespoons (11 tablespoons) unsalted butter, room temperature

2/3 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/4 cup whole milk

2 cups Reese's Peanut Butter Whoppers, (each cut in half)

1 cup Reese's peanut butter chips

1-1.55 oz. Hershey's milk chocolate bar, chopped (I just added this for kicks)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line baking sheets with parchment paper.  Set aside. 

In medium sized bowl, add flour, malt, cocoa, baking powder and salt.  Whisk together to sift.  Set aside.

In bowl of electric mixer, combine butter and sugar.  Beat on medium speed for 3 minutes to cream together until smooth.  Scrape sides of bowl.  Add eggs one at a time, beating for one minutes in between each addition.  Add vanilla and beat well.  Scrape sides of bowl again.  With the mixer on low, add half the dry ingredients, mixing just until incorporated.  Add milk and mix until combined.  Then add the rest of the dry ingredients and mix until just incorporated.  Stir or fold in Whoppers, chips and chocolate with a rubber spatula. 

Drop cookies by tablespoonsfuls onto baking sheets.  Bake for 9-10 minutes.  Let the cookies rest on the baking sheets for two minutes before removing them to wire racks to cool.  (I only baked half the batch for now and that was 28 cookies, there's still at least that much to go!)  Make these with the idea of giving lots of them away in mind!

Some of the malt in the Whoppers turns to a yummy crispy almost caramel-like melty yumminess.  I'm not sure how else to put it.  Again, if you love pb/chocolate combo, you'll love these!

On another yummy note, I tried the brownie mix with pumpkin puree as I mentioned I would in my last post and well, they are tons better for a brownie than using the cake mix.  I seriously cannot even tell that these brownies are not just made according to the package directions with all that egg and oil!  I have stumped lots of people who also couldn't tell what the secret ingredient is.  So, if you're ever in a pinch OR are trying to save on some fat and calories, make brownies using a quick mix in a box and 1 cup pumpkin puree (for a 9x13 pan)  They are fudgy and moist and delicious!  I cut these in to little one inch square pieces, so lots of people could try them at a church meeting.  These were the Pillsbury traditional fudge brownies with walnuts that I made in an 8x8 inch pan and used 1/2 cup pumpkin.  I mentioned in my last post, but you just bake them 5-7 minutes less than the package suggests.  The ones with the candy corn on top I made using Pillsbury traditional fudge brownie mix for a 9x13 pan and used the one cup of pumpkin.  Of course, the best test is to insert a toothpick and when it comes out clean, they are done.  Go have a brownie!

A Different Kind of Brownie and Peanut Butter Cookie Bars

Well, it doesn't really LOOK different.  Hmmm.  What could be so different about these brownies?  One hint, they are made with a cake mix.  So yes, they are just a little cakey, but still quite fudgy and good.  Another hint, there are only two ingredients, which would be one other besides the cake mix.  Stumped?  What could that other ingredient be?

I'll give you a hint, in my last post I told you I'd be using more of it up!

What?  Pumpkin puree?  If you guessed that, you are right.  One cup (8 oz.) pumpkin puree, mixed into one cake mix (I happened to use a Swiss chocolate mix, but any chocolate cake mix would work.  I'd rather have had Devil's Food.)  I was really worried that these would taste, well, too cakey and taste too much like cake, but every time I take a little taste, I'm pleasantly surprised that they don't.  Kind of just a fudgy, slightly cakey brownie.  I added about 1 cup of semi sweet chocolate chips.  You can add nuts, or whatever you want to add to your brownies.  I baked these in a 9x9 square baking pan that was lined with foil and sprayed with cooking spray.  (I love this method, the goodies always lift right out of the pan for easier cutting.  Leave them in the pan until cooled. 

What do I love most about this?  Of course, that it is lower in fat that regular brownies!  No eggs, no oil, just the mix and pumpkin!  Gotta love that.  Next I want to try a brownie mix instead of a cake mix and see if they are a little more fudgy and not as cakey.  A friend had told me she heard you could make brownies with just a mix and pumpkin, so I searched the world wide web and found this here at Calorie Count.

 

These are the same brownies, but with half the pan, I spread some peanut butter on the top and swirled it in.  It was good.  The peanut butter I used was P.B. Loco Peanut Butter with Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough.  I was excited when I saw this peanut butter.  I had to splurge and buy it even though it was about $6.

Well, I'm a little bummed, because it doesn't taste like cookie dough at all and it didn't really have chunks of dough in it as I thought it would, but I decided it would be fun to bake some things with.  Again, still not real thrilled with the results, although it was good on these brownies.  I would not use this for any sandwiches and wish the peanut butter flavor was stronger, with bits of dough, but instead it is more all together, especially when it is advised that you stir it after opening.

Anyway, all is not lost.  I decided to make peanut butter cookies using the P.B. Loco.  I don't recall which recipe I used.  I wasn't liking the cookies as they were turning out, and only baked a few before I decided to try something different.  I added about 1/2 cup semi sweet chocolate chips and 1/2 cup peanut butter chips to the dough and put it in a 9x9 baking pan.  I baked them as cookie bars.  They do taste good, but are a little dry.  Oh well.  So with a good half of the container remaining, I'll have to see if there is anything else I can come up with to do with it-someday.

Milk Chocolate With Almonds, I Am In Love With You and Some Healthy Muffins

So I know in my last post, I gave a recipe for the New York Times Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie that I made yesterday and used Hershey's Milk Chocolate With Almonds Bar and added extra toasted almonds and that I was saving some of the dough to chill.  Well, I baked the rest today after they chilled for a good 24 hours and I don't really think the flavor changed, but I did discover something.  I do really like a piece of dark chocolate now and then, and well, really I like all chocolate, but I think I'm partial to milk chocolate and I LOVED these cookies today, especially when I slightly underbaked a few of the cookies, or at least didn't make them too crunchy, but soft and still chewy.  The milk chocolate stayed more gooey and I really loved the crunch from the almonds, which are a nice difference from most always using pecans or walnuts in chocolate chip cookies.  So, guess that's just me.  These are GOOD!  I also realized that I really like cookie dough, okay, I really already knew that, but I really liked THIS cookie dough--at bit too much, I'd say!

 

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It's that time of year, or at least it's beginning TOO quickly here.  I'm talking about autumn and cooler weather.  In fact, tonight felt a little to me like the cold air that could even bring snow--NO!  I think the high today was only about 60, it rained about half the day and was super cloudy the rest.  I wonder something--why in the world does it always start raining when I'm taking Taylor to preschool and have to get out and walk him inside the building to sign him in?  It is always extra windy at his school, which sits up on a hill.  So today we had to get gas on the way to school and sure enough, it started raining while I was pumping the gas.  I'm not talking about a light drizzle here, it was pouring!  So the fun of it all, we got to the school and I had to get Taylor and Sam out of the car, hold up an umbrella and talk Sam in to holding my hand as we walked in the rainy, blistery weather, all the while the wind was blowing the umbrella inside out.  We made it inside and as Sam and I were leaving the building, he slipped on some tile that was wet right as we were going out the door and he banged his head right on the side of the door.  Ended up with a nasty gash and goose egg on his head.  Poor little Sweetie Pie!

 

Don't worry, he got over it quickly, despite the picture and for some reason I think he fell and/or bonked his head more times today than I can count!  Oh, to be 18 months old!

Okay, so with the cooler weather, I just couldn't help it, this morning I opened a large can of pumpkin puree and put a little in my daily oatmeal.  It was good!  Then I made some other things and used more of the pumpkin.  Welcome to fall!

Banana Pumpkin Zucchini Bran Muffins!  Whoa!--adapted from a recipe on Allrecipes called Banana Bran Zucchini Bread

1/4 cup pumpkin puree

1 ripe banana, mashed

1/2 cup (equals 2 eggs) Egg Beaters w/touch of yolk

1/2 cup maple syrup (just shy of 1/2 cup as I ran out)

1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon (to make up for the maple syrup-would have probably been fine without it) raw cane sugar

1 scant tablespoon vanilla extract

2 cups grated zucchini

2 cups whole wheat pastry flour

1 cup unprocessed bran

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1 scant tablespoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon cloves (I omitted as I didn't have any)

1/4 teaspoon ginger

1/4 teaspoon allspice (I think this was a little strong for me and would probably leave it out next time)

1/2 cup toasted walnuts, chopped

Combine pumpkin, mashed banana and eggs in medium sized bowl, whisk together.  Add maple syrup, sugar and vanilla and combine.  Stir in zucchini.  In another bowl, add dry ingredients and nuts and whisk together to sift.  Add dry to wet and stir with spatula just until moistened.  Bake in preheated 350 degree oven in muffin tins coated with cooking spray.  I made 24 mini muffins and four regular sized muffins.  The mini muffins baked for 12-13 minutes and the larger ones baked for 15-16 minutes. 

I made a quick crumb topping for the four large ones.  1 tablespoon whole wheat pastry flour, 1 tablespoon brown sugar, 1 tablespoon oats, 1 tablespoon chopped walnuts  All mixed together in a small bowl and sprayed with butter flavored cooking spray just until slightly moistened.  Sprinkle each of the four muffins with the topping and spray them again with a little cooking spray. 

These muffins are full of flavor and nutrition and are moist and tasty as well as low fat.  They were a great way to use up some pumpkin, a ripe banana AND some zucchini!

AND THEN...still had more pumpkin, so I whipped up a half batch of my favorite pumpkin cookies (with chocolate chips--is there any other way?)  I got this recipe years ago from a hilarious gal who I met during my single days living in Utah.  Every time she came around, she had me rolling with laughter.  She was just the type to always say something funny at just the right time and to make you feel at ease.  I have not seen her since the early 90's, but will always be grateful to have this recipe.

Kathy Merrill's Punkin Cookies (She called them punkin, so I do!)  I halved this recipe today, but here is the full recipe.

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup unsalted butter, softened

1 1/2 cups punkin puree

3 large eggs (I used 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons Egg Beaters w/touch of yolk)

3 cups flour (today I added an extra 1/4 cup flour to the half recipe)--used unbleached all purpose

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon nutmeg

2-3 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon cloves (I omitted as I didn't have any)  added a touch of ginger instead

2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line baking sheets with parchment paper.  Set aside. 

In bowl of mixer, cream together butter and sugars.  Add eggs and punkin.  Blend together well, scrape sides of bowl.  In separate bowl, combine dry ingredients and whisk together.  Add to wet ingredients and mix together well, but do not overmix.  Add chocolate chips and stir with rubber spatula to combine.  Drop tablespoonfuls on baking sheets and bake for 12-14 minutes.  Let sit on baking sheet for 3 minutes before removing to cooling rack. 

Soft/moist, chocolatey and just the right amount of spice, these cookies are classic and taste great!  Coming soon, another pumpkin recipe--what, it was the extra large can of puree, there's still more! ;)

I'm Alive! Baking Almost Daily, Just Not Blogging!

I just can't get it all done!  It's the blogging that's getting me.  I WANT to get it done, I just can't do it.  Busy, busy with these boys!  Oh yeah, it's all good! 

Darn, it's hard to tell in the picture, but we were playing outside one night last week and this little guy rubbed his dirty hands (he'd probably touched my car!) on his snotty face and it was yuck all over!  But darn it all, could he be anything cuter?  I don't think so.  We played more, then went in for a nice warm bath!  And again, just look at that hair!  Here's a shot of the back of his head this morning!  He's got some fun bed head in the mornings, you can't even tell in the picture, it just looks cute, but look at the big curl hear the front of his head--that's not usually there. 

We had a birthday yesterday.  Parker turned seven!  The boys really are growing up so fast!  I can't believe Parker is seven.  He was born days before Sept. 11, 2001 and was actually in the hospital (with a bad case of jaundice) when all the Sept. 11 news was on--remember, Mom?)

Happy Birthday, Parker!  We love you.  You are amazingly smart and take on the world by storm every day.  We are so happy you are part of our family!
Parker just started first grade.  And while they didn't really teach the kids how to read in kindergarten, they did teach phonics.  But this summer, Parker became a reading beast!  He pretty much taught himself and just began sounding everything out as we'd read simple little books.  By mid-summer, he was reading Magic Tree House chapter books.  He's now enjoying 200 page novels and read through one recently in about two days.  We are LOVING that when he wakes up in the morning (he's usually the first of the boys up--sometimes 6:30), he reads.  Sometimes he'll come home from school and want to read.  Sometimes we can't find him and he's been on our bed (away from all the noise) and reading.

Well, okay, most of the time he's reading.  He said this time that our bed was just too comfortable and he fell asleep.
Scott does NOT enjoy reading and we are really excited that Parker has run away with it and LOVES it.  He loves to come tell us what is happening in the stories he is reading.  Kevin told him a few weeks ago that he'd start paying him $5 per book he reads.  (The same deal applies to Scott, but that won't even get him to read and I think the deal for Scott is for every 100 pages, $5.)  We have owed Parker $25 in about two weeks and I think Kevin decided the last book he read that was about 200 pages that he deserved $10 for that one.  Go, Parker!  And just today I caught him way too easily figuring out how multiplication works.  Hey, Park, we better get the addition and subtraction down first!
Parker learned to ride his bike this summer and was riding a bike that was way too small for him, so he got a nice new bike for his birthday.  We haven't taken any pictures of that yet.  I also gave Parker my old IPod Shuffle and some kid music to listen to.  We got Scott a Shuffle a year or so ago and Parker has wanted his own since.  He was happy to have it!
  
We did our usual ice cream sundaes for his "birthday cake" and Parker will have a party with some friends next week going bowling and having cake-maybe, not sure about cake yet.  Probably will just do some cupcakes.
  
For his school birthday treat on Friday, I made these fun M&M Cookie Pops.  I got the idea partly from Anna at Cookie Madness with her Scary City Cookies she made recently and from an email I received from Family Fun for M&M Cookie Pops.  I thought they looked like fun for school kids.  Parker said the kids loved them.  I thought the recipe at Family Fun was just okay, in fact I did follow the recipe, but after some of the cookies baked too thin, I added about 1/4 cup more flour and about 1/4 teaspoon baking soda.  They baked up great after that!  I wrapped each one in plastic wrap and tied it at the stick. 
 

 
Okay, got that baking project done, then I needed to make one for snacks for Parker's first soccer game that was yesterday.  Since it was his birthday, I volunteered to bring the snack for that.  Parker decided he wanted frosted sugar cookies and since they just decided their team would be called Lightning, he wanted lightning cookies.  Now, I haven't seen too many lightning shaped cookie cutters, okay--I haven't seen any and I even have over 101 cookie cutters!  But I'm always up for a challenge, so I made up the sugar cookie dough and here's the recipe, because I've seen many recipes in the past and have tried enough, that this is the one I will always make.  Not sure where my mom got it, but we've been making it in my family for years.  Big, thick sugar cookies, with very buttery creamy icing, is probably my mom's favorite (underbake the cookies, please! -says Mom).  She even makes a big, giant pink cookie (like the Grandma ones that sell in convenience stores) and sells them at their local farmer's market.  You put a few sprinkles on anything and kids gotta have it.  Anyway, here's the recipe for these cookies.
I'm Gonna Call These My Mom's Sugar Cookies
1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks, or 8 oz.), softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon cream (I almost always use milk and this time just for kicks used sour cream)
3 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
Cream the butter and sugar together.  Add the vanilla, egg and cream (or milk).  Beat until fluffy, scrape sides of bowl at least once.  Add the dry ingredients until it comes together.  Turn dough out on floured surface, knead it into a ball, just a few times.  Do not over knead the dough.  Making sure there is enough flour on your surface that it doesn't stick, roll out dough until desired thickness.  I always do about 1/4 inch.  Cut dough into shapes with cookie cutters.  Laying on baking sheet lined with parchment paper, bake cookies at 400 degrees for 7-10 minutes (until desired doneness.)
Transfer to cooling rack.  When cool, frost cookies. 

I took a whipped topping lid (I have way too many of those), drew a lightning bolt on it, cut it out and had a template to use for the lightning cookies.  While it's not that fun cutting out cookies this way, I made it through and came up with these.  I thought they turned out pretty good.  Before frosting them, I took Parker to the doctor and told him the cookies were done but I hadn't made the yellow frosting yet.  He exclaimed that he wanted blue lightning!  Whew.  So I made blue icing.  I do like a sugar cookie better with the usual buttercreamy icing, but also have this recipe that I LOVE.  It makes a shiny, dried icing and is SO easy.  It dries within 20 minutes or so and then the cookies can be easily stacked.  I usually always make these cookies at Easter, Halloween, and Christmas with all my hundred plus cookie cutters.  The kids sure like them.
Sugar Cookie Icing
1 cup powdered sugar (I usually double it for my cookie recipe above)
1-3 teaspoons corn syrup
1-3 teaspoons milk
pinch salt
vanilla extract to taste
food coloring
Beat all together well with electric mixer until smooth adding one teaspoon of corn syrup and milk at a time until you get the consistency you want.  It's pretty runny, but not TOO runny.  It still needs to be spread on with a knife, but it sort of "floods" into place on its own.
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Also on Thursday as I made the M&M Cookie Pops, I also made some homemade bread.  It was YUMMY and turned out great.  I don't make bread ALL that often, but have felt like I usually do pretty good when I do, aside from every now and then having bread that just doesn't rise well or that falls shortly after putting it in the oven.  This was a Whole Wheat Raisin-Nut Bread, but I followed most of the recipe, except left out the raisins and added sunflowers seeds instead.  I also added some vital wheat gluten that I think was the key to this bread rising so beautifully.  Here is the recipe as I made it.  It was called whole wheat bread, but I'm not sure why as it wasn't WHOLE wheat.  But it was GOOD!
Wheaty Nutty Homemade Bread
2 tablespoons active dry yeast (I used scant tablespoons, so 2 little 1/4 oz. envelopes of yeast would work, just make sure it's active dry not rapid rise yeast)
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons salt
2 cups whole wheat flour
4-5 cups unbleached all purpose flour
8 teaspoons vital wheat gluten
1/4 cup melted unsalted butter
2 1/2 cups hot water (not too hot, 120 degrees max)
1 cup chopped walnuts
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
Combine yeast, sugar, salt, whole wheat flour and 2 cups of the all purpose flour in mixing bowl.  Add melted butter and water and beat 2 minutes.  Add the nuts and seeds and the gluten and combine.  Gradually add the rest of the flour 1/2 cup at a time until dough forms a ball as it mixes and no longer sticks to the sides of the bowl.  Turn out on a floured surface and knead 6-8 minutes adding a little flour as needed so it doesn't stick to work surface. 
Set dough in a large oiled (I spray it with cooking spray) bowl.  Turn it once to coat the whole ball of dough.  Cover with damp towel or plastic wrap.  Rise in draft free place for 1 hour.   Punch down dough.  Grease two bread pans.  Divide dough equally, shape and set in pans.  Cover with damp towel.  Rise until doubled in size about 45 minutes to 1 hour.
Bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes.  Cool on wire rack. 
  
 
The bread was delicious!  I've never used vital wheat gluten before and this was about the nicest I've had bread rise, so I don't know if that is why, but I really liked it.  Next I can't wait to try a more WHOLE wheat bread or using more grains with the added gluten.  I really like a whole grain bread.
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And finally for today (although, I still have more) I made the New York Times Chocolate Chip Cookie again--I know, I know, enough already.  Really, I just like this recipe.  I like how the cookies turn out and I didn't even chill the dough for these.  But I've been wanting to try this combo for a while now.  Instead of the bittersweet chocolate that the recipe suggests, I used Hershey's milk chocolate bars with almonds and added some additional toasted almonds.  They were YUM!  Instead of always linking to the recipe, here it is as I made it and really the only change is the chocolate and that I only made half a batch.  I also saved half the dough for chilling, mostly just to have some another day!  I really like that method of having some dough in the fridge, whether the chilling does much to the flavor of the cookie or not.
New York Times (Jacque Torres copy) Chocolate Chip Cookie with Milk Chocolate and Almonds, adapted
1/2 cup plus 1/3 cup bread flour (4 1/4 oz.)
1 cup plus 1 tablespoon cake flour
1/2 teaspoon plus 1/8 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon coarse salt
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons light brown sugar
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2-3.5 oz. bars Hershey's Milk Chocolate w/almonds, chopped
2-1.55 oz. bars Hershey's Milk Chocolate, chopped
1/2 cup toasted chopped almonds
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line baking sheets with parchment paper.  Set aside.
Measure flours using a kitchen scale (amounts in cups are above if you don't have one, but I like the consistency and ease of measuring in ounces).  Add flours, baking soda, baking powder and salt to medium sized bowl, combine with wire whisk.  Set aside.  In bowl of mixer, beat butter until soft, add sugars and beat until fluffy and well combined.  Add vanilla and egg, mix well.  Scrape sides of bowl and mix again.  Slowly add the flour and mix just until combined.  Stir in chopped chocolate and almonds.
I did some 1 1/2 ounce balls of dough and some 5/8 oz. balls of dough.  The larger ones baked about 11-13 minutes.  The smaller ones baked 9-11 minutes.  Let sit on baking sheet for five minutes.  Remove to wire racks to cool.
 
These are yummy and have a great extra crunch from the almonds.  Okay, that's enough for now.  

Peanut Butter Dream Cheesecake Cups

I am so excited about these.  For one, I totally thought of it on my own, second, I made the recipe up myself and, third, THEY ARE SO GOOD!  Quite the feat for me, since I usually just make other's recipes and/or just change a few things up.  I have to be careful with these and give them away soon because Kevin doesn't love peanut butter that much, so he probably won't eat them, but since they are just cup size, I will use that as an excuse to just keep having one.  My boys don't seem to like cheesecake all that much, so they probably won't like them either.  Hmmm, who's gonna be the lucky ones to get a few?!

Here's the recipe!

Peanut Butter Dream Cheesecake Cups

1-8 oz. pkg. Nutter Butter Bites (the mini ones)

2 tablespoons butter, melted

2-8 oz. pkgs. cream cheese, softened (I actually used 1 that was 1/3 less fat and one that was fat free because that's what I had-so could these be considered low fat?   Hmmm.)

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup Egg Beaters with touch of yolk (also less fat!) (or could use 2 large eggs)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 cup peanut butter (I used Skippy Natural)

peanut butter chips and milk chocolate chips for topping (mini Reese's PB cups would be good, too!)

 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Prepare cupcake liners.  This recipe made 15 cakes perfectly.  I actually used the liners that have foil on the outside, so they don't need to be in a muffin tin.  Worked great.

Pulse cookies in food processor until fine crumbs.  Add melted butter and pulse a few more times until all incorporated.

Add one heaping tablespoon of crumbs to each cupcake liner.  (There's just a little left, maybe 1/4 cup, I used for sprinkling on the tops of the baked cheesecakes.)  Flatten each into cup shape with back of spoon.  Set aside.

Wipe out bowl of food processor and add the cream cheese.  Pulse until creamy.  Add sugar and vanilla and pulse until smooth and well mixed.  Scrape sides of bowl and add eggs and combine until creamy. 

Add 2 (heaping) tablespoons of cream cheese mixture to each cup.  Spread so it covers the crumb mixture.  After this, there is about 1 cup (give or take) of the cream cheese mixture left.  Add 1/4 cup peanut butter to mixture and again pulse in food processor until smooth.  Add 1-2 teaspoons of this mixture to top of each cheesecake.  I did this by putting the mixture in a piping bag and squirting it over each in a squiggly pattern.  I wanted to get a marble effect with this top layer.  After each had the peanut butter mixture on top, I carefully cut it in with a knife, swirling it together.  (I also did a few with just the peanut butter cream cheese mixture and I may just add 1/2 cup peanut butter to the whole cream cheese mixture next time and not bother with the swirling/marble effect.  But it does look nice, just liked the more intense flavor of the peanut butter mixture better.) 

Bake for 18 minutes or until no longer shiny looking and you can touch the middle of the cheesecake without any getting on your finger.  Remove to cooling rack.  Sprinkle with peanut butter and milk chocolate chips.  Let cool.  When cool, refrigerate.  The longer the refrigeration, the better these get. 

   

This one above is only about 30 minutes out of the oven, when cool enough, I popped it in the fridge.  I REALLY just wanted to try them.  This one was made with just the peanut butter mixture.  I cut it into about five bites and shared it with the family.  Kevin had a friend over, who really liked it, as I did.  Kevin just isn't the best person to ask about a peanut butter treat.  (Crazy guy!)  Did I mention that I really liked it?!  I knew they would only get better with age. 

The marble effect wasn't enough contrast, which is why I'd just do them all with the peanut butter mixture next time.  And there will be a next time.  A good 1/2 cup peanut butter or maybe even 3/4 cup added to the 2 pkgs. cream cheese would probably work great.  The peanuttery buttery crust is SO good and the chips on top just add the over the edge-ness to them.  I added the chips and THEN refrigerated them.  They melted slightly when I added them right out of the oven, then hardened up in the fridge, which made biting in to them a little messy/tricky.  But hey, food SHOULD be fun and messy and these are worth every bite!

Yum!  Want some?  Hurry.  They aren't going to last.

I've Done It, I've Gone Bananas! Chunky Monkey Cookies

I love bananas.  I have one everyday, usually with my morning oatmeal.  I wanted to find a cookie that had banana in it, but I didn't want just the usual soft, cakey banana cookie.  I found these cookies, to which I adapted the recipe from in Rosie's Bakery Chocolate-Packed Jam Filled Butter-Rich No-Holds-Barred Cookie Book, by Judy Rosenberg.  She gives the cookies a little tribute to Ben & Jerry's Chunky Monkey Ice Cream and tells how that is the reason for these cookies.  I changed a few things, so here is the recipe as I made it.  I wanted something peanut buttery, chocolatey and banana-ish. 

Chunky Monkey Cookies (Rosie's Bakery Cookies are called Banana-Nut Chocolate Chunks, pg. 49)

1 1/4 cups plus 3 tablespoons unbleached all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

8 tablespoons (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, softened

2 oz. Smucker's All Natural Peanut Butter

1/2 cup plus 3 tablespoons brown sugar, lightly packed

5 tablespoons granulated sugar

1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

2 large eggs

1 tablespoon milk

1 1/4 cup old-fashioned oats

3/4 cup semi sweet chocolate chips

1 cup walnuts, chopped

2 small bananas, chopped into small chunks

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Line baking sheets with parchment paper.  Set aside.

In medium sized bowl, combine flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt and whisk together.  Set aside.

Cream together butter, peanut butter and both sugars until light and fluffy in mixer bowl.  Scrape sides of bowl.  Add vanilla, eggs and milk and mix well.  Add dry ingredients, including the oats and mix just until combined.  Stir in by hand the chocolate chips, walnuts, and banana chunks by carefully folding with a spatula until combined. 

Drop by tablespoonfuls onto parchment lined baking sheets and bake for 8-9 minutes.  Let cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes before removing to wire racks to cool.  Makes 45 cookies (about 5/8 oz. each)

 

The peanut butter flavor wasn't as strong as I'd wanted, and I'm planning to play around with the recipe, but these ARE good, especially if you like bananas, nuts and chocolate!  It is suggested that these cookies don't store well, so eat them all that day!  Ha.  Go bananas with cookies!

Homemade Oreo Cookies

I had been wanting to make Oreo cookies for a while now, but remembering my old roommates Oreo recipe, I knew I didn't want soft cakey cookies, and that is how hers always turned out.  I wanted to see if there really is a recipe that is true to Oreos, with crispy, dark chocolate cookies.  All the recipes I have seen always call for a box of Devil's food cake mix.  I could not find any that didn't use the cake mix.  But this one was a bit different than all the others I've seen, so I decided to give it a try.  Let me also say, I knew going in to this that I wasn't going to suddenly clone the Oreo.  I will say though that this is a darn close clone to the cream filling!  I found this recipe here at Best Recipe Source.  Here is the recipe as I made it.

Homemade "Oreo" Cookies

1 box Devil's Food Cake Mix

2 large eggs

2 tablespoons canola oil

2 tablespoons water

1/2 cup chocolate drink powder (like Nesquik), plus a little more for flattening cookies

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  In bowl of mixer, combine cake mix, eggs, oil, and chocolate drink powder.  Mix well.  Batter will be thick.  Let sit 15 minutes.  Form 1/2 inch balls with dough and place on parchment paper lined baking sheets.  The dough is very sticky.  I sprayed my hands with a little cooking spray and rolled the dough into balls.  It worked great.  Flatten each cookie with the bottom of a glass sprayed with cooking spray, then dipped in to some of the chocolate drink powder.  (Otherwise it will stick to the glass.)  Bake for 8 minutes (any longer they will burn).  Remove from baking sheet onto wire rack as soon as they are taken from the oven.  Cool completely.

Cream Filling

1/2 pkg. unflavored gelatin (1/4 cup water)

1/2 cup shortening

2 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Dissolve gelatin in 1/4 cup cold water in glass measuring cup.  Sit the glass in some simmering water in a pot on the stove.  Stir gelatin until heated enough that gelatin dissolves.  Beat shortening in mixing bowl and gradually add powdered sugar.  Mix in vanilla extract.  This will be grainy until the gelatin is added.  Slowly add gelatin to sugar until it is icing/spreading consistency.  (You may not quite need all of the gelatin liquid.)  You could spread desired amount of filling on each cookie half, but I put it in a piping bag and piped some on to each cookie.  Let set or chill to harden.  This recipe made 35 sandwiches. 

 

So, the cookies are okay.  Even if they weren't supposed to be "Oreos", they are just an okay cookie.  Fun to make, but if you REALLY are having a craving for Oreos, there just is nothing like the real thing.  If I added up the amount spent on ingredients, it would be about the same as buying a package of Oreos.  These cookies aren't Oreo chocolatey enough, and are a bit too sweet.  They were soft when I first filled them, but after sitting in an airtight container overnight, they are now kind of soft/chewy.  The filling, in my opinion, is pretty darn close to a real Oreo filling, maybe just a bit softer.  I actually halved the filling recipe and still had enough leftover that I filled a bunch of graham crackers.  I actually preferred the graham crackers to the chocolate cookies.  Maybe it's because I remember coming home from school sometimes while growing up and an afternoon snack of frosted graham crackers would be waiting for us.  Sometimes it was chocolate frosting, sometimes vanilla.  I always liked the vanilla with graham crackers better.  Tasty memory, Mom!  I'll have to dig through my old recipe box and find my roommate's Oreo cookie recipe to compare, but I remember hers were big cakey ones, but they were GOOD.  These that I made are not horrible by any means, in fact, the boys really like them.  I meant to try to add some dark cocoa to the mix to get a more dark flavor like Oreos, but I forgot until it was too late.  They have dark chocolate cake mixes that I would also try over Devil's Food.  The funny thing about all this, I have a new, unopened package of Oreos in the cupboard!  (I actually don't LOVE Oreos, but there IS something about having a few with some milk that just has to happen now and then, I mean, if there's an open package lying around, ya gotta have a few, right!)  Put them in a chocolate chip cookie and I'd just might have a new love for them--like I've seen Jenny do recently here at Picky Palate.  These look GOOD!

 

How about this little cutie!  Sam sees the boys getting crushed ice from the ice dispenser in the fridge and he wants to have some, too.  So I give him little cups with just a few pieces of small ice.  The other day he was having some in the kitchen and I went in to another room for a few minutes and came back to him "cleaning up" some spilled ice.  I just thought it was too cute that he got a towel himself and was attempting to wipe up the spill. 

What a sweet little helper!  He's got a yucky cold right now, poor guy.  Parker came home from school sick today with a fever of 102.  (It sure doesn't take long for the sickness to start around here once they are back in school!)  He's also had a bit of the barfs.  He laid around the rest of the day sleeping and whining.  I really hate it when I just can't help "make" my kids better when they are sick.  Hope whatever he's got isn't going to make its way around the other three boys (but it most likely will!)  Sigh!

Okay, someday I really will post some of the yummy things I've made for dinner, but now it's too late tonight and I always start with dessert first.  Speaking of dessert, Taylor missed out on this snack tonight-----

because he would not eat the world's smallest carrot at dinner!  He was not a happy camper, but I just cannot get this kid to eat ANY vegetables.  Am I too hard on him?  Sometimes he won't eat a single bite of dinner.  He did eat some of the spaghetti for dinner tonight, but pretty much never eats ANY vegetables.  Tough love, or am I the meanest mother in the world.  (Will never forget the chicken pot pie dinner/breakfast/lunch/dinner again/breakfast...., Mom!) ;) 

The Most Beautiful Mother

This is my mom!  I love her to pieces.  She just got a new smile and looks so beautiful.  I am so happy for her.  I miss you so much, Mom!  I think of you everyday.

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PEANUT BUTTER/CHOCOLATE APPLES

I think I saw this idea on Family Fun.  I have tried making little caramel apples bites before by taking a melon baller and scooping out balls of apple and putting them on toothpicks, then TRYING to cover them with caramel, which I saw done once.  Well, the caramel does not stick to a cut apple.  I tried a number of things and it would just run off and pool at the bottom.  I loved the idea of bite sized, and was excited when I saw this new idea of melted peanut butter chips.

Taylor and I melted 3/4 cups semi sweet chocolate chips, 3/4 cup peanut butter chips (in separate bowls), chopped up some peanuts and some toasted pecans and got out the sprinkles.  We had a good time dipping the apples in all the goo and "decorating" them however we wanted.  We used about three apples (they were all different kinds, but I would suggest a Granny Smith as a few of the ones we used from the farmer's market were a tad on the soft side and were trying not to hang on to the toothpick.  After we were done with the little ones, we still had some leftover melted chocolate and peanut butter, so we did one more big apple.  Then we sprinkled most of the leftovers all over it.  The peanut butter and chocolate (we dipped some in the chocolate first, too) stuck to the apples well and it was really fun.  I must also say that they were so much easier to eat than a caramel apple, which is often too big of a chewy mouthful, know what I mean?  It was also suggested that you could use butterscotch chips, but we did not today.  These harden quickly in the fridge! 

These were a great, fun, in-the-kitchen activity for kids.  The boys LOVED eating them tonight for their snack.  I would suggest that they be eaten the same day they are made, but if you use a good, crisp apple like Granny Smith, they may be good for a day or two.  Pretty toothpicks and holiday themes would be fun sometime.

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And now for some random photos that Taylor took today as he grabbed the camera from me and began snapping away.  Maybe a photography future here?   Hmmmm. 

 

I'm not sure what I was so seriously reading on the computer, but great photos, T!  There were more, but then you'd see how messy my house is, so they will remain hidden.  Love how he just randomly took a picture of my foot and hand.  Silly boy!  (And you may notice the string holding the computer open.  Yep, it won't stay open on its own any more.  It's one of those big old beasts that was Kevin's OLD laptop.  I am lucky to have inherited it.  It also weighs about ten pounds.  Seriously, Hon, if you read this, I'd rather go to New York with you than get a new computer! ;)

Moving on---

This is the only somewhat decent picture I took of these delicious muffins, but I wanted to share the recipe with you and the blog I got them from.  Kevin at Closet Cooking has such a yummy blog!  He takes amazing pictures of his food and also makes some really great recipes.  If you love good food, add him to your list of blogs to visit often, if not daily.

He recently made some blueberry muffins-with a twist and I just had to try them.  I added my own twist to them by adding a little more "healthiness" and using a few lower fat ingredients.  Here is Kevin's recipe.  And here is the recipe as I made it.

BLUEBERRY MAPLE OATMEAL PECAN STREUSEL MUFFINS

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup pure maple syrup

3/4 cup nonfat vanilla yogurt (I used Dannon Lite & Fit)

1 mashed banana

2 tablespoons canola oil

1/4 cup Egg Beater with touch of yolk (I love these!)

3/4 cup old-fashioned oats

1 cup unbleached all purpose flour

3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour (I think these would work fine using all whole wheat pastry flour)

1 tablespoon toasted wheat germ

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup blueberries (I used fresh, frozen would work, too--add them to the batter still frozen)

1/4 cup chopped pecans

1/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour

3 tablespoons dark brown sugar

2 tablespoons Smart Balance Buttery Spread

pinch cinnamon

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Spray muffin tins with cooking spray.  Set aside.

Mix the 1/2 cup brown sugar, maple syrup, yogurt, banana, oil, egg and oats in a large bowl.  Let sit for 10 minutes.

Mix the flours, baking powder, soda, cinnamon and salt in a separate medium sized bowl.  Carefully fold in the blueberries to the dry ingredients.  After the 10 minutes, add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture and carefully mix together with a rubber spatula just until incorporated.  Do not over mix.  With a cookie/ice cream scoop, fill the muffins tins until 3/4 full.  (I made 12 mini muffins and 10 regular sized ones with this recipe.)

Mix the pecans, flour, cinnamon, brown sugar and Smart Balance with a fork until they form crumbs.  Sprinkle some of the streusel onto each muffin.  Bake mini muffins for 12 minutes and larger ones for about 16 minutes.  Remove from tin after cool enough to handle and cool on wire rack.

 

 

Yum, thanks Kevin!

Okay, it's now 10:30 and I have to get up before 5 a.m. for my water aerobics class.  It's good and fun to be doing something different from jogging everyday, but MAN--it's early and I've been SO tired.  I just can't go to bed any earlier!  I love my evenings after the boys are finally in bed (usually by 9:00) and if I went to be too early, I wouldn't be able to sleep.