Some of you may notice that I edited my last page (for the choc-peanut butter cookies recipe) to include a link for a virtual cookie exchange! Cookie exchanges are great fun and a festive way to get new recipes! I hope some of you will go check out the virtual cookie exchange link on my last post! :) :)
For those of you who want a link real quick like, here ya go!
Monday, December 5, 2011
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Chocolate-Peanut Butter Cookies
Reese's got it right - chocolate and peanut butter just go together. Like peas and carrots. Like Forrest Gump and Jenny (that's for you, Ruth Ann!). Honestly, those two things are perfect for one other. There really is nothing more that can be said about these cookies except that they are delicious!
Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies
courtesy of Nestle Toll House All-Time Favorite Cookie and Baking Recipes
2 1/4 c. All Purpose Flour
2/3 c. Baking Cocoa
1 tsp. Baking Soda
1 c. Butter, softened (I use salted butter. If you only have unsalted, add 1/4 tsp. salt)
3/4 c. Sugar
2/3 c. Brown Sugar, packed
1 tsp. Vanilla Extract
2 Eggs
Peanut Butter Chips (I'm going to let you use your own judgment here. I think the original measurement of an entire package is way too much so I usually use 1/2 the bag but you can add as much or as little as you like!)
Preheat oven to 350.
Combine flour, cocoa, and baking soda in a bowl.
Beat butter, both sugars, and vanilla until creamy.
Add eggs to the butter mixture, beating well after each addition.
Gradually beat into flour mixture.
Stir in your peanut butter chips.
Measure out your cookies and place onto an ungreased baking sheet.
Bake for 8 to 10 minutes or until centers are set (I usually go for 8 minutes but I like my cookies really soft!).
Let stand on the cookie sheet for 2 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack to finish cooling completely.
Nice picture, huh? Yep, looks nice. Want to see what happened just moments before?
Yep. That's my husband's hand. He couldn't wait for me to finish taking my picture before reaching for a warm cookie (okay, who can resist a warm cookie?). Once he got his cookie, I was able to take my nice, lovely picture!
Post edited to add the following:
Join the Virtual Cookie Recipe Exchange with Flour On My Face Prizes donated by King Arthur Flour, St Martins Press / Robin L. Olson and Garnish.
Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies
courtesy of Nestle Toll House All-Time Favorite Cookie and Baking Recipes
2 1/4 c. All Purpose Flour
2/3 c. Baking Cocoa
1 tsp. Baking Soda
1 c. Butter, softened (I use salted butter. If you only have unsalted, add 1/4 tsp. salt)
3/4 c. Sugar
2/3 c. Brown Sugar, packed
1 tsp. Vanilla Extract
2 Eggs
Peanut Butter Chips (I'm going to let you use your own judgment here. I think the original measurement of an entire package is way too much so I usually use 1/2 the bag but you can add as much or as little as you like!)
Preheat oven to 350.
Combine flour, cocoa, and baking soda in a bowl.
Beat butter, both sugars, and vanilla until creamy.
Add eggs to the butter mixture, beating well after each addition.
Gradually beat into flour mixture.
Stir in your peanut butter chips.
Measure out your cookies and place onto an ungreased baking sheet.
Bake for 8 to 10 minutes or until centers are set (I usually go for 8 minutes but I like my cookies really soft!).
Let stand on the cookie sheet for 2 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack to finish cooling completely.
Nice picture, huh? Yep, looks nice. Want to see what happened just moments before?
Yep. That's my husband's hand. He couldn't wait for me to finish taking my picture before reaching for a warm cookie (okay, who can resist a warm cookie?). Once he got his cookie, I was able to take my nice, lovely picture!
Post edited to add the following:
Pumpkin Dessert Squares
Ryan loves pumpkin. I learned that very early on in our relationship. I had never made a pumpkin pie before in my entire life until I met him. I've made way too many to count since we have been together. Me? I've never really been a fan of pumpkin. I do enjoy pumpkin cheesecake every once in a while. I have fond memories of pumpkin cheesecake at the now closed restaurant Rick Stein's Steakhouse in Dallas, TX (that restaurant is where Ryan and I had our first Texas date :) ). That cheesecake was unbelievable. One day, I shall attempt to make a pumpkin cheesecake myself but for now, my husband is content with me creating numerous other pumpkin-y things. We tried this at the Williams-Sonoma store a few weeks ago and I knew I had to make some as soon as I could! They are that good. And simple - oh so simple! (We like simple around here.) You'll need a jar of pumpkin butter (which is somewhat easy to find right about now) but could you substitute apple butter? Hmmm... haven't tried that but I don't see why it wouldn't work! If you make it before I do, leave a comment and let me know how it turns out!!
Pumpkin Dessert Squares
courtesy of Williams-Sonoma stores
1 box Yellow Cake Mix
1/2 c. Butter, melted
3 Eggs
1 13.5 oz. jar Pumpkin Butter
1/8 c. Milk
1 Tbsp. All Purpose Flour
1/4 c. Sugar
1/4 c. Butter, softened
1 tsp. Cinnamon
Preheat the oven to 350.
Lightly grease a 9x13 pan.
Reserve 1 cup of the yellow cake mix.
Combine the remaining cake mix with the 1/2 c. melted butter and 1 egg (be sure to temper* your eggs if you're using immediately melted butter - no one wants scrambled eggs!).
Press into the bottom of your pan.
Mix the jar of pumpkin butter with the last two eggs and milk.
Pour over the cake mix!
Mix the reserved cake mix with the flour and remaining three ingredients.
Mix with a pastry blender or two knives (or your hands!!) until the butter is pea sized and everything sort of clumps together.
Sprinkle over the pumpkin mixture.
Bake for 35-40 minutes or until golden brown.
Wanna see what the middle looks like? All full of pumpkin butter-y goodness?
Pumpkin Dessert Squares
courtesy of Williams-Sonoma stores
1 box Yellow Cake Mix
1/2 c. Butter, melted
3 Eggs
1 13.5 oz. jar Pumpkin Butter
1/8 c. Milk
1 Tbsp. All Purpose Flour
1/4 c. Sugar
1/4 c. Butter, softened
1 tsp. Cinnamon
Preheat the oven to 350.
Lightly grease a 9x13 pan.
Reserve 1 cup of the yellow cake mix.
Combine the remaining cake mix with the 1/2 c. melted butter and 1 egg (be sure to temper* your eggs if you're using immediately melted butter - no one wants scrambled eggs!).
Press into the bottom of your pan.
Mix the jar of pumpkin butter with the last two eggs and milk.
Pour over the cake mix!
Mix the reserved cake mix with the flour and remaining three ingredients.
Mix with a pastry blender or two knives (or your hands!!) until the butter is pea sized and everything sort of clumps together.
Sprinkle over the pumpkin mixture.
Bake for 35-40 minutes or until golden brown.
Wanna see what the middle looks like? All full of pumpkin butter-y goodness?
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Apple Pie Crumble
I've said it before and I'll say it again - I love giving food as gifts. I made this for my dad for this birthday, which was at the beginning of September (my apologies for the huge delay in posting!). He loves apple pie but I wanted to do something a little different. So I decided to make an apple pie crumble! Genius, right? Quick and simple. Just the way I like it (I save the hard stuff for days when I feel like making yeast breads). I love my recipe for apple pie filling. The apples with the spice and sugar mixture is so good that I find myself eating the apples before I put them in the filling! Of course, anyone who does something like that will only admit to "taste testing" because who in the world would want to send something out before tasting it? Certainly not me! With apple season upon us, this is a wonderful way to put some delicious apple-y goodness on your table with not much effort!
Apple Pie Crumble
filling courtesy of Ultimate Southern Living Cookbook
crumble courtesy of Animal, Vegetable, Miracle
the idea of combining them? All me.
Filling:
6 c. Apples (I use a combination of Braeburn and Granny Smith)
1 Tbsp. Lemon Juice
1/2 c. Sugar
1/2 c. Brown Sugar
2 Tbsp. All Purpose Flour
3/4 tsp. Pumpkin Pie Spice
Crumble:
1/2 c. Flour (KAF)
1/2 c. Rolled/Old Fashioned Oats
1/2 c. Brown Sugar
3/4 tsp. Cinnamon
1/3 c. Butter (leave it set out for around 15 minutes to make it easier to handle)
Apple Pie Crumble
filling courtesy of Ultimate Southern Living Cookbook
crumble courtesy of Animal, Vegetable, Miracle
the idea of combining them? All me.
Filling:
6 c. Apples (I use a combination of Braeburn and Granny Smith)
1 Tbsp. Lemon Juice
1/2 c. Sugar
1/2 c. Brown Sugar
2 Tbsp. All Purpose Flour
3/4 tsp. Pumpkin Pie Spice
Crumble:
1/2 c. Flour (KAF)
1/2 c. Rolled/Old Fashioned Oats
1/2 c. Brown Sugar
3/4 tsp. Cinnamon
1/3 c. Butter (leave it set out for around 15 minutes to make it easier to handle)
Peach Crisp
Last weekend, Ryan and I took a trip to the farmer's market. I love going to the farmer's market. I love sampling the local produce and it just gives you a good feeling when you know you're supporting local farmers. The produce you get from the farmer's market pales in comparison to what you get at the grocery store. If you remember from one of my previous peach posts, I only buy peaches from the farmer's market because I can't find the peaches I love anywhere else. Sadly, peach season has come to an end but I did find one lone farmer selling the last of his peach crop and I bought six peaches. Still yummy but they had to be used quickly because I knew they weren't going to last long. So off I went to my plethora of cookbooks! I wanted to make something quick and simple with ingredients I had on hand and I found this cute little recipe (and for those of you that are tired of my KAF adoration/recipes, this isn't a KAF recipe!) and I just happened to have everything I needed. The recipe is extremely versatile you can use this crisp recipe for any type of fruit!
Peach Crisp
courtesy of Southern Plate by Christy Jordan (adapted slightly by me!)
Fresh Peaches (I had 6 medium-large peaches. Don't have fresh? You can use one can of peaches, drained)
1/4 c. Flour (KAF - you can use All Purpose or Self-Rising, no matter what you have on hand)
1/4 c. + 1/8 c. Brown Sugar
1/4 c. Oats (quick-cooking or old fashioned? Doesn't matter - use what you have!)
1/2 tsp. Pumpkin Pie Spice (or you can just use cinnamon)
1/4 c. (1/2 stick) Butter, fresh from the fridge
Preheat the oven to 400.
Arrange the peaches into 6 ramekins (or an 8x8 pan. I used ramekins because I love individual servings)
In a bowl, combine all of your dry ingredients.
Sprinkle over the peaches (if using small ramekins, it should take around 2 Tbsp. of the dry mixture to cover the top).
If using ramekins, cut the butter into individual tablespoons and then cut in half. Use 1/2 Tbsp. butter for the small ramekins (cut the butter into small pieces) and dot over the ramekins. Repeat process for the remaining ramekins. If using a big pan, dot the butter all over.
Bake until lightly browned which is around 20 minutes.
Serve warm and preferably with ice cream!
(these are his and hers crisps - cute right?)
Calories - Small ramekins (R) - 152, Large (L) - 240
Peach Crisp
courtesy of Southern Plate by Christy Jordan (adapted slightly by me!)
Fresh Peaches (I had 6 medium-large peaches. Don't have fresh? You can use one can of peaches, drained)
1/4 c. Flour (KAF - you can use All Purpose or Self-Rising, no matter what you have on hand)
1/4 c. + 1/8 c. Brown Sugar
1/4 c. Oats (quick-cooking or old fashioned? Doesn't matter - use what you have!)
1/2 tsp. Pumpkin Pie Spice (or you can just use cinnamon)
1/4 c. (1/2 stick) Butter, fresh from the fridge
Preheat the oven to 400.
Arrange the peaches into 6 ramekins (or an 8x8 pan. I used ramekins because I love individual servings)
In a bowl, combine all of your dry ingredients.
Sprinkle over the peaches (if using small ramekins, it should take around 2 Tbsp. of the dry mixture to cover the top).
If using ramekins, cut the butter into individual tablespoons and then cut in half. Use 1/2 Tbsp. butter for the small ramekins (cut the butter into small pieces) and dot over the ramekins. Repeat process for the remaining ramekins. If using a big pan, dot the butter all over.
Bake until lightly browned which is around 20 minutes.
Serve warm and preferably with ice cream!
Calories - Small ramekins (R) - 152, Large (L) - 240
PDQ Blueberry Muffins
I know, I know. I've already done a blueberry muffin recipe. But sometimes, you want something that you can just (literally) throw into a bowl and put into the oven. This is a perfect recipe for that. I just happened to have some fresh blueberries that needed to be used up before they went bad and I knew that my last recipe called for fresh and although it was very good, I wanted a recipe that could use either frozen or fresh. Enter this recipe! The nice thing about this recipe is that it's so basic that you can add any sort of berry you want - blueberry, raspberry, blackberry, or even a mixture of both (if you like that sort of thing). The key to remember is that you need to add your berries BEFORE you add your wet ingredients. Why? Keeps them from sinking when you bake them. If you forget, toss the berries in just a tiny bit of flour and add them in. Its the same concept, just at different times. Oh, what does "PDQ" stand for? "Pretty Darn Quick" :)
PDQ Blueberry Muffins
courtesy of King Arthur Flour's 200th Anniversary Cookbook
2 c. All Purpose Flour (KAF)
1/2 c. Sugar
1 Tbsp. Baking Powder
1 1/2 c. Berries (fresh or frozen)
1 c. Milk (I use skim because I always have that on hand)
1/4 c. Butter (I use salted. If you have unsalted, add 1/2 tsp. salt)
2 Eggs
Preheat oven to 500 (yeah, that's hot but bear with me).
In one bowl, combine the dry ingredients together with a whisk.
Add in your berries.
In another bowl, combine your milk, butter, and eggs and mix until well combined.
Add your wet ingredients to your dry ingredient and stir for 20 seconds. Is this important? Yes! You want some lumps in your batter because it makes a light and tender muffins.
Pour into a light greased muffin tin/muffin cups.
As soon as you put the muffins in the oven, DROP THE TEMP to 400.
Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown.
PDQ Blueberry Muffins
courtesy of King Arthur Flour's 200th Anniversary Cookbook
2 c. All Purpose Flour (KAF)
1/2 c. Sugar
1 Tbsp. Baking Powder
1 1/2 c. Berries (fresh or frozen)
1 c. Milk (I use skim because I always have that on hand)
1/4 c. Butter (I use salted. If you have unsalted, add 1/2 tsp. salt)
2 Eggs
Preheat oven to 500 (yeah, that's hot but bear with me).
In one bowl, combine the dry ingredients together with a whisk.
Add in your berries.
In another bowl, combine your milk, butter, and eggs and mix until well combined.
Add your wet ingredients to your dry ingredient and stir for 20 seconds. Is this important? Yes! You want some lumps in your batter because it makes a light and tender muffins.
Pour into a light greased muffin tin/muffin cups.
As soon as you put the muffins in the oven, DROP THE TEMP to 400.
Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown.
Apple Blondies
I loves apples. It took me a very long time to actually be able to eat apples in anything though. When I was little, I didn't eat apple pie or apple dumplings or apple anything. Except apples. I love raw apples! As I've grown older, I've grown to love apple things. I make a wonderful apple pie that I hope to make again and post the recipe for. My father asked me to make him a deep dish Dutch apple pie once. That recipe took me 3 different recipes from 3 different cookbooks just to be able to finish. That was a hassle but it turned out good. I may make that again one day now that I know what in the world I am doing! This was much, much simpler. And it uses my favorite cinnamon chips! I'm telling you, when Christmas rolls around and Harris Teeter gets in their annual stock of cinnamon chips, I'm buying a case! Haha! The recipe actually calls this "Apple Brownies" but there is no cocoa in this recipe so technically it should be called a "blondie" which is what I'm calling them. I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I did! (Goes GREAT with vanilla ice cream!)
Apple Blondies
recipe courtesy of King Arthur Flour Baking Sheet, Autumn 2011
1 1/4 c. All Purpose Flour (KAF)
1/2 tsp. Baking Powder
1/2 tsp. Baking Soda
1/2 tsp. Ground Cinnamon
1/2 c. Butter (I use salted - if you use unsalted, add an additional 1/2 tsp. salt)
1 c. Sugar
1 Egg
2 1/2 c. Apples, Peeled and Diced (I used Braeburn apples for this recipe) - amounts to around 2 or 3 apples
1/2 c. Cinnamon Chips
1/2 c. Walnuts, Chopped
Preheat oven to 350.
Spray an 8x8 pan with butter flavored cooking spray.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and soda, and cinnamon.
Melt the butter in a saucepan or microwave.
Remove from heat and whisk in the sugar.
Cool the butter and sugar mixture to lukewarm and add the egg (use caution because you don't want scrambled eggs - make sure your butter/sugar mix is cool!).
Combine the butter/sugar mixture with the flour mixture.
Fold in the apples, cinnamon chips, and walnuts. (NOTE: This mixture will be THICK - it's gonna take some elbow grease to make sure everything is properly mixed together!)
Pour the batter into your 8x8 pan.
Bake for 40-45 minutes.
(see those lovely cinnamon chips? Yummy!)
Calories: 206 (per 2" square)
Apple Blondies
recipe courtesy of King Arthur Flour Baking Sheet, Autumn 2011
1 1/4 c. All Purpose Flour (KAF)
1/2 tsp. Baking Powder
1/2 tsp. Baking Soda
1/2 tsp. Ground Cinnamon
1/2 c. Butter (I use salted - if you use unsalted, add an additional 1/2 tsp. salt)
1 c. Sugar
1 Egg
2 1/2 c. Apples, Peeled and Diced (I used Braeburn apples for this recipe) - amounts to around 2 or 3 apples
1/2 c. Cinnamon Chips
1/2 c. Walnuts, Chopped
Preheat oven to 350.
Spray an 8x8 pan with butter flavored cooking spray.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and soda, and cinnamon.
Melt the butter in a saucepan or microwave.
Remove from heat and whisk in the sugar.
Cool the butter and sugar mixture to lukewarm and add the egg (use caution because you don't want scrambled eggs - make sure your butter/sugar mix is cool!).
Combine the butter/sugar mixture with the flour mixture.
Fold in the apples, cinnamon chips, and walnuts. (NOTE: This mixture will be THICK - it's gonna take some elbow grease to make sure everything is properly mixed together!)
Pour the batter into your 8x8 pan.
Bake for 40-45 minutes.
Calories: 206 (per 2" square)
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