Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

School is back in session, and in addition to working for a wedding planning company, I am also a full-time teacher. I switched from middle school to high school this year so my life has changed a lot and everything is new. I am also coaching our high school dance team, which is very time consuming but has been fun and fulfilling so far. This Monday we had a parent performance night where we performed our halftime show with the band for all of our parents. It started off with a pot luck, and the dance team was responsible for bringing desserts. I wanted to make something that was easy to grab at a pot luck (as opposed to having to cut slices and stuff like that) so I found these PB cup cookies on Joy of Baking and decided to give them a try. I mean, how could you go wrong with peanut butter cups and cookies combined?


















From Joy of Baking --

Peanut Butter Cup Cookies: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C) and place rack in the center of the oven. Butter, or spray with a non stick vegetable spray, 48 miniature muffins tins.

In a bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt.

In the bowl of your electric mixer (or with a hand mixer), cream the butter. Add the sugars and beat until light and fluffy (about 2 - 3 minutes). Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla extract. Add the flour mixture and beat just until incorporated. Fill each miniature muffin cup with about one tablespoon of batter.

Bake the cookies for about 8 minutes, or until the cookies are lightly browned around the edges but still soft in the center. (Note: While the cookies are baking remove the foil wraps and paper liners from each peanut butter cup.) Remove the cookies from the oven, and gently press one miniature peanut butter cup into the center of each cookie. The peanut butter cup should be even with the top of the batter. Return the cookies to the oven and bake an additional 3 minutes or until cookies are golden brown. Remove from oven and cool completely (about two hours) on a wire rack before removing the cookies from the pan. These can be stored for several days at room temperature or in the refrigerator, or they can be frozen.

Sources:

Wilson, Dede. A Baker's Field Guide to Chocolate Chip Cookies. The Harvard Common Press. Boston: 2004.

Peanut Butter Cup Cookies:

2 1/2 cups (325 grams) all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup (226 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature

3/4 cup (160 grams) light brown sugar

3/4 cup (150 grams) granulated white sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

BBQ Pulled Chicken Sandwiches

I own a crock pot and rarely get use out of it except sometimes when I make meatballs during football season. So right before school went back in session, when I was home for a few more long summer days, I decided to utilize my crock pot and make some bbq pulled chicken! It came out SO delicious and it was so easy to make. I'm definitely going to make them again very soon.
The recipe was kind of a compilation of several recipes I found online where I could use things I already had in the house. It seems like the kind of recipe where you could add in whatever you wanted to your liking. Here is what I used:

Ingredients
3 boneless chicken breasts
1/2 cup ketchup
1 bottle of your favorite BBQ sauce (I used a honey BBQ sauce)
2 tbs of brown sugar
1/4 cup water
1 package of Hawaiian rolls or regular sized rolls

Directions
Place all ingredients in crock pot and mix around with spoon. Make sure chicken is covered by the liquid. If not, you can add some more water until chicken is immersed.
Cook on low for 5 1/2 hours
Take chicken out of crock pot and shred/pull apart with 2 forks
Put pulled chicken back in crock pot and re-warm for about 10 minutes
Serve on rolls!