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

More Blondies

Can you tell I love blondies? They are just so delicious and always a hit. My parents came in town this weekend to visit and I wanted to have some baked goods on hand even though we were mostly going to be going out to eat a lot around town. My dad loves things with nuts, so I found this recipe on MarthaStewart.com that was a blondies recipe with walnuts. It came out delicious of course. Make sure you don't overbake these, they are way better when slightly underbaked and mushy. :)

Ingredients

Makes 16

• 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted, plus more for pan
• 1/2 cup packed light-brown sugar
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 1 cup chopped walnuts

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Brush an 8-inch square baking pan with butter; line pan with a piece of parchment paper, leaving a 2-inch overhang on two sides. Butter paper.
2. In a large bowl, whisk butter and sugars until smooth. Whisk in egg and vanilla. Add flour and salt; mix just until moistened (do not overmix). Fold in 1/2 cup each chocolate chips and walnuts. Transfer batter to prepared pan; smooth top. Sprinkle with remaining chocolate chips and walnuts.
3. Bake until top is golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 40 to 45 minutes. Set pan on a wire rack, and let cool completely. Using parchment overhang, lift cake from pan and transfer to a cutting board; cut into 16 squares. Store blondies in an airtight container at room temperature, up to 2 days.

Happy Cinco De Mayo .... Mexican Wedding Cookies!

I love holidays, especially ones that give me excuses to make food! Today we had a faculty luncheon for Cinco De Mayo and all of the teachers were asked to contribute by bringing a food dish of their choice. I decided I would make Mexican Wedding Cookies because A. I love cookies and B. I am a wedding planner as my 2nd job. So it was perfect. I found this Paula Deen recipe and decided it seemed easy enough. Of course, I didn't have enough butter so Brett had to run out at 8:30 to the store to get me some.. but that's why I love him so much. :)
These cookies were easy to make and smelled SO good when they were baking. I have the last lunch of the day and by the time I got down there, all of them were gone! They were a hit.

Ingredients

• 1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar, plus more for coating baked cookies
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting hands
• 1 cup pecans, chopped into very small pieces

Directions

Preheat the oven to 275 degrees F. Line cookies sheets with parchment paper.

Using an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar at low speed until it is smooth. Beat in the vanilla. At low speed gradually add the flour. Mix in the pecans with a spatula. With floured hands, take out about 1 tablespoon of dough and shape into a crescent. Continue to dust hands with flour as you make more cookies. Place onto prepared cookie sheets. Bake for 40 minutes. When cool enough to handle but still warm, roll in additional confectioners' sugar. Cool on wire racks.

Too good to Passover.. Chocolate Kiss Cookies

I completely forgot to post this recipe a few weeks ago when I made it for Passover. So B and I are not the most religious people, I'll admit. But we do appreciate our Jewish culture and our roots, and I happen to be a big fan of some of the food (matzoh ball soup, noodle kugal, challah, etc.).

After my mom converted to Judaism 20-something years ago, she went to a Jewish cooking class because she loves to bake and wanted to learn some recipes she could make for holidays. She has been making these chocolate kiss cookies for years and they are really yummy. They are very rich and chocolate-y. Even though they are specifically made for Passover (because they don't contain flour or yeast), I think they are delicious for everyday entertaining as well!

The key is making sure you don't let the cookie dough be exposed to the air very long and that you spoon them quickly and bake right away.














Passover Chocolate Kisses

1 small package chocolate chips
2 egg whites
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup coconut
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 tsp. white vinegar
1/8 tsp. salt

Melt chocolate in microwave according to directions on package, and cool. Beat egg whites and salt until foamy. Add sugar, 2 tablespoons at a time, beating after each. Continue beating until mixture stands in stiff peaks. Add vinegar and vanilla, beat well. FOLD in coconut, nuts, and melted chocolate. Drop from teaspoon onto greased baking sheet. Bake 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Do not overbake.
Makes about 30 cookies. Takes appx. 20 minutes total.

Blondies by a blondie

I used to buy a box mix of m&m blondies and make them with my mom all the time when I was growing up. Of course, they discontinued this mix (food I like ALWAYS get discontinued) so when I saw this blondies recipe on Just2Good's blog (who in turn got them from Lovestoeat's blog), I thought I could alter it just a bit to make it reminiscent of the blondies I used to love. They came out so yummy! I brought them to work and my coworker's raved. My husband loved them too and he's pretty picky with desserts (if it's not chocolate, he's usually not interested). I will definitely be making these again and again.











These pics didn't come out very good.. definitely let them cool before you cut into them because otherwise they fall apart. :)














Blondies
Ingredients
1 1/2 Cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp table salt
12 Tbsp (1.5 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 1/2 Cups brown sugar
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
4 tsp vanilla extract
1 Cup chocolate chips
1 Cup baking m&m's or regular m&m's

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position; heat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Line foil into length of 13 by 9-inch baking pan, pushing it into corners and up sides of pan; allow excess to overhang pan edges. Spray foil-lined pan with nonstick cooking spray.

3. Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt together in medium bowl; set aside.

4. Whisk melted butter and brown sugar together in medium bowl until combined. Add eggs and vanilla and mix well. Using rubber spatula, fold dry ingredients into egg mixture until just combined; do not overmix. Fold in chocolate chips and m&ms and turn batter into prepared pan, smoothing top with rubber spatula.

5. Bake until top is shiny, cracked, and light golden brown, 22 to 25 minutes; do not overbake. Cool on wire rack to room temperature. Remove bars from pan by lifting foil overhang and transfer to cutting board. Cut into 2-inch squares and serve.