Peanut Butter Temptations

I love the holidays. I think they are wonderful. And while I would like to say that I have this giving spirit all year round, it really comes out during the holidays. Yesterday I decorated my house. I know, it's a little early. But my family tradition is to decorate the day after Thanksgiving, but I'm going to be back home and will decorate my nostalgic home the day after. This means that if I wait, I really won't have time to decorate until two weekends after Thanksgiving and then I have to leave in two weeks to travel for more family holidays. I really do love spending all this time with family, seriously. But if I'm going to have enough time enjoying my own Christmas decorations at home, they've got to go up before Thanksgiving. So we deal.

Here's my favorite display of holiday decor (I don't even want to talk about figuring out lighting for this picture - it still doesn't do it justice):


I'm starting to go a little overboard with the snowmen, but I love them! Anyway, my home is so warm and cozy with all of the cheer. It even smells like the holidays.

Here's what was baking in my oven yesterday. They are Mike's favorite cookies (I only make then so often because we can't leave them alone). I got this recipe from my friend Eliz's mom, Mrs. Lindner (she's fabulous). Unfortunately I lost it and had to use the recipe off the back of a Reese's Peanut Butter Cups Minatures bad. I'm not sure if it is the same recipe, but it still tasted pretty darn good.

Ingredients

1 stick of butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups flour
aprox. 40 Reese's Peanut Butter Bups Miniatures

Method

Preheat oven to 375 F.

Cream together the butter, sugar, brown sugar, peanut butter. Then add the egg and vanilla. Last add the salt, baking soda and flour. Roll dough into 1 inch balls and put into miniature muffin tin. Bake for 8 minutes.

Here's what happens when you try to be moderately artistic:


They get too dark. It doesn't look like it here, but they are too dark. Don't make that mistake. They should look almost not done so that they stay moist enough. You also have to press in the peanut butter cups right away. Otherwise they don't go in as easily.

Here's what they actually should like like:

Okay, so the difference doesn't come out quite as stark in these pictures as they do in person, but there is a HUGE difference in taste even if you can't see the color difference here.

Side-note: Did you know that Reese's can expire and go very, very bad? Well, they can. I didn't have enough bought, so I went to my chocolate box (yep, I actually have 2 chocolate tupperwares in my cupboard), and found I had some. Some really old ones. Reeses where the peanut butter is no longer creamy but crumbles in your mouth when it opens up. It's pretty disgusting. That's why some of the cookies don't have the peanut butter cups in them. They still taste decently okay, but the chocolate really makes it. Like these.

I know it's just chocolate in a bowl, but doesn't it make you salivate?

They're pretty delicious, and they make your house smell wonderful. These are going to my house for the night before Thanksgiving. I'm bringing pumpkin roll and dad has already threatened to eat it before the Turkey Day. Therefore, I'm bringing these to tide him over. Sort of like a warm up. :)

I'm Getting Called Out...

So today my journalism students, some of my few readers (yay!), called me out about not posting for awhile. I told them it's not that I'm not baking/cooking, I'm just lazy/tired by the end of the day. Then I realized, I make them write a blog every week. This just won't do. I've got to get my act together. So here is my newest post, thanks to my students! :)

So a few years ago I tried Paula Dean's Gooey Toffee Butter Bars, and I absolutely fell in love with them. The only problem with them is that if you want to share, say in a classroom setting, they are a little bit messy. Then I found Paula's Chocolate Gooey Butter Cookies and I instantly thought of my students.

How sad is that.

Even when baking I think about my job. But I just can't help myself when I saw how ridiculously easy making these cookies were (you think about these things when you are exhausted most of the time because the children take it out of you). Especially when I had already promised one of my classes cookies if every single student turned in their paper on time (I assign at least a one page paper every week. I know. I'm a hard-ass. But you should see how much they have grown as writers in just 12 weeks!

Anyway, I was positive that they were not going to do it (because they never have), so I decided to be incredibly mean and show them just what they were missing when inevitably 4-5 students turned in their papers late and then I would send them to the law school. You want to know what? Those little buggers actually did it! I was so proud. The law school was so sad.

Here's what my children won.

Ingredients

1 block of cream cheese, room temperature
1 stick of butter, room temperature
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
1 box of moist chocolate cake mix
confectioner's sugar

Method

Preheat the oven to 350 F.

Beat all the ingredients together (except for the sugar). It works best if you go cream cheese, butter, egg, vanilla, and cake mix. Trust me. Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours. Trust me. Roll into tablespoon sized balls (I bought a special scoop to make this process easier. It's like the ice cream scoop but smaller). Roll the cookie balls in the sugar and bake for around 12 minutes. That's it! Pretty easy, huh? And the kids loved it. They really do taste like cake, but in portable portions. Enjoy!

(p.s. Did you check out the photo work? Not too shabby!)

Cookies for Persuasion

You should know something about me. There is nothing scientific about me at all (sorry Brakers). I like creativity, and I hate absolutes. Most of the people I talk to about baking say that it is a science. Oh my goodness, make me cringe with despair. How can my thing (we'll fudge that a little) be scientific? Well, when I do it, it's not. It's much more about texture and taste and feeling. I mean, I will follow a recipe, but why is 3 3/4 cups of flour better than 3 3/4 cups and 2 tablespoons of flour? I mean seriously. What's the difference. And how did it get to be 3 3/4? Someone had to arbitrarily figure it out eventually. There was a lot of tasting and seeing and feeling to figure it out - I'm guessing. So while I will also give you the original recipe, know that I fudge things here and there almost all of the time.

Moving on to Cookies for Persuasion. I thought I should start my blogging with a fool proof recipe. These are seriously the best cookies that I have ever made. And I make them a lot. I told you earlier that I am a teacher. Well, I use these as persuasion for behavior and test scores, and it's worked pretty well. In our high school, we have teams for sophomores and freshman to help support them more. I made these cookies for our entire team as motivation for doing well on finals. Now they are legendary around the school. So if you want to double, triple, or quadruple this recipe, it's possible. There are a few tricks, but it works great. I currently made these cookies for Mike to take to the law office to that he can make friends with the partners at the firm. Not even joking. Right now he's planning on putting up a sign that says "If you want cookies, come talk to the IP Interns". I'll have to let you know if it works out for him.

Without further ado, here it the recipe. I orginally got it from Paula Dean - I love how that woman is not afraid of butter. I made a few ajustments, but only because I am that lazy. You'll see.

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
1/2 cup vegetable shortening (I use the sticks of butter crisco)
3/4 cup of sugar
1 3/4 cup of brown sugar
3 lg eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 3/4 flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 package of semisweet chocolate morsels
1 cup milk chocolate morsels (I use a whole package)
3 squares bittersweet chocolate, chopped (which I don't use because I don't want to chop)
1 cup almond brickle chipes (I use the heath toffee chips covered in chocolate)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Lightly grease baking sheets

Mix together the butter and shortening until creamy. I ALWAYS use salted butter when baking. I know almost everyone does otherwise, but I like it that way and so far everyone else has who has tried these cookies (or anything else I've shared with people). Gradually add sugars until fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla. I always add more vanilla. I guestimate it. There can never be enough vanilla. Make sure that you beat this until really creamy. I'm not sure, but I think that it really helps with how these cookies melt in your mouth when baked.

Here's another shorcut I take. I don't mix together the dry ingredients before I add them to the wet. I just sprinkle around the salt and baking soda, mix it, and then add the flour bit by bit so that it doesn't spray everywhere (sometimes that still happens). Stir in all the chips.

Here's a big secret (I at least thought this was revolutionary when I heard of it). Use an ice cream scoop to drop the dough onto the baking sheet. It makes all the cookies even and then they bake down beautifully. Doesn't that look nice?

You should bake these between 11-12 minutes, but we all know that depends on your oven. It changes for each oven I bake these in. Sometimes it is it is 9 1/2 minutes and sometimes it is 13. Just depends. Let them cool for a few minutes before taking them off the baking sheet. I don't like to use racks because it always makes everything I make fall apart. I use parchment or wax paper on the counter or table and let them cool there completely.

And that's it. Persuade away.