So I always have new ideas and love experimenting with ingredients. Sometimes its' amazing (see these cupcakes and these cookies) and sometimes I screw up. Bad. (See my giant mousse disaster). This is another one of those not-so-smart instances. I thought it'd be a good idea but maybe my execution was off.
Peanut butter and jelly brownies. Sounds like it would just work. Chocolate, peanut butter and my favorite, grape jelly. I figure I'd give it a shot, can't be too bad right? Well, there's something to be said about jelly.
Looks are deceiving. I thought I was genius and so excited to try these. But the jelly. When jelly gets hot it's gooey and would be pretty good in the center of peanut butter and chocolate. Well, once the brownies are cool enough to be removed, it kind of turns into a rock.
You could break teeth with these things after a day. I was extremely disappointed and am currently trying to figure out ways to fix it because I still like the idea. Moral of the story: Jelly is not so good after it's been heated and cooled. Unless you need to get rid of some teeth.
I'm still going to shoot for brownies. My boyfriend constantly tells me to just make "normal brownies." I can't help it. I have to add something extra. After all, we've learned that even with cookies, I need a little something extra.
He'll get normal brownies but I'm also going to experiment with Reese's Pieces again. To Be Continued…
So I'm not a huge fan of just regular old peanut butter cookies. I'll eat them but I'd rather make something a little more. I am a big fan of Reese's Pieces and I bought them with intensions of using them in Puppy Chow but changed my mind. I had a craving for cookies and I know my boyfriend loves peanut butter cookies. I like candy in cookies so I made peanut butter Reese's Pieces cookies. Genius. I impressed myself on this one.
I had a few worries. One being that it may be too much peanut butter. The candy coating evened it out nicely and the consistent and even taste of peanut butter in Reese's Pieces is different than that in a cookie. It was rather harmonious, if you will.
Another worry was that I got a little happy with the Reese Pieces. I put the entire bag in one batch and at one point it looked like more candy than cookie. Again, I was wrong. You really can't put too much in I guess. The more the merrier.
I must say I was pleasantly surprised and amaze myself sometimes. These will be made again.
Here's a take on a couple of the best candies around; peanut butter cups and Reese's Pieces. I've always made chocolate chip cookies with Reese cups in the middle but now I've turned it into a cupcake. And I couldn't just put any old frosting on top, had to add some crunch and compliment it with it's hard shelled crunchy counterpart.
I put them in a ziplock and crumpled them up a bit, not too much so they'd still be crunchy and added them to my normal butter, powdered sugar and vanilla frosting and it's pretty epic. But before all of that, we can't forget about the hidden treasure that is the peanut butter cup in the center of the cupcake.
Too much? No such thing. Right out of the oven they were good and still gooey but even better after a night in the refrigerator. I've always put chocolate in the refrigerator - taking after my father who does the same - and the fridge helps hold everything together.
And there you have it, death by peanut butter. The Reese's Pieces on top balance out the rich chocolate in the center while still keeping it in the same candy family and it's perfect for a late night sweet tooth.
I've been falling behind on the blogging lately, but definitely not on the baking. I've been in experimental mode and tried a new cookie last week.
It was just another day, I was sitting on the couch eating my oatmeal squares when my boyfriend and I started talking about Golden Grahams and that thought came into my head, "I bet I can turn that into a cookie..." And I did. Who doesn't love cereal and who doesn't love cookies? Boom.
It was pretty simple really. I wasn't sure if I wanted to go full-out graham cracker so I added some peanut butter. However, they could probably use a tune up. Peanut butter can be overpowering and it did overpower the cereal so next time I'll have to ease up or ditch the peanut butter completely. Gives me an excuse to make another batch ;).
So I mayyyy have gone a little overboard last week with the baking; whipping out cupcakes, muffins, cookies and brownies but it was well worth it. I already shared the cupcakes and muffins, now let's get to the other goods.
I felt like I needed to add a little chocolate into the mix, and I'm not a fan of just plain chocolate so I had to mix it up.
I usually have butterscotch chips on hand and thought they'd be the perfect sweet touch to add to the rich chocolate and peanut butter chips in these brownies. They flew pretty quick at my boyfriend's apartment so it had to be a good combo.
This usually doesn't end well but I got into some late night baking Sunday. AKA I couldn't sleep and made a ton of cookies. Way too much... But they're cute AND delicious!
I took a sugar cookie and jazzed them up for Valentine's Day. And as my boyfriend told me, sugar cookies are underrated. I agree in that people look at a sugar cookie's bland complexion and think twice before indulging, so you gotta make them look good.
The good thing about Valentine's Day is there's always a ton of candy on sale and when I think of candy I think of what I can bake it with. I found heart-shaped chocolates that have a different filling in each one and baked them into the cookies. Anywhere from just fudge, peanut butter, caramel, crisps and even cookies and cream were in the candies and of course the heart shape made them festive and season-appropriate.
I also managed to find the right baking time so they weren't hard as a rock, it's actually pretty easy to burn a sugar cookie and making any cookie in this brownie pan can go horribly wrong and threaten to break teeth if you don't know how to bake them. Ten to twelve minutes usually does the trick, they may seem undercooked and too soft at first but when you give them time to cool they're the perfect consistency.
Before that I made the same exact ones with peanut butter. Just like too much chocolate, I'm not a fan of too much or just straight up peanut butter so the candies helped that balance out as well.
The topper to this Hallmark Holiday mood I've been in is now this classic has been stuck in my head and probably will be until the end of February. Thanks Huey!
And now I want to watch Back To The Future. Think I can make Delorean cupcakes?
Definitely made up for lost time on this one. In my attempt to get into the Christmas spirit I tackled two different kinds of cookies AND brownies. Here we go..
I use to think potato chip cookies were weird. They sound weird and are hard to imagine, but once I tried them I loved them and decided to tackle 'em. With a twist, of course.
I found a recipe that includes butterscotch chips, and I must say it's a pleasant surprise.
Again, potato chip cookies, it sounds weird but they're worth a shot.
Considering I have this brownie pan that I've been using for cookies and cake, it's about time to make brownies with it. In order to keep it out of the house I went for the peanut butter route. I like peanut butter, but in moderation so this made it easier to pass along to my boyfriend who's pretty much become my taste-tester and is a fan of anything peanut butter.
These are also made with chopped peanuts and semi-sweet chocolate chips. Still debating on making a nutella icing to pour on top.
Sidenote- these gave me an excuse to use one of my favorite kitchen gages - The Ninja!
Even though I'm not the biggest fan of peanut butter, the chocolate off-sets it all and they're still really good.
Now more cookies..The best cookies are actually just simple sugar cookies. Sugar cookies are real easy to make and can seem pretty bland, but you have to have some fun with them...
Say hello to the Global Warming Snowmen. This is what happens when it's 60 degrees on December 3rd in Chicago and explains why I still can't get into Christmas.
