Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

I've stated before that Peanut Butter and Chocolate are my very favorite food combinations. I would eat anything that came with those two things. So, last night when Mr. E was expressing his extreme need for a cookie (OK, he wanted the dough), he suggested making some cookies that appeared on his cousin's blog. THEY WERE INCREDIBLE! I  loved them. They immediately went into my permanent collection of recipes. 

What is so great about them is the peanut butter flavor is subtle yet perfect. It's just the right amount. I don't usually like PB cookies for that reason. The peanut butter flavor is so strong, it's almost artificial. But, in these it was just the right amount. I'm drooling just thinking about it.

Oh, and by the way, I added much more chocolate chips than called for. I always do!

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup (2 sticks) butter softened

1 cup creamy peanut butter

1 cup sugar

1 cup packed light brown sugar 

2 eggs

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

2 cups chocolate chips 

Bake at 375 degrees for 8 - 10 minutes.  Makes 5 dozen cookies.

The only changes I made was that I halved the recipe--we certainly do not need 5 dozen cookies around here. And I added a dash of vanilla. Every chocolate chip cookie recipe needs it. Oh! And when you measure out your peanut butter, whether you do 1 cup or 1/2 cup, make sure it's a HEAPING cup! 

Valentine's Day is coming...bring on the chocolate!

I know it's stereotypical to think that all women love chocolate, but they don't. I have two neighbors that despise it and WILL NOT eat it in any form or recipe. May I say, however, that I am NOT one of those people. I love chocolate. I mean I love, love, love chocolate...especially dark chocolate. I will eat it in cake, brownies, candy, fondue, and dip. Simply put, I LOVE CHOCOLATE!!!

Ever since I was young (yes, that means for a LONG time), I have had a love affair with chocolate mousse. I don't know why. I don't know how it started. But, whenever I'm asked what my favorite dessert is, it's not uncommon to answer "chocolate mousse." (I actually have a lot of favorites. I can never narrow my favorites down to one.) I can remember going to Sunday brunches and always going straight to the always dainty pedestal glasses of chocolate mousse before anything else. MMMMM! Just thinking about a dish of that smooth, creamy, rich, decadent dessert is making my mouth water!

Several years ago during a routine trip to the grocery store, I noticed some recipe cards available for the taking on a service counter. (How could I not grab a couple???) One of the recipes was for....cue the angelic chorus now...CHOCOLATE MOUSSE. Since I'd never attempted to make this delicacy myself, I grabbed a card and told myself that I would, indeed, someday, make a big ol' bowl of long time favorite dessert. I tucked the card away awaiting the perfect moment to pull it out.

And then it arrived...VALENTINE'S DAY! The holiday of love, delicious dinners, and chocolate! Mr. C and I talked it over and decided this was the perfect opportunity to pull out the chocolate mousse recipe and GO FOR IT!

On a personal note, let me just say how bizarre it was when Mr. C and I were dating to discover that his favorite dessert is also chocolate mousse. I'd never met anyone else who loves as much as I do. Not only does he love chocolate mousse, he loves Idaho Spud candy bars like I do. I didn't even know anyone else knew they existed. OK, enough of the goofy personal stuff. Time to get back to the pressing matter at hand...mousse!

The mousse came together so quick and easy. I was shocked at how simple it was to make. Then again, how could it not be when it only has 4 ingredients? Let's take a look at the recipe and we'll talk about it on the flip side:

Chocolate Mousse
8.8 oz fine Belgian dark chocolate
6 egg whites
1/2 c sugar
1 2/3 c cream
Melt chocolate. Slightly beat egg whites; add sugar then beat mixture until stiff. In a separate bowl, beat cream until soft peaks form. Fold egg whites in to the melted chocolate. Fold in the cream. Chill until ready to serve. Serves 10-12. The mousse can be served with whipped topping, berries, and/or chocolate shavings on top.

How simple is that!

Now a couple personal notes. First, for the chocolate in the recipe we used the Hageland chocolate that I refer to here. It is inexpensive and delicious. In my cooking classes I always say, "You get what you pay for when it comes to chocolate, so don't scrimp." I don't think you have to break the bank, but buy some good chocolate. Don't just pull out the bag of chocolate chips. Second, if you are saying, "But Jackie, I HATE dark chocolate," don't worry. Mr. C despises it with a passion I cannot describe to you here. This recipe has enough sugar and cream in it to ease what some consider bitterness in dark chocolate. The dark chocolate makes the mousse rich, but not bitter. Finally, unless you're feeding a crowd, you may want to cut the recipe in half. When it says "serves 10-12," it's not kidding. The recipe made A LOT. We ate it bit by bit for about a week.

Since Valentine's Day will be here in just a few short days, why not whip up a bowl for you and your sweetheart--or, just for you if you prefer. I'm not opposed to a bowl of my own, a spoon, and a comfy couch!

low calorie brownies

today i saw a blog claiming they had a recipe for 25 calorie chocolate chip cookies. then i read that the cookies were only 2 t. of cookie dough. BLAH. not ENOUGH! but last night i wanted a treat to watch celebrity apprentice. so i lucked out when i pulled a hungry girl recipe for brownies on saturday.

let me start off by saying, these are obviously not the really chocolate-y, fatty, high calorie brownies you may want for your girls night outs. they do lack a little bit of sugary flavor but let me tell you, you really aren't missing out on a whole lot. and the comfort of knowing if you eat the whole pan you really aren't out that many calories is really nice.

mr. e was skeptical when i told him i was making low calorie brownies. he was unsure of how big they were going to be. i noticed they were only 133 calories a brownie but i thought that meant the suggested serving size was going to mean they were only going to be the size of a quarter. not so! this recipe makes 16 brownies! out of a 13x9 pan that means your brownies really are decent sized so you aren't giving up that much.

please be aware though, knowing the brownies are not as high calorie will make it easier to talk yourself into eating half the pan.

i did change a few things in the actual recipe. hungry girl calls for 1 t. coffeemate sugar free french vanilla powdered creamer. now, i don't drink coffee and so i had zero desire to buy this. in the recipe you mix it in with water and then add it to the cream cheese. i just added a bit more vanilla. it was perfect.

hungry girl "swirls gone wild" cheesecake brownies

makes 1 13x9 pan, 16 brownies

1 18.25 ounce box devil's food cake mix

1 15 oz. can pure pumpkin

6 oz. fat-free cream cheese, room temperature (PLEASE have enough patience to make sure this is at room temperature)

1/4 c. Splenda No Calorie Sweetner (granulated)

1 t. creamer (remember, i got rid of this)

1/4 t. vanilla extract (remember, i added more of this)

preheat oven to 400 degrees.

in a large mixing bowl, combine cake mix and pumpkin stirring until completely blended. batter will be really thick. i mean, REALLY thick.

spray a 13x9 pan and spread batter into the pan. now, the batter is not going to be all that willing to spread so i had to push it with my fingers. i was really sad to have to do this since i ended up with batter all over my hands. oh, how devastating.

place powdered creamer in a medium mixing bowl. add 2 T. of warm water and stir until creamer is dissolved. (remember, i skipped this step). add cream cheese, splenda, and vanilla. using a whisk, or fork, mix vigorously until completely blended, smooth, and lump free.

(FYI... I just mixed the sugar with the vanilla and cream cheese. then stirred. i did add a little bit of warm water to just make sure it was nice and smooth. )

spoon cream cheese mixture over the batter and use a knife to swirl it in. don't worry if it isn't perfect. i ended up just spreading it on top actually.

bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes until a knife comes out clean.

once these were made i actually had to put them in a bag and in the freezer so i would leave them alone.

it has these warnings because if i am craving anything, trying to lose weight or alone and open this bag i will eat the whole thing myself.

You Made Those Cookies How?

About a month ago I decided to follow through with every good intention or thought I had during the week. I always have ideas to do things for people, but so often my good intentions fall by the wayside or I forget as the days go by. That week, I was determined to do every single thing that popped in to my head. One thought I had was to take a treat to a woman who had really impressed me recently and attach a note of gratitude to it. Since I also needed to bake cookies for a church activity that week, the timing was perfect.

Enter Martha...Stewart, that is. I started hunting through cookbooks for something fun and yummy. I love trying new things, especially with sweets. When I couldn't find anything that intrigued me, I turned to Martha. I have both her cookie and cupcake books. I wish I could say they are well used. I cannot. In fact, until last month, they were both UNused.

As I looked through Martha's Cookies, I found something different and fun...CHOCOLATE WAFFLE COOKIES!

I should say that I've had waffle cookies once before. They were sadly disappointing. I did have a moment of worry that these would be equally as blah as those were, but I decided to risk it anyway. The cookies appeared be a quick bake so I figured if they were disgusting, I'd just scrap them and make something else. Plus, I reasoned that if the recipes is in a Martha book, how bad could they be. Time consuming and complex, probably. Yucky tasting, not likely.

I am so happy I didn't bypass these cookies because of that bad experience in the past. I loved these! They were a nice change from a basic round cookie or cookie bar. The fact that I was able to make them super fast was a bonus.

I ended up making 2 changes to the recipe...one on accident and one on purpose. (I am the queen of screwing up a recipe and not realizing it until it's too late to fix.) More on that later! For now, here's the recipe:

Chocolate Waffle Cookies (slightly adapted from Martha Stewart's Cookies)
3 oz unsweetened chocolate
1 c butter
4 eggs
1 t vanilla
1 1/2 c sugar
1/2 t salt
1 1/2 t cinnamon
1/2 c + 2 T cocoa powder
1 1/2 c flour
powdered sugar for dusting
Melt chocolate and butter in a saucepan over med-high heat, stirring constantly. Let cool slightly. Put eggs, vanilla and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer. Mix on medium speed until pale, 4-5 min. Mix in chocolate mixture (I only let mine cool the 4-5 min), salt, cinnamon, cocoa powder and flour. Heat a waffle iron until hot; lightly coat with cooking spray. Spoon about 1 T of batter onto the center of each waffle iron square. Close cover; cook 1 1/2 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack, bottom sides up. Let cool completely. Repeat with remaining batter, coating grids after each batch. Dust with powdered sugar. Makes about 4 dozen. (I got about 4 1/2.)

So, what were my changes?

The unintentional change/mistake was to put 1/2 c PLUS the 2 T of cocoa in the cookie batter. I missed the word "divided" when reading the original recipe. I didn't realize the 1/2 c was for the batter and the 2 T was for a glaze to dip the baked cookies in. However, I won't leave out the extra cocoa next time. If you prefer, use the original 1/2 c, but I highly recommend the extra tablespoons.

What was my intentional change? Eliminating the glaze I just mentioned. The recipe says to make the glaze and then dip the raised part of the cookie in it. I actually made the glaze. I even dipped a few cookies in it. But, a few was all it took to realize I didn't like it at all. It was too bitter and, in my opinion, added nothing to the cookie. I liked them with just the dusting of powdered sugar on top.

I tried varying the cook time just a bit. I wanted to make sure my waffle iron wasn't a little hotter or cooler than Martha's. I guess it wasn't because the 90 seconds she recommends was right on. I'd recommend you stick with it.

Just one tip for removing the cookies from the iron: A FORK. I tried a variety of ways to get them off the iron like poking them with a knife or lifting up the corners. The cookies are still quite soft when you open up the iron, so just about everything I tried tore the cookies up or broke off the edges. (My mistakes made for good testers though!) I finally found that using a fork and inserting it in to the side of the cookie--level with the raised parts of the iron--worked perfectly. I could put the fork in far enough to lift the cookies off and flip them over to put on the cooking rack.

I'm not sure if the lady I took a plate of cookies to liked them (I can only hope), but they were a big hit at my church event that night. Everyone kept saying, "Cookies from a waffle iron? I've never seen that before."

While my cookies were a success, I'm afraid I won't be making them again anytime soon. Sadly, about 2 weeks later, my waffle iron did a swan dive off the kitchen counter and fell to its death. I wanted to try and keep using it. Mr. C was opposed citing possible electrocution from the now exposed cords and plates. Oh well. Maybe now I can talk him in to getting me one of those cool flippy irons like you see in hotels!

I'm Finally Posting My First Recipe!

I have a confession to make. I set up this blog over a year ago. Oh, I had good intentions mind you. I was going to cook and blog...and blog and cook...all the while sharing my tasty finds with the world. Sadly, over a year later, no treasured recipes had made it to the blog. A couple of months ago my sister suggested that we share the blog and actually post on it. ACTUALLY POST ON MY BLOG? What a novel idea! Since I'm in Utah and she's in California, the blog is a great way for us to easily share recipes--and entice each other with photos. I've decided to get with the program and get cooking...and blogging. Actually, I've been cooking all along. I just need to work on the blogging part! Since this is my first post (all the others before this are courtesy of my very talented sister) I thought I'd start off with something over-the-top delicious!

I give you...drum roll please...DOUBLE BROWNIES!

Both Mr. C and I found these to be outrageously delicious! If you are a brown sugar fan like I am, you'll ESPECIALLY love them. I had a hard time not eating them--as you can see from the photo below. They had to be rapidly farmed out to the neighbors or Mr. C and I would have gobbled them all up. (Fortunately our neighbors, bishopric, and Mr. C's co-workers have willingly accepted the responsibility of eating my baked goods whenever called upon!) The recipe is from the Taste of Home Baking Book. I was looking for something I could make with supplies I already had on hand. This brownie ended up being a perfect choice.

The layers are delicious together. And the caramel frosting, OH THE FROSTING! It has an almost maple taste to it without having any maple extract in it. (Good thing too since Mr. C doesn't care for maple.)

I highly recommend you make a pan of these brownies right away. You won't be sorry! Oh, and please bring me one when you're done. I'd love a bite...or two...or six.

Double Brownies
Bottom layer:
1/2 c butter, softened
1 1/4 c packed brown sugar
2 eggs
2 t vanilla
1 1/2 c flour
1/4 t salt
1/2 c chopped walnuts
Middle layer:
1/2 c butter, softened
1 c sugar
2 eggs
3/4 c flour
1/4 c baking cocoa
1/8 t salt
1/2 chopped walnuts (I use pecans)
Caramel Icing:
6 T butter
3/4 c packed brown sugar
4-6 T milk
2 1/2 c powdered sugar
In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Combine flour and salt. Stir into creamed mixture. Stir in nuts. Spread into a greased 9 X 13 baking pan; set aside. For middle layer, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs. Combine the flour, cocoa, and salt. Stir into creamed mixture. Add nuts. Spread over bottom layer. Bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes. Cool completely on wire rack. For icing, melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir in brown sugar and milk; bring to a boil. Remove from heat. Cool just until warm; beat in powdered sugar until the icing achieves spreading consistency. Spread over brownies. Let stand until set. Cut into 24 bars.

One side note: Mr. C and I did keep a few of these tasty treats for his lunches. We found that after about 3 days they were stale and rather flavorless. I kept them in a covered container, but I'd say they have a lifespan of about 2-3 days.

P.S. Welcome to everyone who attends my classes at the Little Theater!

Rocky Road Chocolate Muffins

I'm a sucker for chocolate. And Rocky Road is my favorite ice cream flavor so these muffins were right up my alley. I was a bit disappointed though. I found them to be not as flavorful or chocolately as I would have liked. I think next time I will just use a chocolate cake mix or muffin mix and put the white chocolate chips and marshmallows in. I also think this muffin would be great to pull out of the oven put a large marshmallow on top and put back in the oven for 5 minutes to melt--marshmallow frosting! Delicious!

If you have the 1 Mix, 100 Muffins cookbook, this recipe can be found on page 129.

Rocky Road Chocolate Muffins

Makes 12 (though mine made a little bit more)

Oil for greasing

heaping 1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa

1 T. baking powder

1/8 t. salt

heaping 1/2 cup superfine sugar

heaping 1/2 cup white chocolate chips (i'm not a white chocolate fan, but these were good)

1/2 cup white mini marshmallows, cut in half (I used scissors)

2 large eggs

1 cup milk

6 T. sunflower oil or melted, cooled butter

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Grease a 12-cup muffin pan or line with paper liners. Sift together the flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt into a larger bowl. Stir in the sugar, chocolate chips, and marshmallows.

Beat the effs in a larger pitcher or a bowl, then beat in the eggs and oil or butter. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour the liquid in. Mix until just combined. Just so you know, it is going to look like fecal matter. Just ignore it.

Spoon the batter into the muffin cups. Bake in a preheated oven for about 12 minutes, until the muffins are firm.

Let the muffins cool in the pan for 5 minutes, resist eating. Then serve warm and transfer to a wire rack and let them cool.