PB with some OC

This bar cookie has been swimming around inside my head for about a month or so.
Last week, I was watching "Ellen" with Maggie, when it all started to make more sense and I knew I had to try baking it.
I don't know if it was Ellen or Maggie that magically made it all come together, but we'll just thank both of them, shall we?

This was kind of a case of trial and error, like "Should I throw this in? Sure! How much of this? Maybe...not so much!" You know? I wasn't sure how it was going to turn out, so I tried making it twice and the second time turned out much better in my opinion.
Since I had two trial runs, and didn't want to make huge batches of either since I wasn't sure how these would turn out, the measurements are going to be kind of weird for some of the ingredients. Half of a cake mix? Half a can of sweetened condensed milk? I actually weighed the cake mix to get only half of it, and half of sweetened condensed milk I just eyeballed. You're more than welcome to make a batch the size that I did, in a 9x9 pan, or you can do a 9x13 pan. Just know that you'll need to double everything if you do that. If you DO make a 9x13 batch, you'll probably need two bags of Oreos. Just to be safe. You don't ever want to be short on Oreos...

And now, my brain child:

PB with some OC (peanut butter with some oreos and chocolate... I have a really hard time coming up with names for the recipes I create...)

 1 cup butter (2 sticks)
1 bag Oreos
1/2 of a chocolate cake mix
1 1/4 cups flour
1/2 cup peanut butter chips
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/2 can sweetened condensed milk
1/4 cup peanut butter
additional chocolate chips for sprinkling

1. Melt one stick of butter, entirely, in the microwave. While it's melting, chop up the other one into 1/2 inch chunks. Add them into the bowl with the melted butter, toss to coat the unmelted chunks with the melted butter. Let sit for about 5 minutes. After the chunks have softened, stir it all together.
2. Meanwhile, line a 9x9 pan with foil and spray. Cover the bottom with whole Oreos. It took about 21 for my pan, and it won't perfectly cover the entire thing.
3. In a medium bowl, combine the cake mix with the flour. Pour in the butter. Add the peanut butter chips and the 1/2 cup chocolate chips. You will probably end up mixing those in by hand, since the cookie dough will be a little thick.
4. Press the cookie dough into the pan, over the Oreos. Make sure it's even and goes down into the empty spaces between the Oreos. Poke holes into the cookie dough, if desired.
5. Whisk together half a can of sweetened condensed milk and 1/4 cup peanut butter, spread over the cookie dough. If you did poke holes, then the milk mixture should go down into those.
6. Sprinkle the top with as many crushed Oreos as you'd like, and some chocolate chips. Use as much or as little as you like. Press them lightly into the milk mixture.
7. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes or so. The edges should be browned, and the center just set. Let cool on a rack for 5 minutes, then run a knife around the edges. Let it cool completely. Remove from pan with foil and cut into bars.

See, the Oreos won't go in perfect lines? But that's okay, cuz you'll be shoving cookie dough in between them!

Mmmm. I had some of those chocolate chunks, so I used those instead of chips. Really good.

If you want to poke holes into the dough, you can, but you don't have to. I just thought it would be tasty to have some of the milk mixture baked into the dough. And it was.

Before baking. Just be sure and press the chips and Oreos into the mixture slightly, so that they don't all fall off after baking.

And it's done! See the browned edges? 

All of the pictures I took of these afterwards were AWFUL. This is the best I could get. You can see the on the one on the left, one of the sections where the milk mixture baked down into the dough. 

These are crumbly and gooey all at the same time. It's really delicious. 

You could even try this with different cake mixes and chips if you wanted, leave the peanut butter out, and just pour sweetened condensed milk on top. Lots of flavor combination possibilities!

Recipe source: mi cabeza

Stacey's Birthday Cupcakes

I have a stupendous friend named Stacey. She's beautiful and selfless and gives birth to the cutest little people. And TODAY is her birthday!
Stacey and I are leaders over the 12 and 13 year old girls at church, and last night, at our activity with them, we decided to chow down on some cupcakes to celebrate the event.
This is a recipe that could potentially fall under the category of "baking my way through 'Our Best Bites' dessert section." I say potentially because I changed the recipe. A bit. You'll see. Just know that these (the way I did them) turned out rich and delicious and oh my gosh can you really go wrong with chocolate AND peanut butter? I will revisit it again sometime and make it the way they did. Or maybe not. I mean, these turned out really really good...

I'm going to post the original recipe, and then I'll leave my psychotic notes of things I changed. You know, like I always do :)

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Cupcakes

1 Duncan Hines yellow or white cake mix
1 cup sour cream (full-fat or light, but not fat-free)
3 eggs
1/4 cup canola oil
3/4 cup creamy peanut butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
24 unwrapped mini Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups

Chocolate Frosting:

1/4 cup melted butter (real butter, not margarine)
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 pound powdered sugar
3 tablespoons evaporated milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Peanut Butter Frosting:

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1/4 cup  real butter, softened
2 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2-3 tablespoons (or more) of milk (you can use some of the leftover evaporated milk; it’s awesome in this frosting)

Preheat oven to 350. Line 2 12-cup muffin tins with cupcake liners and set aside.

In a large bowl, combine all the cupcake ingredients except for the peanut butter cups with an electric mixer on medium-low speed for 30 seconds, scraping the bowl frequently. Turn the speed to high and beat for another 3 minutes.

Fill each muffin cup about 1/2 full with batter. Top with an unwrapped Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup , then fill the muffin cups with the remaining batter. Make sure the Peanut Butter Cups are covered and the cups are about 3/4 full. Bake for 18-22 minutes or until the tops are golden. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely.

While the cupcakes are cooling, prepare the frostings. For both frostings, just combine all the ingredients for each one and whip until light and fluffy, adding additional milk as needed. Frost the cupcakes with the swirled frosting.

If you decide to make these as they did, with both frostings swirled, then follow their tutorial found HERE. Pretty nifty way to use two frostings together :)


Okay. 
So. 
I used a chocolate cake mix, because I thought it sounded yummier (I didn't know that was a word until just now when I typed it and it didn't put a red squiggle beneath it) to bake a peanut butter cup in a chocolate cupcake. So I did. When I did that, I decided to just do the peanut butter frosting. So I did. And when I did that, I decided to use some of the left over peanut butter cups, and chop them up for the frosting. 


It.
Was.
Bananas.


And since I changed mine enough that they don't really look the same as Our Best Bites, these are, officially, "Stacey's Birthday Cupcakes."
Ta da.

I had every intention of taking step by step pictures, filling the cups, placing the peanut butter cups, filling some more, blah blah blah. But, then I forgot. 

Just FYI, I filled my 3/4 full and...

They went a little insane. The batter is so thick (SO thick! what with all of that sour cream and peanut butter added into it) though that they shouldn't spill out everywhere. If you don't want your cupcake tops this big, then fill the liners a little less than 3/4 full.

Right? Right???

Okay, math lesson:

This ^

+

This ^

=

A possible 5 lbs weight gain/ridiculous frosting eating session.

Be still my heart. 

These things are ridiculously rich and delicious. 

Enjoy!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY STACEY!!!!

Recipe Source: Our Best Bites

Peanut Butter Brownie Buddies

Are you ready for round two of my massive baking weekend from a couple of weeks ago? It is also one of my favorite Christmas recipes as well, and so we continue on (every other post or so) in the holiday spirit! Just wait, and get excited, my next Christmas recipe will be for my mom's caramels. Oh. My. Gosh. Seriously, get excited. MOVING ON!!

These brownies are, in a word, crack.

They are also, I learned very quickly, something that should only be made when it's cold outside. I had only ever made these 2 or 3 times last Christmas, and that is where they should have stayed until this Christmas. Oh, these are so very very very very GOOD, but also very very very very chocolate not setting up, so it becomes messy and what should be eaten by hand must be eaten by fork. That is no reason to hate these, though. Make them right now, if you want! I'm just telling you, the experience will be slightly better when it's colder outside, and the chocolate glaze has time to set up.

Peanut Butter Brownie Buddies


Ingredients:

6 Tbsp	Melted Butter
1¼ cups	Sugar
2 tsp	Vanilla, divided
3	Large Eggs, divided
1 cup	Plus 2 Tbsp. Flour
⅓ cup	Cocoa
½ tsp	Baking Powder
½ tsp	Salt
14 oz	Sweetened Condensed Milk
½ cup	Peanut Butter
¾ cup	Peanut Butter Morsels
1½ cups	Milk Chocolate Chips, divided
¼ cup	Heavy Cream
14	Mini Peanut Butter Cup Candies, chopped

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 13 x 9 inch pan and set aside. In a large bowl, combine melted butter, sugar and 1 teaspoon of the vanilla. Stir well to combine. Add 2 of the eggs and mix well. In another medium bowl, stir together flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt. Add dry mixture to first mixture and stir until well blended. Spread into prepared pan and bake for 20 minutes. Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, combine sweetened condensed milk, peanut butter, the remaining egg and the remaining 1 tsp. of vanilla. Mix well, then add the peanut butter morsels and 1 cup of the milk chocolate chips. Stir well to combine. Remove brownie base from oven and pour peanut butter mixture over the hot base. Spread evenly and return pan to oven. Bake an additional 20 to 25 minutes, or until peanut butter layer is set and edges are lightly browned. Cool completely in pan. Combine the heavy cream and the remaining 1/2 cup of milk chocolate chips in a small microwave safe bowl. Microwave at medium power for 45 - 60 seconds or until chocolate chips melt into cream when stirred. Drizzle mixture over the top of the cooled bars, then sprinkle with the chopped peanut butter cup candies. Allow topping to set, then cut into 24 bars or use a cookie cutter to cut into shapes. Enjoy!

*I just have a couple of things to add. I use an entire bag of mini peanut butter cups because I felt that 14 of them didn't cover enough surface area. Also, I've done the cutting these out with cookie cutters and I don't recommend it. With all of the chocolate and peanut butter cups on top, it is a MESS! Although it is fun to eat the leftover scraps...

Look at that. Just look at it. That's all you need to do.

This is how it will look after you've taken it out of the oven the second time around.

Oh the layers! The layers of GOODNESS!!!

Recipe Source:  Mixing Bowl

It's a Christmas recipe, so I'm sharing another one of my favorite obscure Christmas songs with you!!!

Darius' Favorite Cookie

FRIENDS! Can I tell you the wonders it will do for you if you update the way you post your blog entries?! It's like Christmas around here right now. Wow this uploads my pictures much faster.

Anyways.

So I have this brother. Actually I have two of them, but one of them in particular has a love affair frequently with these peanut butter cookies. I could probably ask him to do anything, throw these in as payment, and he would say yes.
"Darius, will you fix that thing that's blinking on/in my car? I will make you those peanut butter cookies." (DONE!)
"Darius, I'm going to need someone to model a dress for me and no one else will do it. You can have some of those cookies afterwards." (Done AND DONE!)
"Darius, I have acquired 3 parakeets, a couple of marmots, and an obese llama, can I keep them in your room? Here are some cookies." (Now he's Dr. Doolittle!!!)

They really are good cookies. I got the recipe from my mom and she got it from... the Crisco shortening container? Mom? Can you clarify this please?
One of the things I love about these cookies, I mean besides the peanut butter goodness that they possess, is that they can be made SO FAST! Sometimes I like to race the oven and see if I can get them all mixed up and onto a cookie sheet before it's heated up. Sometimes I need to get a life.

Irresistible Peanut Butter Cookies
3/4 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup shortening
1 1/4 cups brown sugar
3 TB milk
1 TB vanilla
1 egg
1 3/4 cups flour
3/4 tsp salt
3/4 tsp baking soda

Heat oven to 350. Place sheets of foil on countertop for cooling cookies. (This is essential! You MUST cool on foil!)
Combine peanut butter, shortening, brown sugar, milk and vanilla in large bowl. Beat until well blended. Add egg. Beat just until blended. Combine flour, salt, and soda. Add to creamed mixture. Drop by scoopfuls onto ungreased baking sheet. Flatten slightly in crisscross patterns with fork tines (dip the fork in a bowl of regular sugar before doing this so that they dough doesn't stick. You can also use a glass glass - no I did not stutter - to flatten them as well).
Bake for 8 minutes, or until set and just beginning to brown. Cool 2 minutes on baking sheet. Remove cookies to foil to cool completely.
Makes about 3 dozen.

Here are mine before baking. You will note that while they have been flattened, it was not with a fork, glass glass, or sugar. Why you may ask? Because mine were destined for other things...

...like being turned into peanut butter blossoms!!! So easy, just add the Hershey kisses to the cookies AS SOON as they're out of the oven.

Guess who the dork is that took a picture of the cookies right out of the oven, but NOT with the kisses on top. Also, this is what I like mine to look like when finished. Browned only slightly, and cracking.

Yum :) Now I just need Darius to overhaul my transmission...

Resource: My mom? Crisco?

Chocolate and Peanut Butter Ribbon Dessert

This recipe is seriously the epitome of easy peasy, mac and cheesey. I'm going to have to start saying that phrase more often... Anyways, great recipe that I got from some Kraft book somewhere. There is absolutely no baking, you get to beat cookies into submission, and it has peanut butter. I think there's something for everyone there!!

Chocolate and Peanut Butter Ribbon Dessert
12 Nutter Butter cookies, divided
2 TB butter, melted
1 pkg. (8 oz) cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla
1 tub Cool Whip whipped topping, thawed, divided (OR you can be awesome like me and just whip your own. Whip 2 cups of heavy cream and you are on your way to Legit Whipped Cream City.)
2 squares baking chocolate, melted

Crush 8 cookies finely; mix with butter. Press onto bottom of foil lined 9x5 inch loaf pan.
Beat next 4 ingredients with mixer until well blended. Whisk in 3 cups whipped cream; spoon 1/2 cup into small bowl. Blend in melted chocolate (to the 1/2 cup in the small bowl). Spoon half of the remaining cream cheese mixture over crush; top with chocolate mixture and then top that with the rest of the cream cheese mixture.
Freeze 4 hours or until firm. Invert onto plate. Remove foil, then re-invert dessert onto serving platter so crumb layer is on bottom. Coarsely break remaining cookies. Top dessert with remaining whipped cream and broken cookies.

*Let me just tell you right now, I HATE doing dishes. The only thing I hate more is doing laundry. Anyways, I let this freeze overnight, and because of the foil lining and how hard it had set, I was able to set this on the serving platter and just peel off the foil. I didn't see the need to use the "middle man" plate before the serving dish. Why dirty an extra dish?!!?



On the right, you'll see your standard smothered in foil bread pan. That's buttery, cookie, crushed goodness there on the left and a good 'ol whackin' stick in the middle (aka my rolling pin).



Here are the peanut butter and whipped cream! Hindsight is 20/20; I should've taken a picture of the chocolate mixture as well... Special thanks to HEB for adding the spout/lid onto their heavy cream containers! If I had a gold star, you would be getting it.



This is what it'll look like before going in the freezer. I covered it with plastic wrap.

Isn't that yummy looking? It is. This is only half of the one I made. The other half went downstairs to the missionaries.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

This will be a relatively short post, so get excited? I have always wanted to "invent" my own recipe and I finally did a couple of weeks ago! Well, I didn't so much invent it as I combined a couple of recipes I already had and made them even more awesome. I have this amazing recipe for peanut butter filling that I don't know where it came from, but I've used it to put in cupcakes and possibly just eaten with a spoon by itself... anyways I thought how delicious would this be inside of a chocolate chip cookie?! Let me tell you blog friends, very delicious. For the record this is my new favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe, so I recommend making them by themselves at some point. (My lack of photography skills and the horrible lighting in my kitchen is even more painfully evident in this post than in others.)

Chocolate Chip Cookies:
2 sticks butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 TB vanilla
3 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
10 oz bag chocolate chips

Cream butter and sugars until well combined. Add eggs and vanilla until well combined. Mix together flour, baking soda, and salt in a separate bowl; add slowly to wet ingredients until well combined. (For the record, I usually just dump all of the dry ingredients in at one time without mixing first.)

Peanut Butter Goodness:
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 1/3 cups confectioner's sugar
1/4 cup unsalted butter
3/4 cup plus 2 TB peanut butter

Stir until smooth.

Now for the combining part! Roll 1 TB of cookie dough into a ball, flatten slightly with your thumb, leaving an indentation in the middle. Roll 1/2 TB of the peanut butter goodness into a ball and place in the indentation. Pull the cookie dough up around until it totally covers the peanut butter part. Put on a parchment covered cookie sheet and flatten slightly with your hand. Bake at 350 for 9-13 minutes. Let them sit on the sheet for a couple of minutes before removing to a cooling rack.



Here are the two parts! I did a half recipe of the cookie dough because it really does make a ridiculous amount of cookies, so you may or may not have some peanut butter filling left after using up all of your cookie dough. In the event of this occuring, go to your utensils drawer, get a spoon, and proceed to eat some of the peanut butter goodness.



This is what it will look like before being consumed by the cookie dough! AHHHH!!!



Here they are slightly flattened, ready to go in the oven.

Doesn't that look delectable? It is. It really, really is.