Category: Dessert

Peanut butter and cookie dough and cake… The Almost-Perfect Dessert

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I love to bake…probably just as much as I look to cook.  I strongly believe that chocolate can mend a broken heart and that some of the best sweets are the ones that don’t require an oven.  Just a few simple ingredients, a “chill chest” as Alton Brown would say, and some TLC and you too can have delightful desserts in no time.

Last night, in honor of an old friend’s birthday, I decided to embark on a recipe I got from Baked Perfection, a baking blog I stumbled upon.  (PS… totally check this site out; the girl is a genius.)  I wasn’t in the mood to bake a cake or do anything ridiculously extravagant but a category on her page caught my eye: Cakeballs.

Okay, okay… they are truffles.  But the most fabulous truffles I’ve ever tried. (Sorry Lintz).  It combines my favorite ingredients, peanut butter and chocolate, into a quarter-sized cookie dough ball (no worries, its egg free).  You then freeze the balls before covering them in melted chocolate and chilling them again.

Now, these may seem mediocre.  Trust me, they aren’t.  They are soft pillows of dessert perfection.  Small enough to pop into your mouth and savor each layer of flavor.  Like a Reese’s PB cup… except 100 times better.  I could’ve eaten the whole plateful.  Luckily, I restrained myself to just one.

Truffles are one of those things that get a bad rep, I think.  They can be incredibly expensive and some of the flavors are just downright weird.  Besides, how much better does it feel when you give a gift, even something as simple as truffles, and the person knows you made them with love.  Plus, how often do you get homemade truffles as a gift?  Especially ones that taste this AMAZING?  Something to think about…

So the next time you are shopping for a holiday present (or just in search of a chocolate-y treat), skip the bagged goodies and make them yourself.  I promise, you won’t be disappointed.

Head over to Baked Perfection at www.bakedperfection.com and click on her quick link to Cakeballs…”Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough”. 

Now I must go have one!

The Best Cookies Ever

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I am a sucker for anything chocolate. I will eat peanut butter out of the jar. I think I have a problem.

Enter one of the best cookie recipes I’ve ever had: The Peanut Butter Blossom.

First of all, let’s just start by saying that the recipe starts with a full cup of peanut butter.  Right away, I’m hooked.  Add some sugar, flour, brown sugar, eggs, shorteing and vanilla extract and you have the makings for a typical peanut butter cookie.  Place them in the oven and away we go.

Then, the best part…the chocolate.  As simple as a Hershey’s Kiss because, well, that’s what it is.  Because the cookies bake until they are only “just set” or slightly underdone, they come out of the oven looking like golden rounds of shear scrumptiousness.  But do I pop them in my mouth as is?  Most definitely not! (Besides, I’d burn my mouth.)

At this point, I suppose you could leave off the chocolate kiss and merely refer to them as Peanut Butter Un-Blossoms, but where is the fun (or the chocolately greatness) in that?  To make them true blossoms, take one unwrapped Hershey’s Kiss and gently press it into a (still warm) cookie.  The cookie itself with squish and crack a bit, leaving a perfect pillow for the kiss to sit in.  Immediately transfer them to a baking rack and let them cool completely.  (They will fall apart if they don’t.)

When I tell you these could just be one of my Top 3 Favorite Cookies of all time, you know I’m not fooling around.  Try ’em – I dare you.

Peanut Butter Blossoms (originally created by Hershey Co.)
Yields: 48 Blossoms

Ingredients:
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup shortening, softened
1 egg
2 TB milk
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
48 Hershey’s Kisses, unwrapped
Extra granulated sugar, for coating

Directions:

1. Heat over to 375 degrees.  Unwrap candies.

2. Beat shortening and peanut butter in large bowl until well blended. Add 1/3 cup granulated sugar and brown sugar; beat until fluffy. Add egg, milk and vanilla; beat well. Stir together flour, baking soda and salt; gradually beat into peanut butter mixture.
Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Roll in granulated sugar; place on ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Immediately press a chocolate into center of each cookie; cookie will crack around edges. Remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Cool completely.

Slow start, good food

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After a few reluctant days, I have dedicated myself to my Weight Watchers program and some of it’s recipes.  Last night, I tried two: mashed sweet potatoes and mini chocolate cheesecakes to go with my Hungry Girl “Tried & True” Inside-Out Cheeseburgers.

The verdict? Delish (for the most part).  The sweet potatoes used fat-free plain Greek yogurt to make them thick and protein-enriched.  The best part was that you couldn’t taste the somewhat-bitter tang of the yogurt; it was more of a thickener than anything else.  Both of my parents liked them too and my dad even guessed the secret ingredient.

The mini chocolate cheesecakes, though not as successful, were still pretty good.  Since it called for two packets of unflavored gelatin, the promised “cheesecakes” came out more like jiggly pudding molds.  Nevertheless, with the addition of a chocolate wafer, one (about the size of a muffin cup) definitely satisfied my sweet tooth for the night, which I was more than pleased about.

Tonight, I will be trying WW focaccia bread!  At 2 points a serving for bread, it just can’t be beat – especially in my book.  I could eat bread all day, everyday if it wouldn’t make me look like a loaf.  The recipe surprisingly uses no oil, a common key ingredient in focaccia, so I suppose we’ll see how this little experiment goes. 

Oh, and I have not abandoned my appetizer project; it’s just on hold for the moment.  I have to spread out my culinary genius after all.

Until dinner…!