Peanut Butter Cheesecakes

Baking and I are back on good terms.  At least temporarily.  I came across this recipe for "healthier" cheesecakes on a blog (that for the life of me, I cannot remember.)  They were so cute and so easy and I thought, Why Not?  And boy, am I glad I did.  While there are substitutions to make them less "bad" for you - at the end of the day, we're still talking about cream cheese and peanut butter.  At the end of my count, I guesstimate about 200 calories each for these little loves.

• 18 sandwich cookies (I used golden Oreos)

• 16 oz neufchatel (1/3-less-fat) cream cheese, at room temperature

• 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

• 1/2 cup granulated sugar

• 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

• 2 large eggs, at room temperature

• 1/2 cup 2% plain Greek yogurt

pinch of salt

Heat the oven to 275. 

Line a cupcake tin with liners.

One cookie goes in the bottom of each liner.

In a bowl mix the cream cheese and peanut butter until smooth. 

Use a spatula to scrape down the sides of the bowl.  You'll need to do this frequently. 

Add in sugar and vanilla- mix until smooth.

Scrape, scrape.

Add in eggs - one at a time, mixing between each addition.

More scraping.

Add in greek yogurt and salt.

Taste.

Taste test again. 

Delish.  Give thumbs up approval to yourself for a tasty job well done.

Fill each liner nearly full - maybe 3/4, smoothing with spoon.  This should make enough for 18 mini cheesecakes.

Place into the oven for 22 to 24 minutes, until filling has set.  Cool.

These are best chilled.  If you set them overnight, the cookies soften a bit and make a softer crust.  If you get into these shortly after they come out of the oven, the Oreos will still be crunchy.  Which is really nice as well. 

Basically, you can't lose.   This is win, win for all.

Yum, Yum, gimme some!!

Golden Oreo crust!

Delish.

Peanut Butter & Jelly Cupcakes

These were really awesome. I brought these to Easter, and it seemed like people really enjoyed them.

Also, the peanut butter frosting could be used on many different plain cupcakes.

I slightly modified the Peanut Butter and Jelly Cupcake recipe from My Baking Addiction.

Cupcake Ingredients
2 1/4 cup cake flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 T baking powder
4 large egg whites (at room temp)
1 1/4 cup buttermilk (at room temp)
1 1/2 cup sugar
1 stick unsalted butter (at room temp)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Jelly (I used grape.)

Combine the flour, salt, and baking powder.

In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites and buttermilk.

In a standing mixer, cream the butter and sugar. Then, add the vanilla. Slowly add a third of the dry mixture while beating at medium speed. Add half of the egg/buttermilk, a third of the dry mixture, the last of the egg/buttermilk, and finally, the last of the dry ingredients. Beat for a few more minutes until the batter is consistent throughout.Start putting the mixture in paper cupcake liners. I made 20 cupcakes.

Bake for 20-22 minutes at 350. Cool.

Now comes a fun part. I was able to use my apple corer that I got from my friend Amanda to create a space for the jelly filling. It's up to you to decide how much space you'd like to make for the jelly filling. After creating the space, add the jelly to each cupcake.


Frosting Ingredients
1 cup of peanut butter
3 sticks of butter (at room temp)
2 lbs powdered sugar
8 T heavy cream
2 T vanilla extract


To make the frosting, cream the peanut butter and butter in a standing mixer on medium speed. Switch to low speed, and add the powdered sugar while blending. Add the heavy cream and vanilla. Mix on high speed until the frosting is smooth and evenly blended.

I used a plastic bag to pipe the frosting onto the cupcakes because that's how I roll, but if you have all of the proper frosting tools, use those. Make sure that the cupcakes are cooled before adding the frosting.


After the cupcakes have been frosted, add a drop of jelly to each cupcake.

This recipe makes a lot of frosting, and I have a lot left over. Maybe I didn't put enough on each cupcake, but I regret that I didn't have other plain cupcakes on hand. This frosting would be awesome on lots of other cupcakes. Taste it, and you'll see.

Peanut Butter & Jelly Bars

I decided to make the Peanut Butter & Jelly Bars recipe from the March Bon Appetit. I didn't have any peanuts, so I used chopped cashews.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups flour
salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
3/4 cup jelly (I used grape.)
2/3 cup chopped peanuts or cashews

Preheat the oven at 350. Line a 8x8 metal pan with foil. I think that a metal pie pan would also work. Grease the foil with nonstick spray.

Start by whisking the flour 1/4 teaspoon salt, and baking powder in a small bowl.

In your mixer, mix the brown sugar, peanut butter, and butter (at room temperature). Then, add the vanilla and egg. Beat until smooth. Remove the dough and split in half. Put half in the freezer for 10 minutes. Put the other half in the greased pan and spread evening onto the bottom of the pan.
Next, spread the jelly over the dough.
After the dough had been in the freezer for 10 minutes, split it into small pieces of about 1/2 inch. Evening distribute these pieces as a layer over the jelly.
Then, sprinkle the chopped peanuts or cashews.

Bake for 30 minutes. Cool and cut into squares.

I somehow lost the photos of the final product, but I promise you that the bars were really delicious. If I made these bars again soon (likely because I always have these ingredients), I'll update this post with more photos.

Chocolate Chip, Bacon, & Pecan Cookies

One of the biggest reasons that I cannot go completely meatless is because of my love for bacon.

Do you follow the dessert trends. I recently read that the current dessert hype is pies. Some past trends include cupcakes, whoopie pies, and yes, bacon.

I found this bacon cookie recipe on NPR last year, and I have baked these cookies at least five times. I'm in love with these cookies. I just ate one, and now crumbs are all over my keyboard. I don't even care because my taste buds are so satisfied.

This most recent time that I made these cookies, I was able to use my FANCY new red KitchenAid Anniversary Edition Mixer. It was a Christmas present from my parents. I absolutely love it. The mixer lives on my counter because it is too heavy to move around. The red looks so great. I'm going to decorate it like a Christmas tree next year.


Ingredients:
5 strips of bacon
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup flour
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup light brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
2/3 cups semisweet chocolate chips


Preheat your oven to 350.

Start by frying up the bacon goodness. Don't burn the bacon. You don't want burnt bacon in your cookies, but the bacon should be quite crisp. Then, use paper towels to get rid of some of the grease. Chop up the bacon into really small pieces.

Whisk the baking soda, salt, and flour in a medium bowl.

Then, with the butter at room temp., cream the butter, sugar, and brown sugar in a large bowl. Then, toss in the vanilla extract and egg. Beat this mixture. I used my beautiful KitchenAid Mixer. Toss in the dry ingredients from the other bowl. Beat all of these ingredients, and then finally gently stir in the chopped pecans, bacon, and chocolate chips.

The NPR instructions call for parchment paper on your baking sheets, but I never use parchment paper, and my cookies are fine. Make tablespoon sized balls of the cookie dough, and put them on the baking sheet.

Bake for 10 minutes, and then move the cookies to a drying rack. I love my drying rack.

Since there is bacon in these cookies, they need to be refrigerated. The recipe says that the cookies can be at room temp. for 1-2 days, but I prefer to just keep the cookies in the fridge all of the time.

Let me know what you think about these cookies! I didn't have time to make appetizers for a mini party a few weeks ago. Here I just ended up serving these cookies and popcorn.

Apple Pie

I partook this year in the quintessential fall activity:

Apple Picking!  And while the place of choice this year lost 90% of their crop in May, there were still lots of apples to be had.  

You just had to work for it:

Having fun with my apple picker.

Successful Apple Picker

I was saddened to hear that this small gorgeous little farm in Vermont had lost so much of their crop due to the rains in May.  Can you imagine?  It's 90% of their revenue!  I love supporting these local businesses - so I was more than happy to pick apples, eat a cider donut and obviously, visit the corn maze*.  

I wish I had paid closer attention to the actual types of apples I picked, but alas, I was having too much fun to be bothered.  I picked two different types - one which had a softer texture and one that was nice and crisp and firm.  I love my apple crisps and tart.  In fact, my favorite apples are Honeycrisp and they singlehandedly make me love fall.

My apples didn't look like they were going to last more than two weeks, so I decided to chef up a little pie, using this very simple recipe from Epicurious:

Apple Pie

Pre made pie crust

1 firmed packed cup brown sugar

1 tbsp ground cinnamon

3 1/2 pounds apple, cored, peeled and sliced

1 cup all purpose flour

1 cup sugar

2 sticks unsalted butter, cut into pieces.

Preheat your oven to 450 degrees.

The most time consuming part is getting the apples ready.  This recipe suggests Granny Smith apples, but I think any crisp firm baking apple will do quite well.  Really just depends on what you prefer.

Once your apples are all set, mix the brown sugar and cinnamon together and then add in the sliced apples.  Give a good toss until the apples are fully coated. 

Go ahead and sample a few...

Pour the apples onto your pre-made pie crust (or if you're an overachiever, a homemade pie crust).  I err-ed on the side of overfilling, which I think was a good call in the end.  These are tightly arranged, and I did have some extras, so just fill it until it's full and eat the rest.  

I am trying to get artsy with my camera shots.... what do you think?

Now it's time to get to work on what will become a delicious crumbly crust.  Chop up your sticks of butter into pieces.  Slightly chilled will work best.  

Combine flour, sugar and butter pieces in a bowl.  Now it's time to drop the dainty act, get down to business and make some delicious crumbly crust.  Get your hands in there and get to mixing.  You want to combine until the mixture is crumbly.  It takes a bit, you really needs to dig down and make sure you got the flour and sugar mixed up completely.

Keep going until it looks like this.  VOILA!

At this point, it's time to top the pie with the crumbly mixture.  

Aren't you excited!!?!?!?

Put this baby in the oven at 450 degrees for 20 minutes.  After 20 minutes, reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees.  Bake until the crust is golden brown and the apples are tender.  

By the time this baby had baked and cooled to appropriate temperature (at least 20 minutes), it was time to have a piece.  Just one.  Just a sliver.  Just a little something tasty before heading on into bed.  

Aren't you proud of my apple pie in "moderation"?

Yum.  The crumbly crust has molded into one crispy, tasty topping.  The apples were soften than I would have liked, but the flavor was awesome.  The pre-made pie crust tasted exactly like you might expect a pre-made pie crust to taste (you can also skip the bottom crust if you want, just spray the pan appropriately).  Last time I made an apple pie, the pie filling spread out all over the place when I cut into it, but this one was perfection.  

mmmm.... happy fall to me.

calories:  bad news bears.  it's apple pie - just eat it and love it in moderation.

Cookie Dough Brownies with Chocolate Ganache

My mom's giant family (of 11 brothers and sisters) has always know that my Aunt Geri was a fabulous baker.  During the holidays, each sibling was in charge of something and Geri's destiny was that of Dessert Lady.  As luck would have it, our giant family required not just one dessert, but many.  Geri would modestly come into my grandmother's house with three or four baked goods in hand every holiday.  The family was always excited to see what Geri had decided to bring each year.  Cheesecakes and chocolate and pies, oh my!  Because you didn't want to be forced to choose which one, many of us simple requested the Sample Platter, a sliver of each.

A two year breast cancer survivor, my Aunt Geri passed away in early August, devastating the entire family and those who knew her.  She had worked for 24 years at the local newspaper and after her passing, they dedicated an entire section of the paper to her.  Many of her colleagues wrote heartwarming tributes to her and it wasn't surprising that many of those tributes mentioned her talent for cheffing up deliciousness in the kitchen.  Monkey bread and cookie dough brownies were of the most mentioned desserts.

These items weren't regulars on the holiday dessert circuit and I haven't been fortunate enough to try any of these out of Geri's kitchen, but don't they sound good? A google search of Monkey Bread make my mouth water... and cookie dough?  Well, now that's a dessert after my own heart.

In honor of my Aunt Geri, I took cookie dough brownies to the kitchen.  It's not her recipe (doubtful she really even used them anymore anyways) and I jazzed it up a bit with a chocolate ganache topping, as I took the easy way to make them.

Geri is, and will be, greatly missed.


Cookie Dough Brownie with a Chocolate Ganache

Does this look too easy?  It is.  I cheated and took the easy way out.  Betty Crocker, don't fail me now.  If not limited by strange organics at Whole Paychex and limited variety at CVS, I would have probably gone with a richer box of brownie mix. Like a Betty Crocker Supreme- something that would fluffy up more.   It's city living and you make do with what you got at hand.


Prepare both the brownies and the cookies as directed.

This is me, practicing sheer willpower.  Cookie Dough is any form is like crack.  I'm an addict.  Guilty.  

The brownie mix goes into the pan - you should use a 9x13.  I used this small pan because I halfed the recipe.  Because having an entire pan of these in my house is detrimental to maintaining a figure that will entice gentleman folks to take me out on dates and woo me.  

With the brownie base, drop spoonfuls of cookie dough into the brownie batter, pushing down lightly.  Then pop into the oven.  I followed the temp directions on the brownie box.  Then I eye balled the baking, pulling out when the toothpick came out clean from the center.  In a redo, I would probably err on the side of undercooking next time.

These will need to cool before you make the chocolate ganache.

Now, chocolate ganache sounds fancy, but it's really easy to make.  Three simple ingredients:  chocolate, butter, cream.

Bag of semi sweet chips, 3/4 cup of cream, 6 Tbls of butter.  Heat the cream and butter in a saucepan over medium heat.  Melt the butter and stir until the point just before it boils.  You'll see the edges start to bubble.  Pour over the chocolate chips and fold and stir until the chips are melted.

Easy as that.  I wouldn't use light cream next time.  I don't know what I was thinking.  There's nothing even remotely healthy about these.   That's why they taste so damn delicious.

Pour the ganache over the brownie and let sit until the ganache firms up.  I left mine in over night and for breakfast the next morning, had this treat: