The Best Peanut Butter Cookies

This recipe has been hand down through many generations in my family  and now to you guys. These are by far the best peanut butter cookies you will ever have. Their classic flavor is timeless and great for any occasion.

Ingredients

1 cup butter
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups flour
1 cup granola ( I used Trader Joe's almond granola)


Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 325F and line baking sheets with parchment paper.

2.In a large bowl, cream together the butter and peanut butter.

3.Add the white sugar, brown sugar and eggs. Mix and place aside.

4.In a small bowl, mix together the baking soda and flour.Once all the mixed add the granola    of your choice.

5.Place on baking sheets and bake for 15 min.



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Rasberry Mousse Chocolate Cups

I made these little delights for my family's annual Oscar Sunday Appetizer night. My family loved them! The raspberry mousse paired fantastically with the chocolate cups!

Yield: 12 mousse cups

Ingredients

Mousse

1 cup fresh raspberries
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons lemon juice
3/4 teaspoon unflavored
1/4 cup cold water
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

Chocolate cups

2 cups chocolate chips
12 mini baking cups



Directions

1. Place the raspberries in a food processor; cover and puree. Strain and discard seeds. Transfer the puree to a large bowl. Stir in sugar and lemon juice; set aside.

2. In a small saucepan, sprinkle gelatin over cold water; let stand for 1 minute. Stir over low heat until gelatin is completely dissolved. Stir the gelatin into the raspberry mixture. Refrigerate until slightly thickened, about 1 hour.

3. Transfer the gelatin mixture to a large bowl. Beat on high speed until foamy. Gradually add whipping cream; beat until thickened, about 2 minutes. Cover and refrigerate for about 1-2 hours or until set.

4. Once you've got your mousse in the fridge its time to start the chocolate cups. Melt the chocolate chips at 30 second intervals in microwave string after each time.

5. Spoon the melted chocolate in the mini baking cups; making sure that you cover all sides of the baking cup with chocolate, make sure you leave a little extra at the bottom of the baking cup. Place the chocolate cups in a cupcake tin and refrigerate for a least 30 minutes or until hard.

6.Once the mousse and chocolate cups are ready feel each cup about 3/4 full of mousse and decorate with leftover chocolate shavings.






Here are some of the appetizers me and family made:

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Rainbow Pinwheel Cookies

These cookies were a nice way to brighten up my kitchen a dull winter day. They also aren't super sweet so they are perfect if your not big into sweets but are still craving a cookie.

Yield: makes 50+ cookies

Ingredients

6 cups Flour
2 teaspoons Baking Soda
1 teaspoon Salt
1 cup Shortening
2 cups Sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons Vanilla
1 cup Sour Cream
4 different Liquid food coloring colors ( your choice. I did purple, blue, green and yellow)
Rainbow sprinkles

Directions

1.Preheat the oven to 350F and line baking sheets with parchment paper.

2.Whisk together , in a large bowl the flour, baking soda and the salt. Set aside.

3.Blend together the shortening, sugar, eggs, vanilla and sour cream in a medium bowl.

4.With a spatula slowly stir the wet ingredients  into the dry ingredients bowl.

5. Once all the ingredients are evenly combined cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place in the fridge to chill for two hours.

6. Divide dough evenly into four bowls and color each with a different color liquid food coloring. 

7. Once dyed roll each color of dough into grape-sized balls. Combine a ball of each color and quickly roll into a larger ball. It will look like a little beach ball. Then roll that ball between your hands and the counter until you have a cylinder about 10 inches long. Starting from one end, roll the dough into a coil, twisting the cylinder as you go. 

8.Roll edges of the cookie in sprinkles. 

9.Bake the cookies for 10 to 11 minutes, or until done.

10. let cool for a least 10 minutes and enjoy!


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Red Velvet Cheesecake Brownies

These little treats are perfect for Valentines Day! I brought them to school for my friends to sample and everyone really enjoyed them. They are the perfect combination of these three classic treats.

Ingredients

Red Velvet Layer:
3 1/4 cups flour
2 1/4 cups granulated sugar
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3 large eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
4 tablespoons milk, divided
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon red food coloring
2 teaspoons white vinegar

Cheesecake Layer:
2 8oz packages cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla

Directions:

1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 13 x 18 jelly roll pan with butter or spray with cooking spray.

2.In large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, cocoa powder, salt, and baking powder. Set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs, vegetable oil, 2 tablespoons milk, vanilla extract, red food coloring, and white vinegar.

3.Combine the dry and wet ingredients, until completely combined. The batter will be a really thick, almost mold able texture...but don't worry, that's what you want. Remove 3/4 cup of the batter and place it in a medium bowl. Whisk in the remaining 2 tablespoons of milk (into the 3/4 cup of batter you just took out). Set aside the 3/4 cup batter.

4.Pour the remaining batter into the prepared jelly roll pan. Using a spatula, smooth out the batter to reach all the edges.

5.Now, in your stand mixer, beat cream cheese and sugar until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add eggs and vanilla, beating until combined and there are no lumps. Pour the cream cheese mixture on top of the red velvet layer and smooth mixture till it reaches all the edges.

6.Drop spoonfuls of the remaining red velvet batter (that you mixed with milk) onto the top of the cheesecake layer. Drag the tip of a knife through the red velvet and the cheesecake layers to create swirls.

7.Bake for 30 minutes, rotating half way through, or just until the center is set and it no longer jiggles. Let cool completely on a wire rack before cutting. Use a heart cookie cutter to create the perfect Valentine's Day treat!

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Peanut Butter Cup Overload Cupcakes

I made these cupcakes for my Uncles birthday and he is sucker for peanut butter cups. These cupcakes are super easy to make and a delight to eat.

Ingredients

Cupcakes:

1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup milk
3 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
8 ounces semisweet chocolate, melted
26 mini peanut butter cups

Icing:

4 cups icing sugar
1 cup butter
1 cup peanut butter
5 teaspoons milk


Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Line muffin tins with paper baking cups and spray them with cooking spray and place one mini peanut butter cup inside each baking cup.

2. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. Add oil, milk, eggs and vanilla; beat with electric mixer at medium speed for two minutes or until well blended. Stir in melted chocolate until well blended. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups, filling three-fourths full.

3. Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcakes comes out clean. Cool cupcakes in pan for 10 minutes and then let cool on a wire rack for 5 minutes or until completely cooled.

4. Well the cupcakes cool you can make the icing by combining all the ingredients listed above with an electric mixer.

5. Ice and decorate with chopped up peanut butter cups.


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Orange Blueberry muffins

These muffins might not be the the prettiest muffins but they make up for it in flavor and texture. They make a great treat for breakfast. :)

Makes 12 muffins. (or about 40 mini muffins)

If buttermilk is unavailable, substitute 3/4 cup plain whole-milk or low-fat yogurt thinned with 1/4 cup milk.

Ingredients

Orange-Sugar Topping

1/3 cup sugar (2 1/3 ounces)
1 1/2 teaspoons finely grated orange zest

Muffins

2 cups fresh blueberries (about 10 ounces), picked over (I used frozen berries, defrosted under warm running water)
1 1/8 cups sugar (8 ounces) plus 1 teaspoon
2 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (12 1/2 ounces)
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon table salt
2 large eggs
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 cup buttermilk (see note)
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions

1. For the topping: Stir together sugar and lemon zest in small bowl until combined; set aside.

2. For the muffins: Adjust oven rack to upper-middle position and heat oven to 425 degrees. Spray standard muffin tin with nonstick cooking spray. Bring 1 cup blueberries and 1 teaspoon sugar to simmer in small saucepan over medium heat. Cook, mashing berries with spoon several times and stirring frequently, until berries have broken down and mixture is thickened and reduced to ¼ cup, about 6 minutes. Transfer to small bowl and cool to room temperature, 10 to 15 minutes.

3. Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt together in large bowl. Whisk remaining 11/8 cups sugar and eggs together in medium bowl until thick and homogeneous, about 45 seconds. Slowly whisk in butter and oil until combined. Whisk in buttermilk and vanilla until combined. Using rubber spatula, fold egg mixture and remaining cup blueberries into flour mixture until just moistened. (Batter will be very lumpy with few spots of dry flour; do not overmix.)

4. Use ice cream scoop or large spoon to divide batter equally among prepared muffin cups (batter should completely fill cups and mound slightly). Spoon teaspoon of cooked berry mixture into center of each mound of batter. Using chopstick or skewer, gently swirl berry filling into batter using figure-eight motion. Sprinkle orange sugar evenly over muffins.

5. Bake until muffin tops are golden and just firm, 17 to 19 minutes, rotating muffin tin from front to back halfway through baking time. Cool muffins in muffin tin for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire rack and cool 5 minutes before serving.

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Super Bowl Sunday!

Hi! I just want to apologize for not posting for a long time. I was super busy over winter break and then I just got so caught up in school and forgot to post! But I am back!for now here is a picture of the cake I made for my families Super Bowl party (as you can tell my family are big sea hawks fans :) ) I promise to have a couple recipes up this week and then i will start a regular posting schedule.