Peanut Butter Bars

This is embarrassingly old (from July), but an easy and delicious dessert recipe to try. I was being a major complainer at work and told my friends I would make them whatever they wanted, and this was their choice. Pretty good deal for me - was really easy and doesn't require the oven, which was great for the summertime! I think these kind of taste like Nutter Butters, but better, and VERY rich!


1 cup butter or margarine, melted
2 cups graham cracker crumbs
2 cups confectioners' sugar
1 cup peanut butter
1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
4 tablespoons peanut butter

In a medium bowl, mix together the butter or margarine, graham cracker crumbs, confectioners' sugar, and 1 cup peanut butter until well blended. Press evenly into the bottom of an ungreased 9x13 inch pan.
In a metal bowl over simmering water, or in the microwave, melt the chocolate chips with the peanut butter, stirring occasionally until smooth. Spread over the prepared crust. Refrigerate for at least one hour before cutting into squares.

Original recipe here

Making chocolate!

Ever thought about making chocolate? Well, if you're in the Boston area, look no further!!

I saw a LivingSocial deal for this class at ChocoLee Chocolates and thought hey, could be fun! I got a friend to buy it with me last July, and she called in January to schedule a date in but they didn't have any openings until June!! So, we had this on our calendars for 6 months, and after almost a year we finally had the class, and it was a lot of fun! It's a 3 hour class on a Wednesday night or Saturday afternoon, and in our class we did chocolate almond bark, truffles, and filled chocolates. We mostly worked with dark chocolate - my favorite - so I really liked that part. You don't actually just work on your own chocolates - everyone works together and you can switch between different tasks as you want. So, if you don't want to chop a huge (HUGE) bar of chocolate, you don't have to. And you still come home with a LOT of really delicious creations!

I actually saw at least one other Groupon or LivingSocial for this class recently, so if you're interested, keep your eyes open for a good deal :)

Chocolate Crackles (or Krinkles, whichever you prefer)

I love these cookies. My family uses a different recipe that calls for espresso - but I prefer the chocolate on its own. Only downside is that you need to chill the dough, which I always forget! I think it's easiest to leave the dough in the fridge overnight, instead of sitting around for 4 hours waiting....but, whatever works.

1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 cups granulated sugar
½ cup vegetable oil
4 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup confectioners’ sugar

1. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside. In a separate medium bowl, stir together cocoa, white sugar, and vegetable oil. Beat in eggs, one at a time, then add vanilla, stirring to combine. Add in flour mixture and stir until combined. Cover with plastic wrap and chill in refrigerator for 4 hours, or up to overnight.
(Or you can do what I did, and just mix all of the ingredients together at once! I don't buy the mixing the ingredients separately.)

2. Preheat oven to 350F. Line cookie sheets with parchment or a silicone baking mat. Put confectioners’ sugar into a small bowl. Using a 1-inch cookie scoop or rounded tablespoons, roll dough into balls with your hands, then roll in confectioners’ sugar to coat. Place on prepared cookie sheets 2 inches apart. Bake 10 to 12 minutes. Let cool on cookie sheet for 2 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Original recipe here

Silken Chocolate Pudding

Sticking to my habit of cooking when the weather is bad - I cooked most of the day yesterday because it was rainy/hot and sticky outside, and I didn't have much else going on (except work that I should have been doing....). I decided to try a few new recipes and one old one: basil pesto; this pudding; sweet potato, apple, and chipotle soup; "vegan" cornbread; and tofu stir fry. Most of the new recipes are from the Moosewood Cooking for Health cookbook, which I am slowly falling in love with. The base of this pudding is TOFU, so how could I not try it? I thought this would be a very healthy dessert - but it is in fact very rich and high in calories. This makes about 6 servings (2.5 cups), and each serving has about 245 calories.

1 cake of silken tofu (about 16 ounces)
3 tablespoons confectioners' sugar
8 ounces semisweet chocolate
6 tablespoons water
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1. In a food processor, whirl the tofu and confectioners' sugar until well blended. In a double boiler, a small pan on low heat, or in a microwave oven, warm the chocolate, water, cocoa, and vanilla until the chocolate melts. Stir until thoroughly mixed. Pour the chocolate sauce into the food processor with the sweetened whipped tofu, and whirl again until very smooth and silky.

2. Spoon the pudding into 6 serving sups. Chill for at least an hour.

(I just put all of the pudding into one tupperware and served it later.)

Baking FAIL.

So, I got a bit overconfident in my baking abilities and decided to make my FIRST layer cake for a work-friend's birthday.
BAD IDEA. I usually do fine trying new recipes, but this was a whole different process than I've ever tried before. Should have stuck with a plain pan-cake (ha, ha).

I found this great moist chocolate cake recipe on foodess.com, and it looked simple enough. The cake-making part was very easy, but when it came to taking the cakes out of the pans, there was epic failure. The cakes stuck to the bottom of my greased non-stick pans and crumbled everywhere.

I tried to fix the problem by covering everything in frosting, but this didn't work out too well.....

I had to make 2 batches of frosting to cover all of the madness, and by the end I had a counter covered in powdered sugar/cocoa powder/lots of crumbly cake, and a cake that looked like a big mound of I-don't-know-what.

Thankfully, everyone at the office thought the cake was delicious, as did I, but this recipe is going to get another shot. I bought 2 circular cake pans, and I WILL make the layer cake work!!

(frosting recipe here)

Shout-out for gluten free cookies

 

I like to find any excuse possible to bake, and lately that has mostly been for work meetings (you may think this is sad, but we have a pretty cohesive group working on Data Management for the BP oil spill, and we have fun). This past week we had the developers of our web site visiting, so of course I had to impress them with my baking skills. Per usual, I hit up http://www.tastespotting.com/, and found an easy recipe for flourless peanut butter cookies. I couldn't believe how easy these were, so they made for a fun after-work project. I doubled the recipe and used a whole can of peanut butter (which was a little less than 2 cups), but they turned out deliciously. 

2 cups peanut butter
1 1/3 cup sugar, plus extra for rolling
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 eggs
Chocolate, for drizzling (I used chocolate chips and melted them in the microwave)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a medium mixing bowl, cream together the peanut butter and sugar. It is much easier to do it by hand than to use a machine; just use a tough spatula. Mix in the baking powder and egg until evenly combined.

Form small balls and roll cookie dough in extra sugar. Place evenly on an ungreased baking sheet and flatten slightly with a fork. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Cool on the baking sheet for at least 5-10 minutes before moving to a cooling rack to cool completely. The cookies will be very fragile and need to harden before they can be moved. Drizzle with chocolate, if desired.

Homemade Samoa Bars

 

What's the best type of Girl Scout Cookie? Caramel Delights, of course (previously Samoas). When I found this recipe, I knew it had my name written all over it. I actually made it during GS Cookie season with a box of caramel delights sitting in my pantry, but of course, now the homemade Samoas are gone, and the boxed cookies remain in their box!
Anyway, this recipe is great, and you don't have to hunt down any Girl Scouts to enjoy a delicious Caramel Delight (or many). I followed the recipe fully through, except I didn't toast the coconut, which seemed to be OK. The most time-consuming part is unwrapping all of the caramels, but it's not so bad if you eat a few along the way :)

Original recipe here