My beautiful goddaughters visited with their mom, Susan, one of the best friends I have and the girls wanted to make treats and a baking video.  Lyndsey wanted something with peanut butter and in suggested this.   No oven necessary, which is great on a day like to day : 92 and humid.  This will be a baking video as well!

Ingredients – 1 1/2 cups peanut butter, 1 stick of butter, 3-4 cups powdered sugar, 20-24 Graham cracker sheets, 2 cups milk chocolate, 6 tbs shortening

Break graham cracker sheets in half.  Melt chocolate and shortening in a microwave proof bowl for a minute (or until you can stir it melted).    dip the graham crackers on both sides and place on parchment paper (which is on top of a cookie sheet).  Freeze 10-20 minutes.  

Filling – mix peanut butter, butter and powdered sugar.  (You may need to use a mixer).  You can also use your hands!

Place 3 tbs peanut butter between 2 graham cracker squares to make your sandwich.  Top with additional melted chocolate.  Chill 1 hour.  Store in fridge.

I am wearing one of my Geneseo hoodies.  On July 14th.  It is 62 and rainy, one day after it was 90 with a dew  point of 70.. a cold day is a good baking day, right?   Today’s cookie features copycat recipes from this cookie place in NYC, Levain.  Have any of you been there?  The cookies apparently are huuuuge.  Half of this cookie i have made today is made with dough from a chocolate chip cookie with m&ms and the other half is chocolate chocolate chip dough with m&ms.  I stuffed them with oreos.

Chocolate chip cookies ingredients – 1 cup butter, 1 cup brown sugar (firmly packed into measuring cup), 1/2 cup sugar, 2 eggs, 2 tsp vanilla, 3/4 tsp baking powder, 1/4 tsp baking soda, 1/4 tsp salt, 1 tbs cornstarch,    3 1/3 cups flour (scooped from flour bag or container into measuring cup), 1 cup m&ms. 1/2 cup chocolate chips, oreos.

Directions –  Cream butter, brown sugar and sugar.  Add eggs and vanilla.  Fold in dry ingredients.  Mix in chips and m&ms.  

Chocolate chocolate chip cookies ingredients – 1 cup butter, 1 1/4 cups sugar, 2 eggs, 1 1/3 cups semisweet chocolate chips, 1 1 /4 cups flour, 1 cup plus 2 tbs bread flour (both flours scooped from flour container into measuring cup), 1/2 cup baking cocoa, 1 tsp baking powder, 1/4 tsp salt, 1 cup m&ms, 1 cup chocolate chips.

Directions – melt chocolate in microwave safe container in 45 second increments until you can stir smooth.   Set aside.  Cream butter and sugar.  Add eggs.  Stir in melted chocolate.  Fold in dry ingredients. Stir in m&ms and chips.

Using a cookie scoop, scoop out some chocolate chip cookie dough.  Form dough with an indentation in middle, like this- 

Do the same with the chocolate dough, with an indentation in the middle, like this.

Place an oreo in one dough.

Place other piece of dough on other side 

And form around oreo until covered. 

 Chill dough mounds 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 350.  Stagger 8 cookies to a sheet that has been lined with nonstick baking liners.  

Bake 15 to 20 minutes.  Cool 5 to 10 minutes on sheet.  Remove.  Cool completely and store in covered container. 

It was 90 degrees and humid today (what a great combination), so I went with a no bake treat!  Peanut butter pie.   I used fat free cream cheese, low fat peanut butter and fat free cool whip for the filling.  For the crust,  I used  double stuff chocolate oreos.  You could use another kind of oreos or graham crackers, nilla  wafers etc, if you prefer.   This is a good pie, but not as good as the one our friend, Frank Foligno, made at Christmas time. 

Pie crust  – 25 oreos, finely crushed (I used a food processor), 1 stick of butter, melted

Combine and press into bottom and sides of pie pan.

Filling – 8 oz cream cheese (softened), 8 0z container of cool whip (thawed), 1 cup peanut butter, 2 cups powdered sugar.

Blend cream cheese and peanut butter.  Fold in cool whip.  Stir in powdered sugar.  Spread evenly into crust.  Chill 1 hour.

Topping – any kind of chocolate, melted (i.e. Hershey kisses, chocolate chips, peanut butter cups)  

Drizzle on top of pie.  Store in fridge.

While perusing recipes online, I came
 across a bunch of rocky road recipes and saw one for cookies and thought “why not?”. (Plus I have a ton of marshallows I need to use). You can use whatever chocolate cookie you want.  I used the Ghirardelli decadent cookies.  I opted for walnuts, but you can use almonds or pecans or something else, or leave them out (although I think the nuts are an integral part of what makes rocky road – rocky road.  )  this will also be my next baking video on youtube. 

Cookies – 10 oz ghiradelli 60 percent cacao bittersweet chocolate chips, 2 eggs, 1/2 cup sugar, 2 sp vanilla, 1/4 cup flour (scooped from flour container into measuring cup), 1/4 tsp baking powder, 1/8 tsp dalt, 2 tbs butter, 3/4 cup chopped nuts.  

Directions – whisk together eggs, sugar and vanilla. 

 In a separate, microwave safe bowl, melt 1 cup of chips and butter in 45 second increments until you can stir it melted,  like this.

Add chocolate mixture and dry ingredients to sugar/eggs/vanilla combo.  Fold in nuts and remaining chips.  Chill 30 min.

Preheat oven to 350.  On cookie sheet, lined with nonstick baking liner, put 2 tbs dough for each cookie, staggering 8 cookies to a sheet.  Bake 10 to 15 minutes.  (Depending how “done” you want your cookies).  Upon removing from oven.  Gently press 4 minimarshmallows on top of each cookie.

Let sit on cookie sheet 5 minutes.  Transfer to a plate to cool  completely.

Frosting – 2 cups powdered sugar, 1/4 cup baking cocoa, 4 tbs butter (melted ), hot water (up to 1/4 cup) 

Directions – combine powdered sugar, cocoa and butter.  Add enough water to make frosting as thick or thin as you want.  Frost cooled cookies.  Store in coversed container.

hi friends!!!  check out youtube for my latest baking video!  peanut blossoms!

While racking my brain of what to make for my next blog subject and baking video for youtube, I thought Peanut blossoms would be a good idea. Whenever I bring them to work, at least 5 people tell me they are their favorite cookies.   ( I  wonder if it is the peanut butter/chocolate combo or the Hershey kiss?  I have fun memories of making them around Christmas time with my mom, so I love making these)    And if these cookies make people happy, that makes me happy.  We need a little more joy, love and kindness in the world.  

One of the funniest things about these cookies is that out 13 year old chocolate lab, Charlie, kept trying to hip check me out of the way so he could lick the floor for ant peanut butter.  The dog is a peanut butter fiend!   He is cleary exhausted now from his scrounging efforts. 

If you want, you can chill the mounds of dough for an hour or so.  That way they don’t spread as much.  

Ingredients – 1 cup shortening,  1 cup peanut butter, 1 cup sugar, 1 cup brown sugar, 2 eggs, 2 1/2 cups flour, 1 1/2 tsp baking soda, 1 tsp salt, hershey’s kisses.

Directions – preheat oven to 375.   Cream shortening, peanut butter, sugar and brown sugar.  Add eggs. Fold in dry ingredients.  Using a cookie scoop or ice cream scoop, scoop out dough and roll it balls.  On a cookie sheet, lined with nonstick baking liners, stagger cookies (8 z per sheet).  Bake 9 to 11 minutes.  Immediately press unwrapped kiss in each cookie.  Let sit on sheet for 5 minutes.  Remove.  Cool completely and store in covered container.  You can microwave these 10 to 15 seconds before eating, if you want. 🙂

These are pretty decadent, as you can probably tell by the name!   You can use a brownie mix or whatever your favorite brownie recipe is.  You can also use whatever chocolate or candy  you want, milk, dark, white, peanut butter cups etc.  You can also toast marshmallow and put them on top.  The only thing I would change next time is I would mix up the crust and then sprinkle it on top of the frosting.  It would be easier to cut the brownies.

Preheat oven to 350. 

Crust – 1 sleeve of gram crackers (crushed), 1 stick of butter (melted), 4 tbs sugar.  Combine and press into 9×13 pan that has been lined with tin foil.

Brownies – whatever your favorite recipe or box calls for.  Spread over graham cracker crust.  Bake for 15 to 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center basically comes out clean.  Remove from oven and immediately place chocolate or candy on top.  Let sit for one minutes and center spend over top of brownies.

Frosting – 1/4 cup butter (melted), 1 cup of marshmallow fluff, 1 cup of powdered sugar, 3 tbs cream or milk.  

Mix well.  Spread on top of chocolate layer. 

If you prefer, you can place toasted marshmallows on to top instead of frosting.  Place 16 to 30 marshmallows on a sheet and broil on low for one to two minutes.  Then using a fork, place to poop hem on top of chocolate layer.

Store in covered container.   One recommendation from my hubby – microwave the brownies for 15 to 20 seconds. 🙂

After a rainy, cold “spring”, summer is finally here! (I hope).  What says summer better than s’mores?  So I found a bunch of recipes online to make and am starting with these!

Ingredients – 1/2 cup butter (softened), 3/4 cup brown sugar, 1/4 cup sugar, 1 egg, 1tbs vanilla, 1 cup graham cracker crumbs,        1 3/4  cups flour (scooped from flour container into measuring cup), 1/2 tsp baking soda, 1 tsp baking powder, 16 hershey’s kisses (or dove chocolate), 8 large marshmallows (cut in half).

Directions – beat butter, sugar and brown sugar.  Add egg and vanilla.  Fold in dry ingredients and graham cracker crumbs. Using a cookie scoop, scoop out some dough and roll into a tall mound.  Chill 1 hour.  Preheat oven to 350.  On cookie sheet lined with non stick baking liner, stagger cookies, eight on a sheet.  Bake 8 minutes.  Upon removing tray from oven, immediately press chocolate in center.  Repeat process for remaining dough.  Turn broiler in oven to low.  Using a cookie sheet that has been sprayed with baking spray, spread out marshmallow halves.  Broil on low 90 seconds (longer if you want them more toasted).  Using a small fork, place a toasted half marshmallow on each cookie.  Store in a covered container.

These cookies are huuuge.  They are  half dark chocolate cookie with cut up Reese’s eggs (I finally used them all up) and half chocolate chip cookie.  The only unique ingredient is bread flour.  They made the cookies thick and puffy.

Chocolate chip cookie ingredients – 1 cup butter, 3/4 cup sugar,  1/2 cup brown sugar, 2 eggs, 2 tsp vanilla, 6 tbs water, 3 cups bread flour (scooped, using a spoon from flour container into measuring cup), 1 tsp baking powder, 1/4 tsp baking soda, 1/4 tsp salt, 1l2 cups  semisweet  chocolate chips (or use whatever flavor you wish )

Brown butter over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until little brown bits form (takes between 10 and 15 minutes.   Here’s what it looks like.  

 To the browned butter, Add sugar and brown sugar.  Add eggs, water and vanilla.  Stir in dry ingredients.  Fold in chips.  Set aside. 

Dark chocolate cookie ingredients – 1 cup butter (softened), 3/4 cup sugar, 1/2 cup sugar, 2 eggs, 1 tbs vanilla, 1/2 cup bakong cocoa  (I used hershey’s special dark), 1 1/2 cups bread flour (scooped, using a spoon from your flour container into your measuring cup), 1/2 tsp salt, 1 cup all purpose flour, 2 cups of chopped Reese’s candy (or other candy, chocolate chips etc)

Cream butter,sugar and brown sugar. Add eggs and vanilla.  Mix in cocoa, then rest of dry ingredients.  Fold in Reese’s.  

To assemble the cookies – scoop 2 tbs of chocolate dough and 2 tbs of chocolate chip dough and gently smoosh  together.   Chill 1 hour.  Preheat oven to 350.  Stagger on cookie sheets lined with baking liners (8 on a sheet).  Bake 12 -18 minutes until lightly browned on bottom.  Let cool 10 minutes on cookie sheets.  Cool completely and store in covered container.

No oven needed for today’s treat!  It is 90 degrees today and I couldn’t heat the house up.  So this peanut butter pie is easy and no-bake.  Now that summer is here, I need more no-bake treat recipes.

Crust 1 pkg oreos (I used the peanut butter ones), 1 /2 cup butter (melted ).

Finely grind oreos in food processor or crush them with a rolling pin.  Add butter.  Press into pie plate.  Freeze 10 minutes.

Filling – 1 small jar of peanut butter (1 lb to 1.25 lbs), 1/2 cup butter (softened), 1 cup powdered sugar.

Blend.  Spread on top of crust.  Freeze 10 minutes.

Ganache – 18 ounces chocolate chips (I used semisweet), 1/2 cup heavy cream

Heat cream for 1 minute 45 seconds in microwave.   Add chips.. let sit 5 minutes.  Stir smooth.  Spread on top of peanut butter.  Chill at leat 1 hour before serving.  Store covered in fridge.

Guess who loves peanut butter?