peanut butter Posts

Peanut Butter and Jelly Cookies

At the ripe age of 26, I’ve realized I’m just like a little kid. I like to play outside, I still dream of being a marine biologist, and my favorite foods are pizza, grilled cheese, and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. This was mostly my inspiration for this week’s treat. When things in life start to suck, who doesn’t want to revert back to the good old days when your biggest problems were which friend to sit next to in class or deciding which Pokémon is best? (The answer is Charizard, btw).

Most peanut butter and jelly cookie recipes I researched were peanut butter cookies with a thumbprint filled with jelly. Um, that’s not like the peanut butter and jelly sandwich I know. I need my PB&J cookie to be a sandwich, too. Deliciously creamy peanut butter mingling with sweet strawberry jelly between two pillows of carbs. Well, I imagine anything between two pillows of carbs would be delicious.

I could have just put regular peanut butter in the middle of these, but who are we kidding. I need to buttercream-ize everything. Plus it made it easier to pipe it all nice on the inside of the cookies with it looking like a kindergartener made them. See?

Peanut Butter and Jelly Cookies

Keep reading and get the recipe…

Posted by Suzy in Cookies and tagged with , ,

Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

December is here, which means it’s almost time for Christmas cookies! I’m planning on taking a whole Sunday in the next week or so and just baking  a few different kinds of cookies. I love doing some traditional Christmas cookies (sugar cookies, gingerbread people) and then experimenting with some new ones (last year I tried my hand at Linzer tarts). Still trying to finalize this year’s cookie list.

My most favorite cookies to make at Christmastime are peanut blossoms. You know, peanut butter cookies with a Hershey’s kiss pressed into the center. I’ve been making them for years and they’re always the first cookie to disappear.

This year, I decided to try something a little different: mini Reese’s peanut butter cups instead of kisses. And wow. Wow.

Wow.

These are absolutely amazing. I baked the cookies in a mini muffin tin, since the peanut butter cups are a little taller than the kisses.

Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

Keep reading and get the recipe…

Chocolate Cookies with Chocolate and Peanut Butter Chips

Sadly, it’s been a while since the last post. Like, 2 months. But I am back (!) and I solemnly swear I will post more regularly. No more vacations, no more reasons not to bake!

Since I’ve been short on time lately, I’ve opted for cookies. I adore baking cupcakes, but they are multi-step treats: bake cupcakes, make icing, wait for cupcakes to cool, rewhip icing because it went flat, pipe icing onto cupcakes, try again because it looks like crap, give up and use a frosting spreader.

Yea, cookies are easy.

Keep reading and get the recipe…

Posted by Suzy in Cookies and tagged with ,

Reese’s Cupcakes

I’m not going to say I invented these cupcakes. The combination of chocolate and peanut butter has long been replicated in baking recipes. I will, however, say I did this recipe the best I could find. These are not just chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting…these are REESE’S CUPCAKES. As in, just like a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup. As in, amazing.

You could use the Magnolia chocolate cupcake recipe (the old standby), but I instead used a devil’s food cake recipe that made for some awesomely fluffy cupcakes. Frosting is simple and completely foolproof, and I crumbled up some peanut butter cups for garnish. I suppose you could use Reese’s Pieces as well, but let’s be serious. Peanut butter cups are way better.

Am I right?

Keep reading and get the recipe…

Posted by Suzy in Cupcakes and tagged with , , , ,

Christmas Cookies Galore!

Finally, the Christmas cookie post! And let me tell you, this literally took me ALL day. Not that I’m complaining, it was well worth it.

I baked cookies with my mom every Christmas when I was younger, and it’s something that I try to continue today. Even though I miss spending afternoons in the kitchen with her, elbow-deep in dough and covered in flour, keeping the tradition alive makes me feel like a kid again. It’s when I really start feeling like it’s Christmas!

While traditionally, my mom and I would make classic cookie press cookies, chocolate chip cookies, and oatmeal cookies, I decided to venture a little outside of my comfort zone. Having a pretty strong German heritage, I’d always wanted to try making Linzer tarts. I’d never really had them as a kid, but they are a quintessential Christmas cookie. Since they are pretty Old World-y, I didn’t think I’d get too many takers, but they actually turned out to be the most popular cookie!

Along with the Linzers, I’d decided pretty early on that I wanted to make peanut blossoms (from a recipe I’ve been using for years), sugar cookies, and gingerbread people (they’re not gingerbread MEN, for god’s sake).

Christmas Cookies

Keep reading and get the recipe…