Peanut Butter Chocolate Ooey Gooey Cake

Just when you thought there couldn't be more pb and chocolate recipes on this blog I have added another. Thanks to Paula Dean and Lizzy for the recipe:

Ooey Gooey Cakes
Courtesy of Paula Dean
Baking time: 50 minutes
Ingredients:
Cake:
1 (18.25-ounce) box chocolate cake mix
1 large egg
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
Filling:
1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 (16-ounce) box confectioners' sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted
1 cup pb
Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a 13 by 9 by-2-inch baking pan.
For the cake: In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the cake mix, egg, and butter and mix well. Pat into the bottom of prepared pan and set aside.


To make the filling: In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese and pb until smooth. Add the eggs, vanilla, and butter, and beat together. Next, add the powdered sugar, and mix well.


Spread pb mixture over cake batter and bake for 40 to 50 minutes. Make sure not to over bake as the center should be a little gooey.


Remove from oven and allow to cool completely before serving. Cut into squares. These cakes are very rich, so a little will go a long way. Serve with fresh whipped cream.

I served with ice cream. They were really gooey right out of the oven...after they cooled they firmed up a bit.

Also, I wanted to shout out to Jeannie Ginsberg and the Matzoh Brittle...I think Ireland is in love!

Happy Birthday Monk!

Peanut Butter Brownie Torte




For my mom's birthday, I decided to make a peanut butter brownie torte because she, much like Katie and me, loves peanut butter desserts. It's a simple recipe and it tasted great. A certain nameless birthday girl even had a piece for breakfast this morning. Here's the recipe:

1 box brownie mix (or you can make your own if you're that dedicated)
Oil, water and eggs called for on the brownie box
1 8oz package cream cheese, softened
1 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 12oz container of cool whip

Heat oven to 350 degrees and grease an 8 or 9 inch round spring form pan. Prepare brownies as directed on the box and bake for 45-48 minutes for an 8 inch pan or 36-38 for a 9 inch pan. Let cool.


Beat cream cheese with an electric mixer (notice my pretty pink KitchenAid mixer) on medium speed until fluffy. Gradually beat in peanut butter, powdered sugar, and 3 cups cool whip until well combined.



Keeping dessert in spring form pan, spread mixture evenly over cooled brownies. Top with remaining cool whip. Refrigerate 2 hours before serving. Remove side of pan just before serving. I will say that the cool whip melted a bit on the drive from Denver to Ft. Collins and never really recovered. Even though it looks a bit melted, it still tasted delicious.

PB Chocolate Rice Crispy Brownies

These are some pretty serious treats: Brownies with vanilla frosting and chocolate peanut butter covered rice crispies. That's right. And they were a hit. Everyone loved them and...I'll say it...they raved about them. Here is the recipe:

1 box brownie mix
water, vegetable oil and eggs called for on the brownie box
1 container vanilla frosting
3 cups of rice crispies
1 cup of creamy peanut butter
1 bag (12oz) semi-sweet chocolate chips

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees and grease 13x9 inch pan
2. Make and bake brownies as directed on box. Cool completely.


3. Frost brownies with vanilla frosting and place in refrigerator while making cereal mixture.



4. Measure cereal into large bowl and set aside. In a saucepan, melt peanut butter and chocolate chips over low heat, stirring occasionally. Pour over cereal in bowl, stirring until evenly coated.












Spread over frosted brownies.



Cool completely before cutting (I recommend putting them in the refrigerator for a while).

Ouch

So Amy has been dogging on me quite a bit. So I changed the template (per her request) and here is a quick post to hopefully ease the criticism:

Mel's Delight

So we call this recipe Mel's delight in our house because our parent's buddy Mel came up with it I think. It is an ice cream dessert...no baking involved...but it involves chocolate and sugar so it counts.

Here's what you need:
1 package Oreo cookies; crushed
Some butter
Any gallon of Ice Cream you like
1 can of Hershey's chocolate syrup
1 can of sweetened condensed milk (14 oz.)

I really eyeball this one (which I know Amy will not like) so here is what I did:

Crushed Oreo's. They don't sell normal sized packs of Oreo's here but I crushed the equivalent of about a pkg and a half...I like my Oreo crust to be pretty thick.

Once Oreo's are crushed, mix in enough melted butter to get Oreo's to stick together (I used about 1 cup) and press mixture into bottom of greased 9x13 inch pan.

I also didn't crush them very finely but it worked out fine.

Then layer ice-cream (I used Mint Chocolate Chip) evenly on top of Oreo's and stick in freezer for a bit.

Then in a small saucepan melt about a tbsp. butter, can of Hershey's and can of sweetened condensed milk and let boil for 30 sec or so. You have to really watch it though or the chocolate will burn. Take ice-cream out of freezer and pour chocolate sauce evenly on top.
Now, this part never works too well for me...my sauce is always really runny and hot of course so it kindof just seeps into the ice cream and Oreo's. It doesn't turn out so pretty but it tastes just fine that way.
Cover and put back in freezer until set. I whipped fresh cream and topped but I have seen it with Cool Whip spread over it as well.
I forgot to snap a pic of the finished product...sorry. It was delicious though!

Matzoh Brittle

Another shout out to Jeannie Ginsberg! Stephen's mom sent us a package of treats, and inside was some Matzoh Brittle. I had never had it before and it was so delicious that I had to make my own. The original recipe called for chocolate on top (which I made) but Jeannie also came up with the ingenious idea of topping the brittle with cinnamon/sugar (which I also made). The recipe is below:

-Preheat oven to 350
-Line a cookie sheet with foil. (Yes, use foil. I didn't have any so I used wax paper which was quite a dumb idea. I swear I really am in graduate school. The brittle ended up sticking to the wax paper and it was a huge pain to get it off). If the cookie sheet doesn't have sides use the foil to form sides.
-Place sheets of matzoh or saltines edge to edge coving the cookie sheet, like so:

-Melt 2 sticks of butter in a pan
-Add 1 cup of sugar
-Bring to a rolling boil
-Pour mixture over the matzoh bake for 13 minutes
-Remove from oven and cover with semi sweet chocolate chips- when they are melted spread evenly
-Put the cookie sheet in the refrigerator to harden chocolate
-Break into pieces and enjoy!

The finished product:And for the cinnamon Matzoh Brittle, follow the same recipe, but instead of spreading the chocolate after taking it out of the oven, spread with cinnamon/sugar. Be generous with the cinnamon/sugar...it takes quite a bit. I have to say that this modification is delicious...I might almost like it better than the chocolate. I know...blasphemy.

Snickerdoodles

Since Katie is seriously slacking in the blogging department, I'll continue to pull her weight. I found some cinnamon chips at the grocery store and decided that I wanted to use them in snickerdoodles. Well, when I came home from the store, I realized that I didn't have any cream of tartar which meant that I couldn't make real snickerdoodles. So, I got creative (or maybe the opposite of creative) and decided to use a cake mix. Below is the quick and easy recipe:

1 yellow cake mix
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Mix sugar and cinnamon; set aside. In a bowl, mix together cake mix, vanilla, oil, and eggs until dough is formed. Shape cookie dough into 1-inch balls. Roll balls in sugar-cinnamon mixture. Bake 8-10 minutes or until golden brown.

Oh, and I stirred in the cinnamon chips once everything else was mixed together. I think they added a nice touch. The cookies were soft and tasty, despite the fact that I cheated to make them.

Chocolate Chip Cake

This recipe comes straight from Jeannie Ginsberg and it is a keeper. It is so moist and delicious and probably one of the easiest cakes I've ever made. I often make it when I need to bring dessert to something and have nearly no time to bake. It needs no frosting, which is saying a lot because you know how much I love frosting! The most time consuming part is shaving the German chocolate. Here's what I used:


Here's the recipe:

1 box yellow cake mix
1 box instant vanilla pudding (no need to make the pudding. Just dump the powder in with everything else)

4oz. oil

4oz. water

4 eggs

8oz. sour cream

6oz. mini chips

2oz. German Choc. bar grated

Mix all ingredients and bake for 50-55 minutes in a greased bundt pan at 350 degrees. I sprinkled the top with powdered sugar just for some extra pizazz.

Next time I think I'll take a picture of the cake once it's cut because this picture doesn't do it justice.

Flourless Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

I became curious about flourless recipes, so while I was looking up recipes for flourless chocolate cake, I was distracted by these little guys. The recipe is quite simple and while the end result is a little different than your average PB cookie, it's still pretty good. Since these cookies have no flour, they are quite fragile. I ruined a few of them just trying to spatula them from the cookie sheet to the cooling rack. They taste much more peanut buttery than regular PB cookies and they are a bit dense and kind of crumbly...kind of like a mix between a cookie and Biscotti. Here's the recipe:

• 1 cup peanut butter (I used creamy but the recipe originally called for super chunky)
  
• 1 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips (about 6 ounces)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Mix first 5 ingredients in medium bowl. Mix in chocolate chips. Using moistened hands, form generous 1 tablespoon dough for each cookie into ball. Arrange on 2 ungreased baking sheets, spacing 2 inches apart.

Bake cookies until puffed, golden on bottom and still soft to touch in center, about 12 minutes. Cool on sheets 5 minutes. Transfer to racks; cool completely.




Here's one of the fallen few:

Heaven

For my birthday, Stephen, Katie and my mom gave me my very own KitchenAid Mixer! I've been wanting one for 3 years and I kept telling myself that once I finish grad school, I'll buy one as my reward. So this unexpected gem came 3 1/2 years early! Anyway, I have no recipe to post but wanted to share my joy. Also, Kate gave me the apron that I'm wearing in the picture. Surprisingly, this is another first for me. Never before have I owned an apron. It was about time and I love this one. You guys are the best and I love all three of you!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Cupcakes

This was not my most successful baking endeavor but I'll blog about it anyway. I wanted to try baking these because when you're combining chocolate chip cookies and cupcakes, how can you go wrong? Well, there are a few ways. Here is the recipe:

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
1 1/4 cups packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg
1 1/4 semisweet chocolate chips (I decided to use mini M&Ms instead)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line muffin tin with paper liners.

In a bowl, mix together flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat together brown sugar and butter until well combined. Add vanilla, beating well. Add egg, beating well. Add flour mixture and beat just until combined. Stir in chocolate chips.


Scoop batter into prepared pan. Bake in preheated over for 18-23 minutes or until cupcakes are puffed and golden (they will be a little soft to the touch in the center and look somewhat undercooked).











Here's where I went wrong:

Let cool IN PAN on rack for 15 minutes or until cooled completely. Remove from pan.

If you don't let them cool before you take them out, the sides of the cupcakes expand and the centers sink in. It's not pretty. I ended up with crater cupcakes, but decided to go ahead and frost them anyway. The recipe for chocolate fudge frosting is below (another place where I went slightly wrong):

-1 1/2 cups confectioner's sugar
-3/4 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder, sifted (I used regular Hershey's unsweetened cocoa powder because that's all I had)
-1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
-2 tbsp chocolate cream liqueur (I used vanilla because I don't have chocolate cream liqueur lying around)
-1 tbsp strong brewed coffee or milk (I used 1/2 tbsp of buttermilk because, for some reason, I had that and not regular milk)
-pinch of salt

In a food processor fitted with a metal blade, process ingredients, scraping down sides as necessary. (I used a hand mixer because that's all I had).

Now, it's hard to say where this frosting experiment went wrong since there were so many possibilities, but the frosting isn't the best I've tasted. It's not terrible, which is why I went ahead and still put it on the cupcakes (that and because the frosting hides the gaping holes in the center) but it's a little chocolatey for my taste and a bit think. Eh, better luck next time.