Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies

I had something different planned for Kevin. However, I can't remember what it was because about a week after Thanksgiving he sent me a picture of a recipe for some chocolate-covered peanut butter "cookies" and said I should make them sometime. I figured (and got confirmation) that he wanted these to be his Christmas present. They didn't seem too hard to make: about 4 ingredients for the main "cookie" and melted chocolate for dipping. So I switched gears. It didn't take me long to make them either (well, kinda - more on that in the notes). He loved them - as did everyone else who tried them. 

Also, I found out where he got the recipe: apparently the company he works for has a family business as one of their clients (or something along those lines) and they brought these in one day as a thank you with the recipe attached.

Chocolate-Brownie Biscotti

Confession: Kevin's recipe was a backup. I didn't know what to make for Kevin at first. My indecisiveness kicked in, as always. I did, however, pick out a recipe for Helen (his fiancé[!!]) as a backup in case I couldn't find a Filipino cookie recipe. When I did find a recipe, I decided to use the other recipe as Kevin's gift. I found it in one of the grocery store magazines I used to constantly buy. This one was from Good Housekeeping and specific to the holidays.

Scotcheroos

When I was growing up we'd spend most of our 4th of Julys camping on Camano Island. My dad's high school friend's parents owned property there and my dad and all their friends had been camping there since they met. This is where I first remember having scotcheroos: peanut butter Rice Krispies treats topped with a melted chocolate-butterscotch chips mixture. I even copied the recipe from what the mom had written down - which ended up being unnecessary as it's pretty much from Rice Krispies itself.

I'd been craving them for a while so I decided to make them for Rowan Fae's annual St. Patrick's Day weekend road trip - except due to scheduling conflicts, we only had two shows on Sunday night. Oh well - these last a while so more for me!

Peanut Butter Brownies

Helen's present was another recipe I decided to make during the week. Since last year's Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge was successful, I decided to do the chocolate-peanut butter combo again this year. After doing lemon brownies for Anthony a couple years ago for his birthday, I decided to see if peanut butter brownies were a thing (also, brownies and bar cookies are easy to do in just a couple hours). Turns out, they are! The recipe I found in Taste of Home Best-Loved Cookies & Candies 2012 special issue even has chocolate chips in it, which I was gonna put in anyway.

Peanut Butter Brookies

I love and hate the holiday season. Love because Christmas music and movies are awesome and there's all kinds of treats. Hate because I bake treats for almost a dozen people (not to mention make candy for 5 cousins) so it can get a bit overwhelming. I technically only have one main day - Saturday - to take my time to bake since Sundays I have to leave mid-afternoon for dance class and the rest of the week I work. So I sometimes pick a few recipes that are quick to make.

Like for Kati's present. I also kinda wanted to make something that's been a trend for a few years - brookies (a brownie-cookie hybrid). There are a few different ways to make them. The one I chose is layered - one layer of cookie dough and one layer of brownie batter. The recipe I found on Jen's Favorite Cookies allows a box mix for the brownie layer (and honestly, why not? Box mix brownies are THE BEST of all mix choices). And they bake at the same time. Bonus - the cookie layer has peanut butter in it.

Stuffed Peanut Butter S'mores Bars

I'm starting to think that peanut butter is a bit of a staple in my family since as far as I know, every likes it (well, except Carly obviously. But I've always thought that if she weren't allergic to nuts, she'd be a fan too). Especially when paired with chocolate. So of course I wasn't surprised when I texted Helen for more flavor ideas for Kevin's birthday present and she said he liked chocolate peanut butter. She also told me that he likes anything s'mores-flavored.

That last one got the decisive gears going in my head. I started by looking at the books and magazines and got lucky right off the bat. I had gotten a couple recipe books at a store in Chelan called The Culinary Apple (it's one of those stores that sells all kinds of pots, pans, dishes, tools, and other stuff for the kitchen). One of which is all about s'mores - not just ways to enhance the traditional s'more but also all kinds of treats with chocolate, marshmallow, and grahams. The one that stuck out to me was a bars recipe with peanut butter cups.

Gifts for others

Don't worry, I didn't forget my dad! As I said in Mom's post, I try not to do something different for my dad after that cake I made him a couple years ago with frosting that wasn't our family's chocolate recipe. So this year I decided to combine his two favorite cookies: M&M (whenever Nonni makes a batch for a family gathering he always claims she made them for him only) and peanut butter chocolate chip. The result looked interesting but Dad seemed to like it (he was a bit secretive so everyone else wouldn't know if they were good or not). I might just make these for myself one day!

I've also given candy to the cousins (Chiara, Carly, Matteo, Declan, and Gianna) for the last few years. They're very easy to make: just get Wilton's Candy Melts (I honestly have no idea if other baking brands have similar products), melt them down, pour them into candy molds, stick in the fridge or freezer until firm, and pop out. I even got a candy melting and decorating tool to make things easier. I feel like I didn't make as many candies this year but I don't think the kids cared.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge

The only other flavor I had to go on for Helen was peanut butter. Which is probably just as broad as chocolate, even when the two are paired together. I decided to find something simple and quick since most of the other recipes I chose were a bit more complex and lengthy to do and I wanted to give myself a break at one point (as well as have a couple free days for holiday events that came up, seeing as how I didn't plan very well for when I'd make which recipe). I finally decided on Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge from The Bitter Side of Sweet.

Peanut Butter Dog Treats

Our family grew a little bit in 2017 when back in March Anthony and Kati got a dog. They named him Dan, after Anthony's favorite baseball player Dan Wilson. At first I wasn't going to make him anything but after a while I decided "Why not?" Apparently there are a lot of recipes for homemade dog treats with two main ingredients: peanut butter and meat (usually bacon). I decided to keep it simple and just stick with peanut butter dog treats. I ended up finding an easy recipe on Puppy Leaks.

Peanut Butter Caramel Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies

Back in December I decided to bake the gifts I gave my family (parents, brothers, brothers' SOs, grandmas). With my mom's help (because I suck at paying attention to and remembering people's eating habits), I started compiling a list of everyone's favorite flavors. Since baking gifts has been successful so far, I kept the list for future reference. Like Anthony's birthday. I decided to take a chance and use the flavors of his favorite candy bar Twix, even though caramel wasn't on my list of his favorite flavors. After searching through my Cookies Pinterest board, I finally decided on Peanut Butter Caramel Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies from Sugar & Soul. In a way it's like the cookie version of a Peanut Butter Twix so I couldn't go wrong.

Chocolate Sheet Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting

This year the Super Bowl coincidentally landed on the day after my dad's birthday. So when I asked my mom what she and Dad were doing for the game, she decided to invite friends over and asked me to contribute a birthday cake for my dad. I decided to focus on peanut butter and chocolate since Dad loves both flavors. And because I knew I'd be baking his cookies, I decided to look at the cake mix books I have in search of a chocolate or peanut butter cake I could dress up. I quickly found a Chocolate Sheet Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting in the first Cake Mix Doctor book.

Peanut Butter Cookies with Chocolate Chips

Ever year on our way to Lake Chelan, everyone in the family has to stop at the Cle Elum bakery. They have these Italian cookies called torchetti that we all love as well as fresh doughnuts and other baked goods. My dad's favorite is Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip cookies. When my mom and I stop, we always get a dozen just for Dad (we tend to go before him). So for his birthday I decided I'd try to make them myself. I decided to use a basic peanut butter cookie recipe from the Betty Crocker Cookie Book and just add chocolate chips.

Snickers Stuffed Peanut Butter Cookies

After the success of my mom's Mother's Day gift, I decided to do the same for my dad. I figured I could do one of two things: make peanut butter chocolate chip cookies, Dad's favorite from the Cle Elum Bakery, or make something with Snickers, Dad's favorite candy. I decided to start searching for Snickers recipes and make the other ones if I lucked out.

I started searching on Pinterest since I just joined and recipes are one of the types of pins that the site has plenty of (plus I've discovered that you have to have a Pinterest account in order to see the Pinterest search pages that come up in a Google search). I decided to stick with cookies or bars since those are easy to box up. A few pins down, I came across a recipe for Snickers stuffed peanut butter cookies from Crazy for Crust. Like with Mom's bars, these combined two of Dad's favorite things: peanut butter and Snickers. Jackpot!

Peanut Butter Truffle Brownies

Over the last few years I've lost interest in using box mixes to make cakes and brownies. Sure they're good in a pinch but why not make something from scratch? That's why I try to save recipes and buy cookbooks that embellish the box mixes. And when I decided earlier this week that I wanted to make peanut butter brownies to "break in" my new KitchenAid stand mixer and bake for the first time in my new apartment, I ended up finding a recipe similar to what I wanted in Betty Crocker's Fix with a Mix Desserts cookbook. It's not exactly what I wanted but I couldn't find that. And as I've said before, I'm no good at creating recipes on my own.

My new toy. Isn't it purrty?

Tagalong Cake Bars

Sometimes you gotta bake something that you're not gonna eat. Like yesterday: I had the random urge to bake and decided to use the for-baking Tagalongs I'd bought last year. Despite the fact that I gave up chocolate for Lent and wouldn't be able to have whatever I made until Easter. Still, I've baked with chocolate during previous Lents and had a much harder time not licking the spoon than I did this time. So I did a little searching and came across the Tagalong version of the Thin Mint Gooey Cake Bars I had made last year for Kevin's birthday. Apparently the food bloggers who posted the recipes are friends who had gotten together and made some delicious magic. (I do at times wish I had a friend like this.)

Peanut Butter Blossoms

'Tis the season to be baking! Since the 1st of December, my mom and I have been steadily baking, making at least two different types of cookies per week (all of which have gone into the freezer to keep fresh for Christmas). My mom made a list of what she wanted to make this year and it was pretty obvious who was making what: some were for her to make (like the Russian Tea Cakes/Mexican Wedding Cakes that I don't care for) and others were for me to make - like Peanut Butter Blossoms. I've always loved making these. What's not to like: Hershey's Kisses + peanut butter = yum!

Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Cake

I love my cousin Carly. She's one of my favorite people. She's sweet, creative, and loves to hug. That being said, there's one thing I don't like about her: the fact that she's allergic to peanuts. As much as I don't like baking with nuts as an ingredient, I LOVE peanut butter and baking with it. Except I can't choose a recipe with peanut butter when picking a recipe for family gatherings (which isn't a problem: there are plenty of peanut butter-less recipes). So when my parents decided to have friends over yesterday - no family - I jumped at the chance to bake something with peanut butter. I started in the Reese's recipe folder of my bookmarks and came across this simple chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting from Dulce Dough.