Tag: peanut butter

Buckeyes

buckeye

 

 

 

 

 

Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups are my favorite commercial candy, and this recipe reminds me of a slightly sweeter version of the classic cup. If you search the internet, you’ll find dozens of recipes for buckeyes, all different, from the ingredients to the process to the preference for dipping partway or dipping completely. Whichever one you choose, you can’t go wrong. My recipe is very simple, using three ingredients for the filling and Baker’s dipping chocolate, which you can find in the baking aisle at the supermarket, for the coating. Someday, I plan to make buckeyes that are coated in chocolate mixed with paraffin wax, like my brave friend Mysty, but I’m not quite there yet.

Full disclosure: I made these buckeyes as a Christmas gift for myself. And no, I am not sharing.

Ingredients

  • 3 tablespoons butter, softened
  • 1/2 cup peanut butter
  • 1 cup powdered sugar, sifted
  • 1 7-ounce cup Baker’s dipping chocolate candy coating

Preparation

In a medium bowl, stir together butter and peanut butter until very well blended.

Add powdered sugar a quarter-cup at a time, mixing until very well combined. I use my hands to make sure the ingredients are completely incorporated and smooth.

Using a one-inch cookie scoop, scoop out peanut butter filling and roll into balls. Let stand on a parchment or waxed paper-lined baking sheet until dry, about 30 minutes.

Melt candy coating according to the package directions. Dip peanut butter balls into candy coating and return to baking sheet, then let stand until coating has hardened. I place my baking sheet in the fridge to help the coating set, then store the finished buckeyes in the fridge.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars

choc pb barsMy dear friend Bryan lives in New Mexico, and he’s very supportive of my baking endeavors. I promised to bake and blog something just for him, so, ta daaa, chocolate peanut butter bars!

Bryan and I worked together in the visitor services department at the National Building Museum in DC; I believe we first bonded over having grown up sixty miles apart in Wheeling, WV and Pittsburgh respectively. One of my favorite memories with Bryan is the day he and I conducted visitor services research (read: ran around checking out signage, exhibits, and having great fun) at other museums. Though we lost touch for a while because of job changes and moves, I was happy to reconnect with Bryan on Facebook, where you can find us liking each others statuses every five minutes.

I admire Bryan for many reasons. He’s a therapist, so he helps people make sense of their lives. He’s a great husband, doing thoughtful, awesome things for his husband Paul. He is passionately committed to causes that are of great interest to me, and he’s the kind of person who states his position with not only great conviction, but respect for alternative points of view.

If I could manage to ship these tasty bars to Bryan, I would! They feature oats, chocolate chips, and peanut butter, which are among my favorite things, and therefore fitting for one of my favorite people.

Ingredients

  • 2 cups oats
  • 1 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
  • 1 cup flour
  • 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 cup butter, slightly softened
  • 1/2 cup chopped peanuts
  • 1 12-ounce package semisweet chocolate chips
  • 1 beaten egg
  • 1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
  • 1/3 cup peanut butter

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large mixing bowl, combine oats, brown sugar, flours, baking powder, and baking soda.

Add butter and rub in with your hands until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

Stir in peanuts.

In a separate bowl, combine 1 3/4 oat mixture with chocolate chips; set aside to use as topping.

In a large measuring cup, combine peanut butter and sweetened condensed milk and whisk until smooth; set aside to use as filling.

Add beaten egg to remainder of oat mixture and mix well; press into bottom of a 15x10x1 pan.

Bake for 15 minutes; remove from oven and pour filling over bottom crust, then top with chocolate chip oat mixture.

Bake for another 15-20 minutes, until golden brown.

Cool on a wire rack.

Peanut Butter Cream Cheese Frosting

 

 

 

 

 

According to Wikipedia (truly an informational authority), peanut butter-type pastes have been around since the Aztecs. Peanut butter as we know it today was pioneered separately by Canadian Marcellus Gilmore Edson, who experimented with milling roasted peanuts between two heated surfaces until they became semi-liquid, and by Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, the Michigan physician and cereal magnate.

However it came to be, peanut butter is possibly my favorite food. I’m a Jif loyalist, too, so you’ll never find a jar of Skippy or Peter Pan anywhere in my kitchen. Peanut butter is an amazing ingredient for baking, and when combined with cream cheese, powdered sugar, and a bit of vanilla, it creates a smooth, creamy frosting that pairs well with many cakes. This recipe yields enough for 24 cupcakes.

Ingredients

  • 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
  • 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
  • 3 to 3 1/2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preparation

In a mixing bowl, cream together peanut butter and cream cheese.

Gradually add powdered sugar and beat until smooth.

Beat in vanilla until incorporated.

Peanut Butter Dog Treats

 

 

 

 

 

Millie is our dog.  We adopted her from a local animal shelter less than a month after we moved into our house four years ago.  I’ve never loved anything more than I love Millie.  And yes, Mike is fully aware of that.

Millie and I get along so well because we share an appreciation for meat, cheese, and carbs.  She is an effective beggar, so I admit that Mike and I give in, often sharing a strip of bacon, a bite of turkey, or a slice of cheese at the sight of her sweet, I’m-a-good-dog face.  Nothing rivals Millie’s love of carbs, though.  She likes to steal pizza crust off of plates and once snatched a loaf of challah from the counter, ate half, then left the other half shoved under the cushion on the living room chair.  She has eaten the top crust of an apple pie, an entire platter of rugelach cookies, and, most recently, the remainder of a peach cobbler.

Because I bake for the ones I love, I can’t leave Millie out.  These treats were adapted from larger recipe, which I cut in half to make a smaller batch; this yielded 15 treats.  I used a four-inch bone-shaped cookie cutter, but you could use any shape you like or roll the dough into balls and flatten them with the tines of a fork, the way you would for peanut butter cookies.

 Ingredients

  • 1 cup whole wheat flour
  • 1/2 cup rolled oats
  • 1/4 cup peanut butter
  • 5 ounces hot water (just below the 2/3 cup line on a glass measure)

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large mixing bowl, stir together flour and oats.

Add peanut butter and water and mix with a fork until combined, then knead together with your hands to form a very pliable dough.

Turn out dough onto a lightly floured surface and roll to 1/4 inch thickness.

Cut with a bone-shaped cutter and transfer to a cookie sheet using an offset spatula to prevent them from breaking.

Bake for 40 minutes; treats will be hard to the touch, like any store-bought treat.

Cool on a wire rack and store at room temperature for up to one week.

Treats can be kept in the fridge for up to three weeks or frozen for up to six months.

Meet Millie

Millie is a seven or eight year-old Rottweiler-Lab mix who enjoys napping, snuggling, barking ferociously at the mail man, and digging large holes in Mike’s garden beds.

Below, Millie snuggles with her Grandma Genny (my mom) on our sofa.

Peanut Butter Molasses Cookies

 

 

 

 

 

Mary Janes were among my favorite penny candy, along with Bit O’ Honey and Tootsie Rolls.  The corner store in my neighborhood, which closed in my early teens, had shelves of penny candy and small paper bags that eager children could fill to their heart’s delight.

These cookies are modeled on the Mary Jane, featuring peanut butter, molasses, and dark brown sugar.  While you could certainly use light brown sugar, dark brown sugar has a higher quantity of molasses in it and will yield a richer flavor; you could also use crunchy, rather than smooth, peanut butter for another dimension of texture.

Ingredients

  • 2 2/3 cups flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 3/4 cups dark brown sugar
  • 12 tablespoons butter
  • 1/4 cup shortening
  • 2/3 cup peanut butter
  • 1/4 cup molasses (not blackstrap)
  • 2 eggs
  • About 1 cup unsalted peanuts, coarsely chopped

Preparation

In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside.

In a mixing bowl, cream together dark brown sugar, butter, shortening, peanut butter, and molasses until very well combined and fluffy, about two minutes.

Add eggs and beat well, about two minutes.

Add one-half of the flour mixture and beat until combined.

Add the remaining flour mixture and beat until combined.

Cover and chill dough at least one hour or until firm and easy to handle.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Line several baking sheets with foil and spray very lightly with cooking spray. (Note: I do not re-spray sheets after they have baked, as I find that there is enough residual spray left on the sheets so the cookies do not stick.)

Using a one-inch cookie scoop, scoop very generous portions of dough and roll into balls; dip one-half of each ball in chopped peanuts, pressing lightly to embed the nuts in the dough.

Place on the baking sheet about two inches apart and bake for 10 minutes.

Remove from oven; cool cookies on the baking sheet on a wire rack for two to three minutes, then remove cookies and cool completely on another rack.

Peanut Butter Cookies

My mom Genny will be the first to admit that she’s not Betty Crocker.  She certainly bakes with Betty’s help though, employing boxed mixes or pouches that require only an addition of eggs and water to produce whatever cookie, cake, or treat she wishes to make.

Genny’s recipe for peanut butter cookies involves a box of yellow cake mix, peanut butter, a few eggs, and probably some oil.  I’m not sure where she got this recipe, or why cake mix is involved, but it turns out a pretty tasty cookie.  Especially when a Hershey’s Kiss is plopped in the middle.

The recipe below yields a classic homemade peanut butter cookie and isn’t meant for the Hershey’s Kiss; that recipe requires a slightly sturdier dough made with shortening and a different quantity of flour.  If you want to get creative with this recipe, try pressing some milk chocolate chips into the tops of these cookies when they are right out of the oven.

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup butter, slightly softened
  • 1/2 cup peanut butter
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 egg
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1 1/4 cups flour
  • Granulated sugar, for rolling

Preparation

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a mixing bowl, combine butter and peanut butter; beat on medium speed for 30 seconds.

Add sugar, brown sugar, baking soda, and baking powder; beat until combined.

Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add the egg and vanilla; beat until combined.

Add flour and beat until combined.

Using a one-inch cookie scoop, scoop out dough and roll into balls, then roll in granulated sugar.

Place on an ungreased cookie sheet about 2 inches apart, then press a crisscross pattern into the top of each cookie with a fork.

Bake for 8-10 minutes, until just golden brown. The centers of the cookies should still be puffy and look somewhat raw; that’s okay, as they’ll continue to bake as they cool on the baking sheets.

Cool on the baking sheet for a few minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Peanut Butter Cupcakes with Fudge Frosting

My mom gave me the Better Homes & Gardens New Cook Book in 1999, just a few months before Mike and I got married.  It’s the most useful cookbook I own, complete with fun tips about ingredient substitutions, how to enhance cake batter, and the benefits of baking with butter versus margarine.

This peanut butter cupcake recipe came from the “All Time Favorites” section of the BHG New Cook Book and was originally published in 1953.  It pairs very well with my favorite fudge frosting, which has been featured previously on this blog, but these could easily be frosted with peanut butter or dusted with powdered sugar.

Peanut Butter Cupcakes

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup peanut butter
  • 1/3 cup shortening
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 cups flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 3/4 cup milk

Preparation

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Line 24 muffin cups with paper liners.

Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl; set aside.

In a mixing bowl, beat peanut butter, shortening, and vanilla on medium speed until combined.

Add brown sugar and beat until fluffy, scraping the sides of the bowl several times.

Add eggs, one at a time, and beat until combined.

Add flour mixture and milk alternatively, beating until combined.  The batter will be thick and fluffy.

Spoon batter into muffin cups, filling halfway full.

Bake for 20-22 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Cool completely before frosting.