Brown Butter Peanut Butter Truffle Chocolate Chip Cookies

I've been experimenting with brown butter lately. Before I made it for the first time a couple weeks ago, I did not care for it....I did not know of its powers...I was missing out. Then while I was melting the butter to create brown butter for the first time, I knew. I knew what it must feel like to be in Snape's potion class at Hogwarts whipping up a love potion because after first smell of the browning butter, I was in love. Who knew that just melting the butter for a few minutes and allowing it to brown could change its flavor profile completely. What kind of witchcraft is this!?! I will never look at butter the same. 

About theses cookies. I couldn't resist them when I saw they are made with brown butter. Little did I know that I was baking cookies that could possibly replace our currency. Next time you go get gas, offer the cashier one of these cookies as payment and that should suffice. These went fast. As in, less than 24 hours. Although, there were seven boys in my house last night, so I guess 24 hours is really not that much of a feat. As my friend Mark (one of those cookie-snatching boys I was speaking about earlier) was eating one, he took a bite and said "hey, these are actually pretty good".. he then walked away and a few seconds later he returned with another cookie. I eyed him suspiciously and asked how many cookies he had actually eaten...I don't remember hearing a response coming from his cookie filled mouth. I'm convinced he ate at least four last night. Now you know how I bake so much and am not extremely overweight....I have boys around every corner and in every crevice of my house to eat what I make, thankfully. I did have one before swim practice this morning though. I was going to workout. I burned it off. Then I got home and had another one. I had just worked out. I burned enough calories to eat a cookie. Life is good. 

The peanut butter truffles are hand mixed into this cookie dough until just incorporated and complement the chocolate and brown butter smashingly. This is not a full on peanut butter cookie, but that doesn't mean these cookies don't have a mean peanut butter flavor. Think of these cookies as a chocolate chip cookie gone rouge...they are bad and they know it. 

From: Budding Baktress
Ingredients:

Peanut Butter Truffles

- 1 1/2 cups creamy peanut butter

- 1 1/4 cups powdered sugar

Cookies

- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into chunks

- 1 cup brown sugar

- 1/2 granulated sugar

- 2 large eggs, at room temperature

- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

- 1 teaspoon baking soda

- 1 teaspoon salt

- 1 1/4 cups chocolate chips

1. Line an 8x8-inch baking dish with foil and spray with no-stick cooking spray. In a large bowl, mix powdered sugar and peanut butter until smooth. Spread in baking dish and flatten with hands. Place in freezer for at least 30 minutes.

2. To brown butter, melt butter in a heavy saucepan over medium heat. Whisk frequently and heat until it's golden brown and giving off a nutty aroma. 

3.Remove from heat and pour into a heat-proof bowl; allow to cool to room temperature. This is important because if not cooled to room temperature, the warm butter can cause the cookie to be flat after baking.

4. Preheat oven to 350°F. 

5. Remove peanut butter truffles and cut or tear into small pieces; place back in freezer for at least ten minutes. They won't look perfect and don't have to be cut into perfect squares...as you can tell.


Try and resist nibbling on these truffles...I dare you!

6. In a medium bowl, whisk together the brown sugar, granulated sugar, and browned butter. Whisk in eggs and vanilla. 

7. Using a wooden spoon, stir in flour, baking soda, and salt until just incorporated. 

8. Fold in chocolate chips. Gently fold in chunks of peanut butter truffle. You want them to be visible, not completely blended into the dough. (Note: This makes a lot of peanut butter truffles. Use as much or as little of it as you want!) I used about three fourths of the truffles.

9. Scoop onto a parchment-lined baking sheet, flatten slightly with hand, and bake for 9-12 minutes. Allow to cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes, then remove to cooling rack to cool completely.

Christmas Cookies

My computer has been broken for awhile now, which means my baking has been on full speed ahead. As it SLOWLY gets cold in Alabama, my desire for holiday baked goods begins to build. Last Friday I made sugar cookies, which began the snowball effect. Then on the same day, gingerbread cookies, hot cocoa cookies, and Pizzelles were all made while Christmas music was blaring and the fire roaring. Next thing I knew, I had about a hundred and fifty cookies. What the heck do I do with a hundred and fifty cookies!


 I was cookied-out. I was so caught up in cookie world that in my obliviousness I forgot to take pictures of the final results. But let me assure you, they were delicious.  Noble was there with me to the finish helping me cut-out, bake, and decorate. Thank goodness. Then with flour hand prints on my pants and royal icing on every inch of the kitchen, the cookies were completed!  Although the holiday spirit I had at the beginning of my baking day was almost depleted to nothing after the cookies were finished, the holiday spirit Christmas cookies bring to people make me want to bake 24/7. I love sharing baked goods, and baking these Christmas cookies was only the beginning to many more holiday treats.


For the sake of the amount of cookies made, I am only including links to pages.


All of these cookies required the dough to be refrigerated for at least an hour before baking, so be prepared to wait before baking them. 


Sugar Cookies:
From Glorious Treats
 I made the cookies pretty thin because I wanted them to to be more crispy. The flavor turned out great. Roll the dough out less if you want them to be softer.

Putting parchment or wax paper over the dough before rolling helps the dough not stick to the rolling pin. A tip I wish I knew a longggg time ago. 

Gingerbread Men:
From McCormick 
I was out of Nutmeg, but these still turned out tasty. The flavor was spot on, and they stayed moist and chewy. I'm into gingerbread men.

 Gingerbread family.

You can tell Noble and I were in the kitchen a little too long with this kind of gingerbread man coming out of the oven. He was supposed to have hair... 

Royal Icing:
From: Martha Stewart 
I used vanilla instead of lemon. I am not experienced in the royal icing area, but I though this turned out well. The icing hardened a little more than I had anticipated. To make it thinner,  I added cold water until I got the right consistency.


Hot Cocoa Cookies:
From: Pip & Ebby
I can't say enough about these. Warm out of the oven with melted chocolate and marshmallow on top, these cookies were the highlight of my day. I rolled them in a little flour before rolling them into balls. It helped with the stickiness. They were beautiful too. These would be a great treat to share with friends.

Pizzelles:
From: Post-gazette (we made Mary Bruno's Pizzelles)
Christmas wouldn't be the same without these cookies. My mom has been whipping these up every year since I was little. We substitute the anise extract with almond extract. I always get excited when my mom brings out the Pizzelle iron because these little cookies have so much flavor!

 They look like snowflakes! That is, if we in Alabama actually knew what snowflakes looked like..

-Sarah-

Oatmeal Cream Pies

I think everyone has a favorite Little Debbie treat, although some people don't want to admit their love for Zebra Cakes or Swiss Rolls. But I will go ahead and tell you that I love Oatmeal Cream Pies. Maybe I love them so much because I think I am eating healthy when I see the word "Oatmeal," or maybe it's because they are just so darn tasty. I have always wanted to recreate the amazing "Oatmeal Cream Pie," and I found a recipe that did just that. Now I am not one to claim that "these treats taste like the real thing," but I'm going to just go ahead and say it: these homemade Oatmeal Cream Pies taste like the real thing. They are the closest thing to the original (if not better.) The Oatmeal cookies were soft and chewy, while the Marshmallow filling was nice and fluffy. I always love a good copycat recipe because I no longer have to shamefully hide my face at the grocery store while I am stuffing Little Debbie treats into my cart. These are simple to make, which is why I will make them over and over and over and over....


From: FakeGinger
Ingredients for Cookies:
- 1 cup butter
- 3/4 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 2 eggs
- 1 1/2 cups flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon - 1 tablespoon cocoa powder
- 1 1/2 cups quick oats

Ingredients for Cream Filling:

- 1/2 cup Butter or Cream Cheese(we used Cream Cheese because we were out of butter)

- 1 1/2 cups marshmallow cream
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla- 1-2 tablespoons milk

Directions for Cookies:

- Cream together the butter and sugars in a mixer.

- Beat in vanilla and the eggs, one at a time until well   incorporated. 

- In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, cocoa powder, and oats. Beat into the cream mixture.

- Drop about 2-3 tbsp. (depending on how large you want the cookies) of dough onto an ungreased cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes.

- The centers should still be slightly underdone when you remove them from the oven. Cool completely on a wire rack.

- Spread about 1-2 tbsp of cream filling on the bottom of one cookie and then top with another cookie.

Directions for Frosting:

- Cream the shortening with the marshmallow cream

- Then add the powdered sugar and vanilla, beat on low for about a minute.

- If it’s too thick, add a little water. You want it to be spreadable but not runny

-Sarah-

Apple Crisp

When I think of most apple recipes I tend to think that they all taste the same. Apple pie, apple cobbler, apple crisp, apple buckle...blah, blah, blah. Convincing myself to make an apple dessert after I have already made an apple pie was hard. But apple pies are delicious, so why don't I just make another apple dessert? And that is exactly what I did; I made an amazing apple crisp. After taking the first bite into this apple crisp, my preconceived judgments of all apple desserts being the same was proved wrong. This crisp is completely different from an apple pie and it's super delicious. I would encourage anyone who loves apple and spices to make this!

Ingredients for Filling:

- 5 Granny Smith apples

- 1/4 cup. finely chopped Pecans

- 3 tbsp. All-Purpose Flour

- 1/2 cup. Brown Sugar

- 2 tbsp. Maple Syrup

- 1 tbsp. Lemon Juice

Directions for Filling:

1. Peel and cut apples into to medium size pieces.

2. Mix all the ingredients together, and place in dish.

Ingredients for Topping:

- 3/4 cup All-Purpose Flour

- 1/3 cup Brown Sugar

- 1/4 tsp. Ground Cinnamon

- 1/4 tsp. Salt

- 6 tbsp. Chilled Butter

Directions for Topping:
1. Mix the flour, brown sugar, cinnamon and salt in large bowl.  2. Blend the butter into the mixture until it forms pea size lumps

3.  sprinkle over filling. Bake crisps on 350 for 35 to 40 minutes.

-Sarah-