Marbled Peanut Butter + Chocolate Cookies

There is a cookie company out of Highland Park, IL called Carol's Cookies. If you haven't had the pleasure of enjoying one of their massive 1/2 lb cookies yet don't waste any time running to your nearest whole foods. I had a really delicious peanut butter chocolate combo cookie the other day, it was rich with peanut butter taste and had chocolate swirls throughout. I wanted to try and recreate this cookie so I decided to use my go-to peanut butter cookie with the additio of oatmeal. I then planned to marble in a chocolate cookie dough. It definitely was not like Carol's (I can't figure out her secret) but they were good. Next time I think I will try to marble in some sweet ground chocolate instead of a chocolate cookie dough... I will report back.

Here is the recipe I used for the chocolate cookie part. Click here for my peanut butter cookie recipe. To marble the cookies, throw in pieces of the chocolate dough into the peanut butter. Lightly combine the doughs using a mixer. Do not over combine.

Cocoa Cookies:

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

2/3 cup cocoa powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup butter, softened

3/4 cup sugar

2/3 brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 large eggs

Combine flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt in a small bown. Beat butter, sugars and vanilla in large mixer bowl until creamy. Add eggs, beat well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Bake at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes

Classic Peanut Butter Cookies

It was brought to my attention that I should try to master and perfect 5 "classic" cookies; what's considered classic may vary but I think chocolate chip, sugar, peanut butter and oatmeal raisin are definitely four traditional cookies found in almost every bakery. Accepting the challenge I spent two days this weekend testing out a recipe for old fashioned peanut butter cookies.

The first batch was good, the recipe I used had the perfect peanut butter flavor I was looking for and the right consistency, being crunchy but soft. The only problem was that I had made the cookies a little too small. I brought this batch to work and they were well received by everyone, one of my co-workers even proposed marriage as a result.

I made a second batch of these on Saturday. I doubled the size of the cookies this time using two scoops of dough and pressing them together. They came out absolutely perfect.

One cookie down, four more to go.

Peanut Butter Cookies

Adapted from Bon Appetit

3 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1 cup unsalted butter, room temp

1 cup chunky peanut butter (using chunky PB is the trick to adding the perfect crunch)

2 tsp vanilla

1 cup brown sugar, packed

1 cup sugar

2 large eggs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Mix together flour, baking powder and salt in medium bowl and set aside. Using an electric mixer fit with a paddle attachment beat together butter, peanut butter and vanilla until well blended. Beat in both sugars, add eggs one at a time, scraping down sides of the bowl after each addition. Gradually mix the dry ingredients and beat until just combined.

Using a dough scoop place dough 2 1/2 inches apart on baking sheet lined with parchment paper or silpat. Using the back of a fork flatten the dough and form a crosshatch design on top of each cookie. Bake until cookies are golden brown on the bottom, 12-14 minutes. Cool completely and enjoy.

Baking for My Life - Peanut Butter Cup Brownies

Apologies for the terrible picture quality, but apparently my camera, kitchen and life in general prevent me from taking decent pictures.

I made up my mind to bake tonight for a couple reasons. 1) I was threatened by Katie and Krissy that if I didn't post this week, I would be kicked off the blog for good. My face would be blacked out, and Atlanta would be stricken from the site. 2) One of our favorite partners is visiting from the DC office and residing on our hall for the week. Hopefully these treats will continue to endear him to us.

Due to the aforementioned reasons, I paged through one of the cookbooks I got for Christmas (which I love) and tried to find a recipe that I had most of the ingredients for. Brownies won the battle as I was only missing one egg and an ounce of chocolate. As I was making them, I remembered my last visit to NYC during Katie's first stint living there. We went to Fat Witch Brownies in some market that I can't remember the name of. They were some of the tastiest brownies I've ever had, and I spent the majority of my time crossing my fingers that these brownies would turn out even half as good. Turns out they are at least half as good. Bake these simple to make treats if you want to impress your friends with something that didn't come from a box.

Peanut Butter Cup Brownies

Adapted from How To Be A Domestic Goddess

1 2/3 cups unsalted butter, softened

13 ounces best bittersweet chocolate

6 large eggs

1 tablespoon vanilla

1 2/3 cups sugar

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 bag mini peanut butter cups (you can add more depending on your taste)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a 13x9 pan with foil or parchment. Melt the butter and chocolate together in a large pan. In a bowl, beat eggs, vanilla and sugar. Measure the flour into another bowl and add the salt.

When the chocolate mixture has melted, let it cool a bit before beating it into the eggs and sugar. Add flour in parts and beat until smooth. Coarse chop the mini peanut butter cups and fold into the batter. Pour into the lined pan.

Bake for about 25 minutes. When it's ready, the top should be dried to a paler brown speckle, but the middle still dark and dense and gooey. You may think they're not done yet, but they'll continue to cook as they cool. And who doesn't like brownies that might not be completely cooked? Makes a maximum of 48.

Cookie Nine and Ten: Peanut Butter Kisses and Peanut Butter Thumbprints

I came up with our idea to do the "12 cookies of christmas" and I will be the first to admit that it did not go as planned. I have been completely overwhelmed in the past couple of weeks with work, holiday parties, a wedding and entertaining some visiting friends. Tonight, I needed to make two more cookies before Christmas so I decided on a quick but tasty holiday cookie - the peanut butter kiss. This cookie is nothing fancy but its a no-fail recipe, straight off the Hershey Kiss bag. I ended up running out of chocolate kisses and decided to fill the rest of the cookies with jam to make a sort of pb&j cookie. It turned out to be quite the time saver, one dough for two deeelicious cookies. Holiday cookies in a flash...


Peanut Butter Kiss/ Jam Thumbprints
From Hershey's.com

1/2 cup butter, softened (the original recipe uses shortening)
3/4 cup creamy Peanut Butter (I used jif)
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1 egg
2 tbsp milk
1 tap vanilla extract
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
Granulated sugar

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Beat together butter and peanut butter. Combine flour, baking soda and salt in a small bowl and set aside. Add sugars to peanut butter mixture and beat until fluffy. Mix in the egg, milk and vanilla, beat well. Stir in the flour mixture. Scoop dough into 1-inch balls and roll into granulated sugar. Bake for 8 minutes. Immediately after removing from the oven press a Hershey kiss into the center, let cool.

For the thumbprints:
Scoop the dough into 1-inch balls and place on cookie sheet. Using your thumb gently press into the center of each cookie to make a small indentation. Bake for 8 minutes. Once the cookies have cooled pipe or spoon jam into the center.

Peanut Butter Crispy Bars, a Baked NYC recipe

oh.my.god.

Creamy milk chocolate peanut butter, decadent dark chocolate and the perfect amount of crunch…. This is the ultimate dessert in perfected form. I made these for my friends at work for my first day back. Thankfully I was able to remove them from my house before I managed to eat the entire batch by myself.




Peanut Butter Crispy Bars
Adapted from Baked: New Frontiers in Baking

For the Crispy Crust
- 1 ¾ cups crisped rice cereal
- ¼ cup sugar
- 3 tablespoons light corn syrup
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

For the Milk Chocolate Peanut Butter Layer
- 5 ounces good-quality milk chocolate coarsely chopped (I used ghiradelli)
- 1 cup creamy peanut butter (I used Natural Jif)

For the Chocolate Icing
- 3 ounces dark chocolate (60 to 72% cacao), coarsely chopped
- ½ teaspoon light corn syrup
- 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter

Make the Crispy Crust:
Lightly spray a paper towel with nonstick cooking spray and use it to rub the bottom and sides of an 8-inch square baking pan.

Put the cereal in a large bowl and set aside.

Pour ¼ cup water into a small saucepan. Gently add the sugar and corn syrup (do not let any sugar or corn syrup touch the sides of the pan) and use a small wooden spoon to stir the mixture until just combined. Put a candy thermometer in the saucepan. Cook over medium-high heat and bring to a boil; cook until the mixture reaches the soft ball stage, 235 degrees F.

Remove from the heat, stir in the butter, and pour the mixture over the cereal. Working quickly, stir until the cereal is thoroughly coated, then pour it into the prepared pan. Using your hands, press the mixture into the bottom of the pan (do not press up the sides). Let the crust cool to room temperature while you make the next layer.

Make the Milk Chocolate Peanut Butter Layer:
In a large nonreactive metal bowl, stir together the chocolate and peanut butter. Set the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water and cook, stirring with a rubber spatula, until the mixture is smooth. Remove the bowl from the pan and stir for about 30 seconds to cool slightly. Pour the mixture over the cooled crust. Put the pan in the refrigerator for 1 hour, or until the top layer hardens.

Make the Chocolate Icing:
Combine the chocolate, corn syrup and butter in a large nonreactive metal bowl and follow the same steps as the Milk Chocolate Peanut Butter Layer.

Once you pour the chocolate icing over the chilled milk chocolate layer, refrigerate the pan for 1 hour or until the top hardens.

Cut into 9 squares and serve. The bars can be stored in the refrigerator, covered tightly, for up to four days.