Valentine's Day Peanut Butter and Jam Cookies

I adore February.  I love that there is a little more sunshine filtering through my windows.  I love that I can buy tulips at the grocery store.  And I love that we focus just a little bit more on how much we love those special people that we have in our lives.  At our house, it's Love Month.  And nothing in the world says, "I love you" to my husband quite like peanut butter cookies. 

 

 

I make these cookies often and I have used different fillings for them.  I have used Michigan Tart Cherry, Raspberry, Strawberry, Grape and even milk chocolate.  The monsters prefer strawberry, which is what I used here. 

 

The ingredients are very straightforward and probably things that you already have on hand. 

 

For four dozen cookies, you will need:

- 3 cups of all-purpose flour, sifted

- 3 tsp. baking powder

- 1/2 tsp. salt

- 2 sticks of unsalted butter, room temperature

- 1 cup granulated sugar

- 1 cup brown sugar, packed

- 2 cups creamy peanut butter

- 2 large eggs, room temperature

- 2/3 cups of your favorite jam, seedless works best

 

1.  Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

2.  Sift together your dry ingredients in a medium bowl and set aside.

3.  Cream together the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Be mindful that you are scraping down the sides of the bowl.

4.  Add the peanut butter and then the eggs, one at a time and mix until well incorporated.

5.  Slowly add the dry ingredients.  Slowly.  Unless of course you want flour on the ceiling.  In that case, rock it out.  Send me pictures. 

6.  Do not overmix this dough.  You want soft and fluffy, not hockey puck.

7.  Once everything is happily incorporated, the dough should have almost a playdoh consistency.  It should be very easy to handle.  Roll the dough into balls about 1 to 1-1/2 Tablespoon size.  You don't want them too small because you won't be able to add the heart without the cookie falling apart.  Find the size that you are comfortable with.

**If you would like to freeze this dough, go right ahead.  Once I roll the dough into individual balls, I fill a half sheet pan with them and stick them in the freezer until they are frozen through.  Once completely frozen, add to a Ziploc bag.  Whenever you are ready to bake them, just set however many you need out on the counter for about 20 minutes and you will be ready to proceed to the next step.** 

8.  Now that you have lined up the dough balls on your cookie sheet (lined with parchment paper or a silpat liner, please) then you will need to gently flatten them with the bottom of a glass.  Don't pancake them, just flatten the top so that you give yourself a smooth surface to work with.
9.  Using the end of a wooden spoon, make three indentations so that they form an inverted triangle.  That usually gives me the best guide on how to make my heart. 
10.  Slide these in the oven for 12 minutes at 350 degrees.  You did preheat your oven, yes?

11.  After 12 minutes, you can see that the indentations puffed up a bit.  Take the wooden spoon again and just flatten out the hearts again.
12.  Warm up your jam in the microwave about 20-30 seconds, or until it is smooth and easily stirred.  This will make your life easier as you take a spoon and gently pour the warmed jam into the heart indentations.  Slow and steady.
13.  Once all of the hearts have been filled, slide them back into the oven for an additional seven minutes. 

 

And there you go.  Perfectly adorable cookies for that special someone on Valentine's Day.  What are you baking this February?

 

Pumpkin Pie Cupcakes

I keep thinking that I will eventually get tired of all the pumpkin.  And yet, I don't.  I just keep adding more and more cans of pumpkin to my cart every time I go to the grocery store.  If I get really brave, I might actually figure out how to use an actual pumpkin, but let's not get crazy. 

Allow me to introduce you to the cupcake to end all cupcakes... The Pumpkin Pie Cupcake with Whipped Cream frosting.  It is one of those recipes that I will return to over and over again.  And I owe all the thanks in the world to Your Cup of Cake, which is quickly becoming my favorite website.  Move over Facebook, I've got cupcakes to bake.  I made a few small adaptations to the recipe, but nothing epic. 

 
For the cupcakes you will need:

24 Golden Oreos (of which you are only going to use the half with the cream)

1/2 cup oil

1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce

3 eggs

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1-1/2 cups granulated sugar

1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

15 ounces pumpkin puree (this is the small can - not pumpkin pie mix)

2-3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice

2 teaspoons cinnamon

2 teaspoons nutmeg

1 teaspoon cardamom

1/2 teaspoon salt

 

For the  frosting you will need:

1 pint heavy whipping cream

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1 cup of sifted confectioners' sugar

Your sifted topping of choice:  cinnamon, nutmeg or pumpkin pie spice 

1.  Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. 
2.  Line your cupcake tins with cupcake liners.  This recipe gave me 24 cupcakes. 
3.  Split your Golden Oreos in half.  Add one Golden Oreo half (the cream side, of course!) to each cupcake liner.
4.  In a large bowl, combine the eggs, oil, applesauce and vanilla extract. Mix together until they are all combined, but the trick here is to not over mix the batter.
5.  Add to your wet ingredients the granulated and light brown sugars.  Stir until thoroughly mixed.  Then add your pumpkin and stir until that is mixed in with your wet ingredients as well.
6.  In a separate bowl, sift together all of your dry ingredients:  the all-purpose flour, baking soda, salt and all of your spices.  Use your whisk to make sure the spices are thoroughly incorporated into the flour.
7.  Add your dry ingredients to the bowl with your wet ingredients.  Stir them *only* until they are combined.

8.  Fill your cupcake liners about 3/4 of the way full.  One of the things that I love most about these cupcakes is that they don't puff up huge big.  There is definitely a time and place for huge big fluffy, but these almost have a more muffin consistency in that they are a little more dense.  And delicious.  And wonderful.
9.  Bake for 17-25 minutes.  Insert a toothpick into the center and if it comes out clean, you are good to go.

After you remove them from the oven and they are happily cooling, you can make the frosting.  There are a million recipes out there that would be great for these.  I have made them with cinnamon cream cheese frosting and a simple vanilla buttercream frosting, but I love the whipped cream frosting best for these.

1. Make sure that your ingredients are cold, cold, cold.  I usually pour the whipping cream into the bowl and then stick the bowl into the freezer for 10-15 minutes while I sift my confectioners' sugar.  This will allow for the stiff peaks that are ideal for your frosting. 
2.  Using a whisk attachment or if you have arms like Popeye and want to whisk it yourself, whisk the whipping cream until stiff peaks form.  You want the peaks to stand up on their own. Then carefully add the confectioners' sugar and the vanilla. 
3.  Once the cupcakes are completely cooled, pipe on your frosting.  I switch around with the tips that I use for this, but I love the round tip that I got at Bake It Pretty.  You can't go wrong.
4.  Then sift on your topping of choice.  I sift because when I sprinkle, it gets clumpy.  But you might have better sprinkling skills than I do.  It could happen. 

These cupcakes are just as delicious as they are pretty.  What are you waiting for?  You need to buy some pumpkin!

The Butterfinger Cookie Bake-Off!

The only thing that could be better than a cookie loaded with Butterfinger candy bars would be two cookies loaded with Butterfinger candy cars.  I can see you nodding your head in agreement.  



You would think that when I was adding 10 Butterfinger candy bars to the grocery cart on Saturday that Brad would have said something.  I didn't even get a raised eyebrow.  I don't know what this says about me. But I am going to run with it. 

I am just as obsessed with Pinterest as the next girl, but when it comes to adding to my cookie arsenal, I am extra obsessed.  I can't even begin to explain how frustrating it is to make a recipe only to have it fall apart or, even more fun, explode in the oven.  I am going to save you from having to clean your oven.  Well, just from cookies that go all volcano.  The rest of the stuff in your oven, you are in charge of.  I know, I know.  Life isn't fair.

So, let's talk cookie options...

These are Crispy Butterfinger Cookies that I had pinned from two peas & their pod. They feature oatmeal, rice krispies and milk chocolate chips. 



The dough came together very easily and I didn't have to chill it before I rolled it into balls and baked it.  I love that.  I made no changes to their recipe, which almost never happens. 

This recipe made about 2-1/2 dozen cookies which was perfect.  I baked a dozen of them, and froze the rest of the dough for another day.  It's amazingly simple to do.  Just roll the dough into balls, place on a plate in the freezer until they are thoroughly cold.  Then add to a Ziploc freezer bag. 

*Make sure that you write on the outside of the bag with a Sharpie marker what they are, the temperateture at which you will bake them and how long they need to be baked.*

The "I wonder what these are!" game is no fun for anyone.  Not that I would know from experience.  Ahem.

I freeze them before I put them in a bag so that they won't freeze together.  This way, they stay separate in the bag.  When you are ready for cookies, put them in the refrigerator or on the counter until they are thawed and bake as usual.  Don't tell anyone, but I have already started my Christmas cookies.  All frozen and ready for baking! 

If you prefer a chocolate option...

These are Chocolate Fudge Butterfinger Cookies that I had found on Pinterest via Picky Palate. 

They feature a delicious chocolate dough with chopped Butterfingers and full of chocolate chips.  I admit that I made changes to the recipe.  I'm sorry.  I ran out of cocoa powder and I was desperate.  I used 1/2 cup of cocoa powder and four 1 oz. pieces of unsweetened baking chocolate in place of the 1-1/4 cup of cocoa powder.  By adding this, I reduced the amount of butter by 4 Tablespoons.  I also used dark chocolate chips along with the semi-sweet chips just because I am annoying like that.

I refrigerated the dough for about 30 minutes because it was sticky.  That wouldn't happen if you were a good girl and just used cocoa powder.  If you really want to make your life easier, use a cookie scoop.  Mine had an unfortunate accident that involved a Play-doh war.  There were casualties. Which is why I rolled my dough by hand.  It's a sacrifice I was willing to make. 

Once all the cookies were made, I had three very willing judges to test them for amazingness.  There was also another judge in the living room watching football.  He wasn't so willing to write his favorite down on an index card.  Husbands are so tricky like that.  The monsters all chose the Crispy Butterfinger Cookies (Which they referred to as "Oatmeal" as opposed to chocolate).  I think they are crazy, the Chocolate Fudge Butterfinger Cookies were phenonomenal.  Brad also voted chocolate, in case anyone wants his opinion, which he insists that you do.  Both recipes were amazing and easily passed from "pinned on Pinterest" to actually being used in my kitchen. 

Happy Baking!  

Jam Thumbprint Cookies













If you are looking for a cookie that is healthy in any possible way, shape or form, walk away.  Walk away quickly and do not look back, you are looking in the wrong place. These cookies are delightfully rich.  They are perfectly lovely in every way, except if you are contemplating a bathing suit any time in the near future.  Well, that's what they made those ruffled bathing suit bottoms for, yes? 

The ingredients are extremely simple:  butter (3 sticks, room temperature), sugar (1 cup granulated), egg (just one), flour (3-1/4 cup, all-purpose, spooned and leveled) and jam (3/4 cup, any flavor that blows your hair back).  Think you can handle that?  I knew you could. 

First of all, preheat your oven to 350 degrees because I will forget to tell you later.  In a large bowl, beat together the butter and the sugar until your mixture is smooth.  Be sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl.  Add the egg.  Beat until it is completely combined. Slowly add your flour and mix until just incorporated.  Don't over mix.  Just get it where it is all one happy mixture. 

Now you will need to roll out your dough into about one inch balls.  According to Google, that is about 2 Tablespoons which still really doesn't help me.  I want them smaller than a ping pong ball but bigger than a marble.  That is just how scientific I can get.  I know, you are super impressed.  Place them about 3 inches apart on parchment paper.

Take your thumb and dip it quickly in water so that it won't stick to the dough, and make an indentation in the dough.  You want it about 3/4 of the way down into the ball of dough.  Here is where Martha Stewart and I disagree.  Bake the cookies just like this for 10 minutes at 350 degrees, then remove them.

During the ten minutes that they are in the oven, you need to heat up your jam. (I have used Michigan Sour Cherry Jam and Blackberry Jam, both worked extremely well)  I always do it on the stove, but I am assuming that the microwave would give you the exact same result.  After they have cooked for the first ten minutes, use the end of a wooden spoon to re-indent the cookie.  Yeah, I don't think that's a word. But you know what I mean.  Once the indentation has been reapplied, then add about 1/2 teaspoon of the heated jam. Then, bake the remaining 8-10 minutes.  By doing it this way, you won't have an evaporation line where the jam cooked off for the duration in the oven. 

You want them to be just slightly browned around the very edge.  Once removed from the oven, transfer them to a cooling rack to cool completely. 

And then you have the most perfect Book Club cookies ever.  They really had nothing at all to do with The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, but paired with chai tea and a room full of friends, they truly made for a perfect cozy evening. 

Recipe adapted from Martha Stewart.

Desperately Seeking Sugar?

It is a gazillion degrees at my house. Give or take a few degrees. Regardless, with all of the birthdays and end of the year stuff going on my oven has been working overtime. In case you are desperately seeking sugar, I know where to direct you.

Breuklyn wanted blueberry cupcakes for her birthday, so I adapted this recipe from Martha. I loved the light and fluffy frosting. yum.yum.yum.

I finally jumped on the Whoopie Pie bandwagon with these Raspberry-Lemon Whoopie Pies. The secret to making the cookies similarly shaped is to trace circles on parchment paper and then fill with the dough piped from a bag...

We all know that I can't ever make perfect circles without cheating a little.

Ah, the genius of Bakerella. She made Paizlee's preschool class very, very happy.

Lemon.lemon.lemon.lemon. Need I say more? Glazed Lemon Pound Cake.

These Pineapple Cupcakes with Toasted Coconut Frosting were the absolute hit of Maddux's Kindergarten luau. I think it may have had something to do with the umbrellas, but I can't be certain.

If you happen to see me walking 14 miles to the store along the side of the road somewhere, it's either because I ran out of flour or I am walking off all the sugar. Either way, happy baking!

We Absolutely Love Cupcakes

Um, duh. Was there ever any doubt?

Once again we made Valentine's Day Rainbow Cupcakes. I must say, I loved looking back at the pictures from two years ago. The kids have gotten so big! Paiz was rocking it out in her high chair. Holy.cow.I.am.old. Just sayin'.

I love using these baking cups when I make cupcakes. They are easier for the kids to fill because they stand alone on a cookie sheet without having to use a muffin tin. They are a little more forgiving to Paizlee swinging batter around. Just take a pair of scissors and make a tiny snip at the rim of the cup so that when it comes time to eat, all you have to do is gently tear away the baking cup.

I just love how pretty these cupcakes are. I made these at Halloween using green, orange and purple batter. I have a major weakness for pretty cupcakes. Oh, and reasons to use sprinkles. I will do pretty much anything that involves sprinkles.

Breuklyn is very serious about decorating cupcakes. This is obviously a very serious business. She is also the first one done. She knows what she wants, gets is accomplished and is then happily munching on cupcakes while Maddux is still fretting over the perfect application of frosting. I love that she always knows what she wants and very often has no problem accomplishing exactly that.

Notice that Maddux is wielding an off-set spatula. No spoon for him. He wants the real deal. He has carefully sampled the frosting and since it met his inspection he will now spend 15 minutes frosting a single cupcake. While Paizlee and Breuklyn hoarded their cupcakes, Maddux was the only one who shared his cupcakes with Brad. Poor Brad. No one wants to share with him. Just where is the cupcake love, people?

Now this kid, she is all about the sprinkles. I can't imagine where she gets it from. The pinker, the better. She carefully arranged her heart sprinkles so that they were sticking up out of the cupcake. She licked all of them to make sure they would stick. She also licked the cupcake to make sure the frosting would stick. She is nothing if not dedicated.

You know that you just need to make these cupcakes this weekend, right? You can hear the sprinkles calling your name, can't you? If not, it is because Paiz ate them all.

We will be up to our eyeballs this weekend in making Valentines, creating teacher's gifts and We Love Breuklyn Day adventures. I hope that your weekend is just as lovely.

Valentine's Day Peanut Butter and Jam Cookies

Otherwise known as my new favorite cookie of all time. That is right, people. Of.all.time.

You can find the original recipe here. For four dozen cookies (instead of the two dozen called for in the original recipe) you will need:

• 3 cups of all-purpose flour, sifted
  
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup packed light-brown sugar
• 2 cups creamy peanut butter
• 2 large eggs
• 1/3 cup seedless raspberry jam, stirred
  
• 1/3 cup seedless strawberry jam, stirred
  

This is one of those recipes that is easily adaptable for kids. It isn't finicky and yes, it's a little time-consuming, but there are lots of opportunities for little hands to help out.

Sift together your dry ingredients in a small bowl; set aside. Cream together the butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Scrape down sides of the bowl often. Add the peanut butter and then the eggs. Mix until fully incorporated. Gradually add the dry ingredients. Mix until just combined.

The dough should now be almost a play-doh consistency. It was easily rolled into balls and not at all sticky. If you find it to be sticky, put it in the refrigerator for 10 minutes and then proceed.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Roll the dough into 1-1/2 inch balls. The actual amount is just about 2 Tablespoons. You want them to be a little bit big because it makes it easier to add the hearts later.

You can absolutely freeze the dough at this point. Freeze them individually on a cookie sheet and once they are frozen, throw them into a Ziploc bag. When you are ready to use them, put the bag in your refrigerator for an hour so that they can thaw a bit and then proceed.

Slightly flatten the cookies with the bottom of a drinking glass. Don't get too carried away, you want the thickness. Space the cookies about an inch and a half apart on cookie sheets lined with parchment paper.

Since my fingers are of the short and stubby variety and they are not at all helpful in pressing delicate hearts into cookies. However, the end of my wooden spoon is the perfect alternative.

Once you have completed this step, pop the cookie sheets into the fridge for 20 minutes to chill. Then, bake for 12 minutes in your preheated oven.

At the end of 12 minutes, remove the cookies and then reshape the heart in your cookie. You will find that it has gotten puffy in the oven. Flatten it out using the wooden spoon. Then fill the indented heart shape with your choice of seedless jam. I used strawberry for the first batch and raspberry for the second. Bake for an additional 7 minutes.

Brad, who hates it when I mess with his peanut butter cookies, has pronounced these to be his new favorite cookies. This man has never loved anything except plain old peanut butter cross-hatched cookies, so this is big. They will make the prefect addition to the ten thousand (or three) Valentine's Day parties that they kids will be having at school. Yum.

I hope that your February is full of cookies!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

It has been snowing. Therefore, I have been baking. And baking. And baking. It's a sickness. I am working on it. But my ridiculous use of flour absolutely works to your advantage, because I can share this recipe with you!!! See? I am always thinking of others.

You will need:

• 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
• 3/4 cup granulated white sugar
• 3/4 cup peanut butter (creamy, not crunchy)
  
• 2 eggs, room temperature
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 and 1/3 cups of all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup of semisweet chocolate chips (I used mini chocolate chips)
• 1 bag of Reese's Miniature Peanut Butter Cups, cut into fourths
  

The first thing I did was cut the Reese's cups into fourths and then popped them into the freezer so that they wouldn't fall apart later when I was mixing them into the dough. You don't have to do this, but I thought it was helpful.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

In a large mixing bowl, cream together the softened butter, white and brown sugar and the peanut butter until smooth. Add the eggs in one at a time and mix until completely incorporated. Add the vanilla and mix until blended. In a smaller bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa and baking soda. Gradually add to the butter mixture. Do not overmix.

By hand, add in the chocolate chips and peanut butter cups. Stir with a wooden spoon until everything is well combined.

Drop by rounded tablespoon onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.

Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven. Once these are baked, you will have to give them a minute or two on the cookie sheet before you can move them.

And there you go. Perfect peanut butter chocolate cookies. I baked 2 dozen of them and then rolled the remaining dough into balls and froze them for another day. These are perfect for freezing.

I have been organizing and cleaning along with all of the baking and am super excited about all of the scrapbooking supplies that I have unearthed and organized. I found stuff still in boxes that I had never even opened after the mailman delivered it. :yikes: But now that all is neat and clean, I am ready to share it with you! Check back for a fun giveaway!! Happy Thursday!