#98) Peanut Butter Bombs

An extra-large version of an old favorite!

Do you remember when I told you how much my fam jam and I love any and all peanut butter combos in this post right here?  Well, I wasn't lying...  And no matter how much we all enjoy the new creations we dream up and create, we do have an old favorite that we keep going back to again and again and again - Peanut Butter Balls.  I have made that recipe so often that over time I've gotten it just right ;) but that's not to say there's no room for improvement!

In previous stabs at this delectable little concoction I've managed to find the best ingredients, proportions, and methods to get the best result, but there's something to be said for the old adage "bigger is better."  I normally use 1 tablespoon of peanut butter filling for these guys, but this time around I opted for an ice cream scoop, upping the filling to 1/4 cup!

The reaction from most taste-testers was two big thumbs up, but one of them, who shall remain nameless in the hopes of avoiding any persecution for the forthcoming opinion, did think they were too big and the amount of filling was a little too much of a good thing... I will respectfully disagree haha :)

Ingredients

2 cups smooth peanut butter

1/4 cup butter

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup puffed rice cereal

1/4 tsp salt

2 - 2 1/2 cups icing sugar

2 cups chocolate chips

2 tbsp shortening

14 salted peanuts

Steps

- In a large microwave-safe bowl, combine peanut butter, butter, and vanilla.  Microwave on high for 30 seconds.  Stir to combine.
- Stir in puffed rice cereal and salt.
- Add icing sugar in stages until filling reaches dough-like consistency.  Refrigerate for 15 minutes.
- Using an ice cream scoop (1/4 cup), scoop filling onto parchment-lined cookie sheet.  This recipe made 14 for me.  Place in freezer for 30 minutes.
-  Remove scoops from freezer and set aside while you melt together chocolate and shortening in double boiler.
- Using two forks, dip each scoop into chocolate and place back on the parchment-lined cookie sheet.  Place one salted peanut on top of each scoop right after its been dipped.
- Using your fork and the remaining melted chocolate, add some decorative chocolate splatter on top of the peanut butter bombs.
- Let chocolate set and serve :)

#96) Peanut Butter Cookie Brownies with Peanut Butter Chocolate Frosting

Move over "Plain Jane" brownies, there's a new "Queen B." in town!

I have professed, often and loudly, my love for brownies here on the blog and anyone who has perused my past recipes would have picked up a somewhat blatantly obvious adoration for any possible chocolate and peanut butter combination.  What you probably wouldn't pick up on is that this pure love of brownies, chocolate, and peanut butter is a family thing, meaning my dad, my brother, and my son also love this addictive combination.  (My mom is on the fence about it, so we are on the fence about her... Joking mother!)  So it goes without saying that when we are all together there really is no other option for sweet treat flavor combos.  If you'd like to check out some of our past chocolate and peanut butter sweet treats, click here.

Now on to the details behind the new "Queen B." of the brownie world - a chewy brownie made with 6 ounces of semisweet chocolate filled with pockets of barely baked peanut butter cookies slathered in a dreamy peanut butter chocolate frosting and sprinkled with crushed salted peanuts!  Are you hooked yet?

There are a few steps involved and it takes great restraint to not eat the batter and lick every utensil you use along the way, but it will be well worth it when you take an all-encompassing bite of the finished product :) So dive in and give them a go, you'll be glad you did!

Peanut Butter Cookie Dough

Ingredients

1/4 cup butter, melted

1/4 cup sugar 

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 tbsp milk

1/4 tsp vanilla

1/4 cup peanut butter

1/2 cup flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

Steps

- Mix together butter, sugar, brown sugar, milk, and vanilla.  Stir in peanut butter.

- Add flour and baking powder.  Mix until incorporated.  Cookie dough will be loose.

- Refrigerate 15-30 minutes, until firm and can be rolled into balls.

- Roll chilled dough into balls (1 tablespoon per ball); you should get 11 total.  Place on cookie sheet lined with wax paper and freeze for 30 minutes.

*While cookie dough balls are freezing, clean up those dishes and make the brownie batter :)

Chewy Brownies

Ingredients

1 cup (6 ounces) semi-sweet chocolate, chopped

1/4 cup + 2 tbsp butter or margarine

3 eggs

1 cup sugar

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla

1/3 cup + 1 tbsp flour

Steps

- Line 8"x8" baking pan with foil and coat with spray oil.  Preheat oven to 325°F. 

- Melt chocolate and butter together in microwave-safe bowl at 25 second increments, stirring well after each interval.  Set aside.

- Beat eggs, sugar, salt, and vanilla with hand mixer until pale.  Stir in melted chocolate and butter.

- Gently fold in flour, mixing just until no white streaks remain.  Do not over mix.

- Pour batter into prepared pan.

- Remove peanut butter cookie dough balls from freezer and place 9 of the balls in the brownie batter, evenly spaced.  Cut the last two balls in half and fill any voids in the batter.

- Bake for 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted near center comes out with some sticky batter remaining.

- Let cool in pan for 5 minutes then, using the foil edges, lift the brownies out of the pan and let cool completely on cooling rack.

Now on to that frosting...

Peanut Butter Chocolate Frosting

Ingredients

3 tbsp butter or margarine, softened

1 tbsp peanut butter

3 tbsp cocoa powder

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup icing sugar

2 tbsp milk

Steps

- With hand mixer on low, mix together butter, peanut butter, cocoa powder, and vanilla.

- Add icing sugar gradually.

- Add milk until you reach the desired consistency - spreadable :)

- Spread evenly over top of cooled brownies

*To have a smooth surface to spread the frosting over I inverted the brownies onto a platter and spread the frosting over the "bottom" of the brownies.

- Sprinkle with 1/4 cup crushed, salted peanuts.

And there you have it, ladies and gentleman.  The "Queen B." of brownies...  or maybe that should be "Queen PB" :)

#79) Peanut Butter Blondies

This past summer has been quite important in my life - a perfect wedding day, an amazing honeymoon, a new SUV, and our first home.... Needless to say, with all the important things going on in our lives recently, my husband (oh that is so fun to say!) and I haven't had a lot of down time, and that means I haven't been in the kitchen a whole lot lately...

But, once we bought the house we decided we should make the kitchen somewhere we would go out of our way to spend time. How are we doing this? A new floor, a fresh coat of paint, and most importantly, a new stove... But not just any stove - this, my dear friends, is a CONVECTION OVEN! For those of you who are scratching your head and asking yourselves what on Earth I am talking about, let me tell you I was in the same state only a few months ago, until I started doing some reading about these amazing ovens. The fan in the back of the convection oven cirulates all the hot air in your oven so you get more even baking in less time. Still not convinved? What if I told you I baked 3 sheets of my chocolate chip cookies at one time and each sheet was perfectly baked to perfection? No burnt bottoms, no undercooked centres - just perfect crispy edges with chewy centres! Seriously, a baker's dream :)

Now on to the blondies - I cam back from our honeymoon in Quebec City with lots of neat ingredients to play with, but one of my favorite was the Belgian milk choclate chips I got at La Fudgerie. If you are ever in the area, it is well worth your time to stop in for a look. (The creme brulee fudge is out of this world!) So I toyed around with a couple of ides for these bad boys, but then decided it was about time for yet another peanut butter and chocolate combo. These bars are kind of like a peanut butter blondie dotted with creamy milk chocolate - are you drooling yet? I thought so!

Now I bet you wanna scroll down for the recipe, don't ya????

Well, I must confess that I have "misplaced" the scrap of paper this beauty was scribbled on, but I am sure all my wonderfully creative friends out there in cyberspace (yes, you!) can whip up something equally as good, or even better in fact!

Happy Baking :)

#67) Indulgent PB Cookies

OMG!!! I have missed you guys soooooo much this summer!!!!!!!

My summer was super crazy this year and I only made it into the kitchen 2 or 3 times :( On the bright, though, I have my Bachelor of Education all done and am officially a certified teacher :D I am all settled into my new apartment and am getting comfortable in my new job.

So you know what that means - I am back and ready to bake :)

You may notice a peanut butter and chocolate theme on my blog that arrives in spurts. Well, let me tell you that those spurts always coincide with a visit with my brother. He has come to help me settle in here and as a small reward I offered to make a new sweet treat, and of course, he demanded a chocolaty and peanut buttery version. And trust me, I am not one to disappoint :p

We had a really hard time naming these, by the way, because there is so much going on: not only do we have my favourite peanut butter cookie so far, but we have the best chocolate icing I have ever made, AND mini caramel Rolos on top!!! (Thank you for the applause! LOL)

So please, stay tuned for more frequent posts now that I have a kitchen again, and try out these cookies because you will never want another plain PB cookie again :)

Peanut Butter Cookies

Ingredients:

1/2 cup shortening
3/4 cup peanut butter
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 brown sugar
1 egg
2 tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Steps:

-Preheat oven to 375°F. (I found this a little high and reduced to 350°F)
-Beat together shortening and peanut butter. Add sugars and beat until fluffy.
-Add egg, milk, and vanilla. Combine.
-Sift together dry ingredients. Add to peanut butter mixture.
-Roll into balls and place on ungreased baking sheet.
-Bake for 8-10 minutes.
-Let cool completely.

Chocolate Frosting

Ingredients:

1/4 cup butter, melted
1/3 cup cocoa
1 1/2 cups icing sugar
2 1/2 tbsp milk
1/2 tsp vanilla

Steps

-Stir cocoa into melted butter.
-Alternately add milk and icing sugar, beating between additions.
-Add more milk if necessary.
-Stir in vanilla.

Assembly

Spread icing on tops of cooled cookies. Add mini rolos. Hide the cookies, because if not they will disappear HaHa!

#62) Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies

Hey everyone!!! I made it home to my parents' for a quick weekend visit, so of course, the first thing I done was whip up a chocolate and peanut butter treat for my brother. I was having a super bad craving for peanut butter cookies so I figured the best way to make brother happy was to squeeze some chocolate in the middle - GOOD IDEA :) The cookies are surprisingly chewy and the ganache, my first attempt, is addictive. I had some extra ganache left over so my dad is using it as a dip for the sandwiches because he said we didn't put enough in the middle LOL. Let me know what you think!

I head back to my summer living accommodations later today so I probably won't be back for a while, but keep me in mind later the summer :)

Chewy Peanut Butter Cookies

Ingredients

1 1/4 cups + 2 tbsp flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
Pinch of cloves
1 stick butter, room temp
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 cup sugar
1/2 tbsp molasses
2 eggs
1/4 cup sugar, for rolling

Steps

-Preheat oven to 350°F and line baking sheets with parchment paper.
-Sift together flour, baking soda, and cloves.
-Cream butter. Beat in penaut butter. Add sugar and molasses. Beat for 1 minute.
-Add eggs and beat until incorporated.
-Add dry ingredients and stir until combined. The dough with be somewhat "mushy" but you can still mold it in your hands.
-Roll 1/2 tbsp measures of the dough into balls, roll in sugar and place on baking sheet.
-Criss-cross with a fork.
-Bake for 8-9 minutes. Let cool completely.

Chocolate Ganache

Ingredients

3/4 cup heavy cream
1 tbsp butter
1 cup + 2 tbsp chocolate, chopped (I used milk chocolate, but I think dark would have been a better match)

Steps

-Put chocolate in a steel bowl.
-Bring cream and butter to a boil. Pour over chocolate and let sit for 5 minutes.
-Stir until smooth.
-Refrigerate for 1 hour.

Sandwich Assembly

-Put ganache in a piping bag and pipe a swirl in the back of a cookie (they should be matched by size) and press the second cookie in top.
-Refrigerate until firm.

#61) PB Brownie Bars

Ok, I have a couple of apologies to make:

1) I am sorry to those of you who have come here looking for those super-duper healthy sweet treats I keep promising to experiment, but the baking demands of my brother always include chocolate and peanut butter, and although I use light pb, it still isn't very healthy... I am sorry if you feel misled :(

2) Apology #2 is for my future actions - or lack thereof... I am heading back to university for the summer, but there is a considerable amount of moving involved for an extra bout of teaching practice and classes so I will not have my "own" kitchen for quite some time... Although I will try my best to get some sweet treats up here for all my lovers - I can't make any promises :(

Now that that's over on to better and chocolate-ier things :)

This bar is a new take on my brother's favorite treat - Peanut Butter Balls. The brownie bottom is, I hear, excellent, seeing as it isn't "safe" for me... and the peanut butter looks so ooey, gooey that it must be amazing :) Please give 'em a try and let me know what you think!

Brownie Bottom

Ingredients
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup chocolate (I used milk)
1 1/2 cups sugar
Dash salt
2 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
1 cup flour
2 tbsp cocoa

Steps
-Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 9x9 pyrex dish with foil and spray.
-Melt butter and chocolate together. Let cool slightly.
-Add sugar, salt, and vanilla. Mix until incorporated.
-Beat in eggs one at a time.
-Mix in flour and cocoa just until combined.
-Turn into dish and bake for 35-45 minutes, rotating halfway through.

Peanut Butter Filling

Ingredients
1 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup butter
3/4 cup icing sugar
Dash salt
1 tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla

Step
-Beat together until well combined.

Chocolate Topping

Ingredients
1 cup chocolate (I used milk)
1/4 cup butter

Steps
-Melt together.
-Pour over cooled brownies and chill for at least 2 hours.

#53) Salted Peanut Butter Cookies

These little treats will be taken to a class get-together for an evening class I teach. We will be hanging out with another class doing a more advanced course. Last time around I made the Banana Bites with Cinnamoney Frosting, but this time I was more in the mood for a cookie (that mood has been around for a while now if you haven't notice :p). These cookies lend themselves well to variations - creamy or smooth peanut butter, chocolate chips, and in my case, coarse salt. I tried adding the salt a couple of ways - over top of the dough before they were baked, and then on the freshly baked cookies. I like the second way better :) The salt adds another level to the cookies but doesn't overpower the nutty pb taste.

Ingredients

1 1/3 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tbsp milk
1 egg
Coarse salt for sprinkling

Steps

-Line a cookie sheet and preheat oven to 350°F
-Sift together dry ingredients and set aside.
-Cream together peanut butter, butter, and sugars. Add milk and egg. Beat well.
-Add dry ingredients in fourths. Do not overbeat.
-Drop onto lined cookie sheet by tablespoonful. Sprinkle with coarse salt.
-Bake for 8-10 minutes, until golden.
-Let cool on wire rack.

#30) Chocolate Christmas Bells

This past summer I posted about peanut butter balls, an all-time favourite in our house. For Christmas there is always a batch of peanut butter balls in the fridge, but this time I wanted to improve this sweet treat for the holidays. The original recipe we have used for years calls for parowax and this imparts an unusual quality onto the chocolate - it becomes waxy (duh! haha) and sticks to your teeth. Regardless of this we have eaten batch after batch of these things and still love. But like I said, for the holidays I wanted them to be perfect. I have tweaked the recipe just slightly and now this favourite sweet treat is even more irresistible :)

Ingredients

2 cups peanut butter
1/4 cup butter
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 - 2 1/2 cups icing sugar
1 cup rice crispies

2 cups chocolate
2 tbsp shortening

Steps

- Put peanut butter, butter, and salt in a microwave-safe bowl. Put in microwave for 30 seconds and mix together.
- Add vanilla and rice crispies. Add icing sugar until the mixture reaches a dough-like consistency. - Roll into balls.(It would be helpful to refrigerate the mixture before rolling into balls). Refrigerate balls for 15 minutes.
- Melt chocolate and shortening in double boiler. Use two spoons to dip balls into chocolate. Place on cookie sheet covered with waxed paper. Refrigerate until stiff.
- Try not to eat them all at once :)

#26) Peanut Butter Blossoms

Remember a couple of weeks ago when I won one of the Hershey baskets Mayre was giving away over at Baking Delights? Well I got my hands into its contents today: flour, sugar, Reese's peanut butter, Hershey kisses.... all packed into a great big steel bowl. In the basket was also a recipe card for peanut butter blossoms. They looked so cute in the pic, and they are a combo of chocolate and peanut butter, so I couldn't resist making this sweet treat :)

Ingredients

48 Hershey kisses
3/4 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup shortening
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 egg
2 tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda

Steps

-Preheat oven to 375°F. Remove wrappers from kisses.
-Beat peanut butter and shortening.
-Add sugars. Beat until fluffy.
-Add egg, milk, and vanilla. Beat well.
-In another bowl, stir together flour, salt, and baking soda. Gradually beat into peanut butter mixture.
-Roll into 1-inch balls and dip in sugar. Place on ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes.
-Immediately press a kiss into each cookies. (The cracks that form are normal)
-Let cool and enjoy!

#25) PBCs

Finally!!!! Exams are over and I am at home for Christmas break.... and when I mean home, I mean in the kitchen. I was no more than in the door Saturday evening when my brother decided he wanted some peanut butter cookies, and fast! (PS - those are his greedy little fingers in the picture haha). I remembered a post I made this past summer about eggless peanut butter cookies. The recipe I made up was very quick and quite popular, so we used that same recipe, but added more cocoa for some chocolatey flavour because, well, I am addicted to all things chocolate :)

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cups brown sugar
2.5 tbsp skim milk
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 cup flour

3 tbsp cocoa

Steps

-Cream butter, sugars, milk, and vanilla together.

-Stir in peanut butter.

-Add flour, cocoa, and baking soda.
-Roll into 1-inch balls and place on an ungreased cookie sheet, separated. Squish with a fork in two directions.

-Bake at 350°F for 8-10 minutes.

#24) Magic Middlers

This recipe was so much fun to make!!! I made this one, and the one below, for a couple of cookie exchanges I have this week, and I am sure these guys will be a hit. A chewy chocolate cookie coating surrounding finger-lickin' good peanut butter filling.... Is that the smell of perfection????

Ingredients:

Chocolate Cookie Coating

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup smooth peanut butter

1 egg

1 tbsp milk

1 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 cup cocoa

1/2 tsp baking soda

chocolate chips

Peanut Butter Filling

1/2 cup smooth peanut butter

1/4 cup butter

3/4 cup icing sugar

1 tbsp corn starch

Steps:

Filling

- Beat peanut butter and butter until smooth. Blend in icing sugar and cornstach until combines.

- Spoon onto a sheet of plastic wrap. Use the wrap to roll the filling into a 2 cm thick log. Freeze for 10 minutes.

Chocolate Cookie Coating

- Beat butter with sugars and peanut butter. Beat in egg, milk, and vanilla.

- Stir flour with cocoa and baking soda. Stir into butter mixture with spoon. Refrigerate.

Combination

- Slice peanut butter log into 32 pieces.

- Using a 1/2 tbsp measure scoop out chocolate dough and form into patties.
- Place a peanut butter slice on top of the patty and close the edges, rolling into a ball. Roll in sugar and place on ungreased cookie sheet. Flatten slightly.

- Bake at 350°F for 10 minutes.

#21) Banana Peanut Butter Muffins

I know, my muffins look a little sad. But believe me, they are super tasty. For a while now I have had a couple of bananas screaming to be turned into something, so I thought a muffin would be great. Then, when I was making some toast and peanut butter for my breakfast I thoguht, "This would be great thrown into my muffins!" So that's what I done HaHa. However, in my over-zealousness (is that a word?) I chucked in two bananas instead of one.... Now I have some very dense, very moist cupcakse, hence the sunken look they have going on. But this is one sweet treat I would definately make again, minus the extra banana :).

Ingredients:

3 eggs

1 cup butter

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup milk

1 1/2 cups flour

1 tbsp peanut butter

1 mashed banana

1/4 cup chocolate chips (just because I like 'em!)

Steps:

- Preheat oven to 320°F. Line 12 muffin cups with papers.

- Beat eggs. Add butter and sugar and mix until light and fluffy.

- Add milk, flour, baking powder, and peanut butter. Beat with mixer for about 2 minutes.

- Add banana and chocolate chips and stir through evenly.

- Fill paper liners and bake for 20 minutes.

#18) Peanut Butter Swirl Brownies

If your tastebuds are anything like mine, then the combo of chocolate and peanut butter is heaven in your mouth. I am also a brownie lover, so a peanut butter swirl brownie just sounds too good to be true.... Although this brownie is a little gooey for my taste, it is still a sweet treat I wouldn't turn down :)

Ingredients:

3/4 cup dark chocolate, chopped
1/2 cup butter
3 eggs
1 cup + 2 tbsp sugar
3/4 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup flour + 1/4 cup flour, divided
dash salt
1/3 cup peanut butter

Steps:

- Melt chocolate and butter together. Let cool 5 minutes.
- Beat 2 eggs with sugar. Stir in vanilla. Pour chocolate over top.
- Sift flour and salt over chocolate. Fold until blended.
- Pour all but 1/4 cup batter into greased 8-inch pan.
- Add peanut butter and remaining egg to the 1/4 cup batter. Mix until combined.
- Spoon dollops of peanut butter mixture into pan. Run knife through to create desired design.
- Bake at 350°F for 30-40 minutes.

#12) Cocoa Peanut Butter Cookies

Okay, the semester has started... I had my first classes of my Bachelor of Education today :) Overall the day was good, busy and a little stressful, but there is something satisfying about taking those first steps towards what you want in life. To celebrate taking these first steps, I decided to bake a new sweet treat, combining two of my faves again, good ol' PB and chocolate :)

Ingredients:

1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup peanut butter
1/3 cup chopped almonds (or just use crunchy PB)
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
1/2 cup cocoa
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup chocolate chips (milk chocolate is best for this recipe)

Steps:

-Pre-heat oven to 350°F.
-Cream together butter, sugars, peanut butter, and nuts.
-Add eggs and vanilla.
-Combine flour, cocoa, baking powder, and baking soda. Add to creamed mixture in thirds (not with an hand-mixer, the batter is too thick).
-Stir in chocolate chips.
-Drop by rounded tablespoons onto ungreased cookie sheets.
-Bake for 10-12 minutes. Let cool on sheet for 2 minutes then move to cooling rack.
Tips:

-Do not drop too much dough for each cookie because they will spread out and meet (not pretty HaHa).

#6) Peanut Butter Balls

Vacation was fun, but once it was over all I could think about was getting back into the kitchen to make some home-style sweet treats. Two of my favorite things in life are peanut butter and chocolate, and any recipe that puts them together is worth a shot! This one is an old favorite that is religiously requested by the bf and my brother :) The recipe is easily doubled, or tripled even, so make as many as you want as big as you want!

Ingredients:

1 cup peanut butter (light works fine)
1 cup icing sugar
1 cup rice crispies
1 tbsp butter
1pkg chocolate chips (I used 1 cup milk chocolate discs from my local bulk store)
1/4 block parowax (pure refined wax, used commonly for candle making)*

*I assure you, even though it doesn't say on the box it is edible, it is.

Steps:

-Mix together peanut butter, icing sugar, rice crispies, and butter together. Roll into balls.
-Cover one or more cookie sheets with waxed paper.
-Melt the parowax over low heat, then add the chocolate. Stir until smooth.
-Keeping the chocolate mixture over very low heat, dip the balls in one at a time, transferring to cookie sheets with two spoons.
-Let sit in fridge for 30 minutes.

Tips:
-Leftover chocolate can be used to dip almost anything: marshmallows, gummy candy, fruit...
-Semisweet chocolate is a bit healthier than milk chocolate.

#5) Practice Peanut Butter Bites

Lately my kitchen, err my rental kitchen, I should say, has been in an uproar... Not only are the bf and I getting ready to go on a much needed vacation, we are also in the process of packing up to move to another apartment. Needless to say, measuring cups are missing, bowls are packed, and certain baking essentials are lacking (notably - EGGS). That being said, I still wanted to bake today. One ingredient I did have a lot of was peanut butter (*yummy) so I threw some in a bowl and hoped to find a sweet treat at the end of this experiment...

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cups brown sugar
2.5 tbsp skim milk
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 cup flour

1 tbsp cocoa

1 tsp baking powder
(*chocolate chips)

Steps:

-Cream butter, sugars, milk, and vanilla together.

-Stir in peanut butter.

-Add flour, cocoa, and baking soda.
-Roll into 1-inch balls and place on an ungreased cookie sheet, sparated.

-Bake at 350°F for 8-10 minutes.

*Just before the first sheet of cookies was done baking, I removed it from the oven and pressed in the middle of each cookie with a spoon and placed chocolate chips in the dip. I then returned the cookies to the oven for less than 1 minute.

Although they look cute, my plan didn't work as I had intended. I wanted the chips to soften so I could swirl it with a spoon, leaving a chocolate topping on the cookies, but they were so messy I wouldn't even take a picture. BUT, they were tasty :p.

Discoveries:

-Eggless PB cookies bake out thinner and crispier than a traditional recipe.

-Anything bigger then a 1-inch ball produces a cookies too large and too flimsy for my liking.

-Increasing the cocoa may have given the cookie more depth.

-They still go great with a tall, cold glass of milk :)