Peanut Butter Cup Pie

If you follow food blogs I hope you've discovered Cinnamon Spice and Everything Nice. This blog is my new obsession. I saw a post on Pinterest and when I went to the site (the author's name is Reeni) I went through almost every recipe posted! I decided to start with the recipe I saw on Pinterest and so here it is.....

This pie is seriously rich. I say not for the faint of heart, and I mean it. I cut a piece to try (about 1/12 of the pie) and honestly I could only eat half of it. It's really, really good. Super intense peanut butter flavor! If you are craving peanut butter and chocolate... make this pie. But beware, start with a small piece, you wouldn't want to waste any of this gem!!

Picture from www.cinnamonspiceandeverythingnice.com

PEANUT BUTTER CUP PIE

Ingredients

Crust:
2 cups chocolate cookie crumbs*
6 tablespoons salted butter, melted

Filling:

12 ounces cream cheese (light or neufchatel is ok), at room temperature
1 + 1/2 cups creamy peanut butter
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup heavy cream

Topping:

2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup semi-sweet or milk chocolate chips or bar, chopped
4 tablespoons salted butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
14 Reese's peanut butter cups, rough chopped

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Add the cookie crumbs and butter to a food processor and process until combined, scraping down the sides of the bowl if needed.

Press evenly into a 9" pie pan. Bake for 10 minutes then allow to cool completely before filling.

Beat the cream cheese and peanut butter together on medium speed until light and fluffy about 5 minutes.

Add sugar and vanilla; beat on medium speed until light and fluffy about 5 more minutes.

In a separate bowl beat heavy cream until stiff; when the beater is lifted it shouldn't drip off.

Add the cream to the peanut butter mixture and fold in until well blended. Spoon into the crust. Refrigerate 1-2 hours.

To make the topping combine sugar and cream in a small saucepan and bring just to a boil; remove from heat and immediately add the chocolate, butter and vanilla. Whisk until smooth and all the chocolate is melted. Cool the mixture until it is lukewarm but still liquidy.

Carefully pour over the pie (you can leave a few spoonfuls for drizzling over the PB cups) and evenly spread from edge to edge. Sprinkle peanut butter cups evenly over top and gently press them into the chocolate. Drizzle lightly all over with remaining chocolate.

 
Refrigerate at least 4 hours or overnight before serving.

Cut with a sharp knife dipped in hot water then dried; wipe clean and dip again after each cut.

 

Recipe courtesy of: Cinnamon Spice and Everything Nice

 

Notes:

 

- Make sure to refrigerate this pie properly. I didn't because I was/am impatient and I think it would've held up much better if I'd followed the instructions.

 

- 14 Reese's cups was way too much for me. FYI. It's a lot.

 

- I recommend a deep dish pie plate or springform pan. I used a normal/old-fashioned pie pan and I had way too much left over.  

Vanilla Sugar Cutout Cookies and Royal Icing

My friend Jessica makes the most BEAUTIFUL cookies! She makes the most beautiful everything in the kitchen, but her cookies are unbelievable. I, not so secretly, stalk her Facebook pictures and wish I could make cookies as beautiful as hers.

Finally I asked her for the recipe and this is where she sent me here: here for the cookies and here for the royal icing. This blog is amazing and her cookies are amazing. This recipe is amazing! I HIGHLY recommend reading through her posts before starting because she answers every possible question you could ever have!

 

Mine will definitely get better with practice, but I'm not too disappointed in my first shot!

 

 

These are a copy cat of a design I saw on Pinterest.

 

Shout out to Texas!

 

YEE-HAW!

 



Vanilla Sugar Cutout Cookies
This made 10 cookies (appx 5" each)

Ingredients:
3 c. unbleached, all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 c. granulated sugar
2 sticks (salted) butter, cold and cut into chunks
1 egg
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350.

Combine the flour and baking powder, set aside. Cream the sugar and cold butter. Add the egg and vanilla and mix. Gradually add the flour mixture and beat just until combined, scraping down the bowl, especially the bottom.

The dough will be crumbly, so knead it together with your hands as you scoop it out of the bowl for rolling.

Roll onto a floured surface and cut into shapes. Place on parchment lined baking sheets (I recommend freezing the cut out shapes on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before baking) and bake for 10-12 minutes, until the very bottom of the cookies are just starting to brown. You don't want the tops of the cookies to brown (but they'll still be delicious if they do). Let sit a few minutes on the sheet, then transfer to a cooling rack.

Royal Icing

(This covered 10 cookies the size of my hand and I still had plenty left over.)

4 TBSP meringue powder

scant 1/2 c. water
1 lb. powdered sugar
1/2 - 1 tsp light corn syrup
3/4 tsp clear vanilla extract (optional)
you can use any clear extract you want!

Combine the meringue powder and water. With the paddle attachment of an electric mixer, beat until combined and foamy.

Sift in the powdered sugar and beat on low to combine. (Do NOT skip the sifting!)

Add in the corn syrup and extract if desired. ( I think the corn syrup helps keep the icing shiny.)

Increase speed to med-high/high and beat for about 5 minutes, just until the icing is glossy and stiff peaks form.

(You should be able to remove the beater from the mixer and hold up and jiggle without the peak falling.) Do not overbeat.

Cover with plastic wrap touching the icing or divide and color using gel paste food colorings.

This "stiff" icing is perfect for outlining and even for building gingerbread houses and monogramming. To fill in your cookies, add water to your icing a teaspoon at a time, stirring with a rubber spatula, until it is the consistency of syrup. This technique of filling a cookie with thinned icing is called "flooding."

Tomato and Red Lentil Soup

How often to I post savory recipes? Rarely. Except when I really, really, really love them and think other people should know how good these dishes are! This one is also super simple! My mom gave me this recipe years ago and my resolution this year is to be the healthiest me by the big 3-0 birthday. A little less than 9 months to go!

 

This soup is so good and simple and healthy!!!! You can add or subtract anything you like. The recipe my mom gave me had celery and tomato paste in it, but I didn't have those so I changed it a little. I used vegetable broth because I couldn't find stock in the store. I also used a lot of garlic (4 cloves, maybe 5, I lost count)!  I hope you love this as much as I do!!! This soup freezes really well too!  

 

 

 

Tomato and Red Lentil Soup

Ingredients:

1 large onion, chopped
2 T. olive oil
2 large carrots, chopped
2-3 gloves garlic, minced (I grated mine using my Microplane)
2 14-oz diced tomatoes, with juice
4 cups vegetable stock/broth
1/2 pound red lentils
salt and pepper to taste
juice of half a lemon

Directions:

In a large saucepan heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Gently cook the onion until soft, about 10 minutes. Add the carrots and cook until they soften, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for 1-2 minutes. Stir in the tomatoes, lentils and enough stock to cover the lentils by about an inch. You can use water if you run out of vegetable stock. Bring to a boil, then turn down the heat and simmer for about 20 minutes or until the lentils are cooked. Remove from heat and stir in lemon juice. Serve warm.

Snickerdoodle Biscotti

I had never made biscotti before tonight. I was watching an episode of Giada De Laurentiis the other day and she made a biscotti for Christmas. It looked fairly easy so I though it was no big deal... I was right! I saw this recipe on Fountain Avenue Kitchen (written by Ann Fulton) today and since I had everything it called for in the kitchen I decided to try it tonight. Super easy and yummy!!!! I don't drink tea or coffee, but I'm pretty sure this would go great with it :) 

 

 

 

 

Snickerdoodle Biscotti

 

Ingredients

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 large eggs

 

 

2 tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 large egg white

 

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

 

2. Measure flour into a large bowl being careful not to pack the flour into the measuring cups. (Scoop into cups and then level with a knife to prevent getting too much flour.)

 

3. Add the 1 cup sugar, baking powder and salt.

 

4. Mix the oil, vanilla and 3 whole eggs in a small bowl. Add to the large bowl. Your dough will be dry and quite crumbly.

 

5. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface. Knead and sort of mush together. At first it will seem too dry–I was skeptical the first time!–but it will come together.

 

6. Divide in half. Shape each portion into a roll about 8 inches long, and place them several inches apart on a cookie sheet lined with parchment.

 

7. Flatten each roll so they are about 1 inch thick.

 

8. Combine the 2 tablespoons sugar and cinnamon. Brush the tops of the rolls with the egg white and then sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. It may seem like too much, but sprinkle it all on, tilting the baking sheet a bit so you can get the sides, too.

 

9. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

 

10. Remove loaves from the baking sheet and cool for 15 minutes.

 

11. Cut diagonally into 1/2 inch slices and lay them cut sides down on the cookie sheet again.

 

12. Reduce the oven temperature to 325 degrees. Bake 10 more minutes, turn over and bake 10 minutes more. They will be soft in the middle but will harden as they cool.

 

13. Cool completely on a wire rack and store in an airtight container.

King Arthur's Fudge Brownies

I never, ever thought I would be the kind of person who LOVES a certain kind of flour. Ever. But guess what, I am!!! King Arthur Flour is my favorite flour to use. If you have never looked at their website and love to bake, or knows someone who loves to bake, then I suggest checking out their site immediately. I subscribe to their catalog and they have the coolest, high-quality ingredients. This is an amazing company and I can't say enough about it. http://www.kingarthurflour.com/

Now, these brownies... holy moly. They are deep, rich and intensely chocolate-y. I found this recipe on Barbara Bakes, a really fun food blog, and I had to try it. The only cocoa I had readily available was Hershey's Special Dark Cocoa, so that's what I used. I don't know if they could be any better using King Arthur's Double-Dutch Dark Cocoa, but if so then please don't ever tell me! These are great. I broke my diet and ate 2 last night. And I had one for dinner. Calories are free on the weekends, right? I had to send the rest of them home with my friends Jenn and Ryan today on their trip back to Oklahoma. I hope they enjoyed them as much as I did!

This is Barbara's picture. For some reason I cannot remember my camera lately!

King Arthur Fudge Brownies

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter

2 1/4 cups sugar
4 large eggs
1 1/4 cups Double-Dutch Dark Cocoa or Dutch-process cocoa
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups All-Purpose Flour
2 cups (12 oz. bag) chocolate chips

Directions

1) Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a 9″ x 13″ pan

2) In a medium-sized microwave-safe bowl, or in a saucepan set over low heat, melt the butter, then add the sugar and stir to combine. Return the mixture to the heat (or microwave) briefly, just until it’s hot (about 110°F to 120°F), but not bubbling; it’ll become shiny looking as you stir it. Heating this mixture a second time will dissolve more of the sugar, which will yield a shiny top crust on your brownies.

3) While the sugar heats a second time, crack the 4 eggs into a bowl, and beat them with the cocoa, salt, baking powder and vanilla until smooth.

4) Add the hot butter/sugar mixture, stirring until smooth.

5) Add the flour and chips, again stirring until smooth. Note: If you want the chips to remain intact in the baked brownies, rather than melting in, let the batter cool in the bowl for about 20 minutes before stirring in the chips.

6) Spoon the batter into a lightly greased 9″ x 13″ pan.

7) Bake the brownies for about 30 minutes, until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean, or with just a few moist crumbs clinging to it. The brownies should feel set on the edges, and the center should look very moist, but not uncooked. Remove them from the oven and cool on a rack before cutting and serving.

 

Note: Because there are chocolate chips in the batter, you may get melted chocolate onto the cake tester and think they are still raw in the center, so look closely to see if it is melted chocolate or brownie batter on the tester.