Best Friend Blondies

It doesn’t get any easier than blondies. Unless, of course, you make a trip to the bakery, there just isn’t anything you can whip up faster. Cookies require creaming butter and sugar, cakes require frosting and Funfetti – while amazing in its own right – can get messed up, too (I’ve seen it with my own eyes). My favorite part of these cookie bars is that you can customize them with the mix-in of your choice. Espresso, Oreos, M&Ms…whatever.

Enter the best friend blondie. My Facebook wife, Staci, was visiting last weekend and (obviously) I had to whip something together with little time. She loves peanut butter, so I opted for these Peanut Butter Cup Blondies. They looked ridiculously amazing and easy to make – and they were.

Best Friend Blondies
Adapted from Alida’s Kitchen

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup butter
2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
About 8 peanut butter cups, quartered and frozen**

**This number is approximate – add as many or as few as you want. You can also cut the minis in half. If you don’t have time to freeze the peanut butter cups, be sure to add them on top instead of folding them into the batter if you want it to look pretty.

 

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F, and spray and 9X9 pan.
2. Melt butter on stovetop until slightly browned. Be careful not to burn it. Put it to the side to cool.
3. Mix together flour, baking powder, sugars and salt.
4. In a separate bowl, lightly whisk eggs. Then, mix in peanut butter, butter, milk and vanilla. Peanut butter won’t be fully mixed in, but that’s okay.
5. Mix wet mixture into dry slowly until well combined with no lumps.
6. Carefully fold the peanut butter cups in. Pour mixture into prepared pan and bake for about 25 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean.

Once they’re done, I’d recommend leaving them in the pan until you’re ready to serve or consume (them all yourself) to maintain freshness. Also, I’d recommend not eating a bowl of peanut butter foam and a gigantic piece of carrot cake before breaking out these bars. They just taste better without these dessert appetizers.

So did she like them? I would say so.

No, mom – there was never beer in any of those extremely large cups.

Peanut Butter. Fudge. Pretzel. Brownies.

The best pairs in life are unexpected. Mac ‘n cheese on pizza. Tequila in beer. Justin Timberlake and The Lonely Island. The best of them all is the perfect trifecta: peanut butter, pretzels and brownies.

It was Erica’s birthday and bar was set high. I didn’t want to do something like the expected cupcakes or cake…but what’s better than cupcakes? I think I found it.

Peanut Butter Fudge Pretzel Brownies
Recipe from How Sweet Eats

• 1 3/4 cups crushed pretzels
• 6 tbsp butter, melted
• 1 stick butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp. vanilla
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3 tbsp cocoa powder
• 2/3 cups chocolate chips (optional)
• 1 1/2 cups creamy peanut butter
• 1/3 cup powdered sugar

1. Mix together melted butter and pretzel crumbs – you’ll want to create the crumbs with a food processor or by crushing them with a mallet.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a square 8×8 baking pan and press pretzel crust into the bottom of the pan.
3. In a large bowl, beat sugar and butter with an electric mixer until slightly fluffy. Slowly add eggs and then vanilla.
4. Keeping the mixer on medium, add in cocoa, flour and salt. Mix for a few minutes until just combined.
5. Mix in chocolate chips by hand in you’re using them. Then spread it evenly into your pan.
6. Bake for about 25-30 minutes. When you have just a couple minutes left, melt the peanut butter.
7. Stir in your powdered sugar and mix until there are no lumps.
8. Remove brownies from the oven. Pour the peanut butter mixture over the top.
9. Allow them to cool and then refrigerate for a few hours before cutting and serving.

I ate these brownies for breakfast, and I don’t regret it one bit. They were RIDICULOUS. Sweet, salty, chocolatey and peanut buttery. These brownies are so m.o.i.s.t and fudgey. Make these yourself because they really were not that hard to bake (even if you don’t have any special redheaded baking powers like I do).

I’m pretty sure Erica had a good birthday. Especially since a friend sent her these…

It’s hard to compete with Sprinkles Cupcakes.

So, what did we learn from this baking experience? Sweet and salty are pretty damn good together. Make sure you serve your dessert before the Sprinkles Cupcakes arrive. And don’t eat three courses worth of dessert in one day or you’ll feel really sick. No matter whose birthday it is.

It’s Okay to Go a Little Overboard Sometimes

I’ve always felt that brunch is not a meal to take lightly – both literally and figuratively. If it is supposed to combine two meals into one, it should be the size of two meals…right?

The British, unfortunately, do not agree with me. When I was abroad in London, I had an unfortunate experience at a trendy brunch spot in which I ordered “pancakes” for £12 only to find “pancake.” I was not happy with the singular nor was I particularly ecstatic with the thin, crepe-like thing on my plate.

Needless to say, I take brunch pretty seriously. And when I’m hungry, I like to take things into my own hands instead of waiting to be fed while I’m about to chew my arm off. Don’t cross me before I’ve eaten.

This past weekend was pretty much a brunch extravaganza. It all started on Saturday morning. With a bit of planning in advance, plus waking up all refreshed (read: not hungover), I was good to go. On the menu:

• Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake (yes, that is a breakfast item)
• Baked French toast with Caramelized Apples
• Breakfast Potatoes with Mushrooms
• Bacon

Yes, you read that one right. I am a good friend, and I will cook unkosher meat for only the very special people in my life. Sarah would probably say that it didn’t compare to Wando’s, but I won’t take offense.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake
Recipe from the Food Librarian

Topping:

• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/4 cup peanut butter
• 2 Tbsp. butter, melted
• About 1 cup chocolate chips

Cake:

• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups flour
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1 cup milk

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Mix topping ingredients and set aside. Note: if you don’t wait for butter to cool, chocolate will melt. That’s okay.
2. Beat together peanut butter and butter until fluffy.
3. Add brown sugar. Then in beat eggs on a medium speed one at a time.
4. Alternately add in dry ingredients. Then, incorporate the milk.
5. Pour batter into greased 9X9 pan. Sprinkle topping over the batter.
6. Bake for about 30 minutes. Enjoy!

All in all, I’d it was enough food for 12 hungry antelopes. Or, like a lot of people. Then, Saturday was a brunch to impress. I was home with my family and was in the mood to make a ridiculous amount of food. And that I did. The menu:

• Vanilla-Peach Crepes
• Strawberry Oat Bars
• Baked Apple Pancake

Oh, yes. It was just as good as it sounds…

And as good as it looks.

As usual, the star of the meal was the famous Baked Apple Pancake. If you’ve ever ordered this from Walker Bros. Pancake House, you’ll know what I’m talking about. This is no ordinary pancake. It’s really like a souffle. Sweet, caramelized apples baked into a pancake of fluffy goodness. If you don’t like it, we can’t be friends.

Oh, small problem…this recipe is TOP secret. I don’t know if I trust you enough to share it right now (and I may have accidentally deleted it from my email). So I’ll have to share it with you another time. To hold you over, just feast your eyes on this…

Hungry yet?

The Peanut Butter Cookie Throwdown

You’d think I would have learned my lesson by now.

The Food Network has a show called “Throwdown” with Bobby Flay.  Bobby takes on a different expert each show to see who can make the best you-name-it: fish and chips, pulled pork, blondies… What’s the one thing in common with all of these shows? Bobby lost. He’s an outstanding chef that struggles keeping it simple with traditional flavors. For example, his fish tacos had some unique ingredients, but the old standby with classic flavors beat him by a long shot.

I think you see where I’m going with this.

I have this neighbor who tends to stop by wearing an apron, hot cookies in tow. He’s really not your average spatula-wielding baker. Chad looks like he would feel more comfortable cradling a football than a cookie sheet, but as I have experienced first-hand he really likes food (almost as much as I do). When my roommate suggested a bake-off at 2:30 a.m. one night, I jumped at the suggestion. I do like my cookies, so I offered the idea of a peanut butter cookie throwdown. Simple ingredient but versatile cookie. He warned me that we could do anything with that peanut butter cookie, and I told him I was well aware of how a throwdown works.

So it was on. I purchased my ingredients, including some high quality bittersweet and semi-sweet Ghiradelli chocolate and heavy cream (because that just makes everything taste better, right?). I knew I wanted to rely on my favorite peanut butter cookie recipe and change it up with my own version.

Peanut Butter Cookies

Recipe adapted from Smitten Kitchen

-1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
-3/4 teaspoon baking soda
-1/2 teaspoon baking powder
-1/4 teaspoon salt-1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened-1 cup peanut butter at room temperature
-3/4 cup granulated sugar
-1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
-1 large egg, at room temperature-1 tablespoon milk
-1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For cookie rolling: 1.5 tablespoons granulated sugar

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a medium size bowl combine flour, baking soda and powder and salt.

2. In a separate large bowl, beat the softened butter and peanut butter until fluffy. I didn’t use a mixer this time and I think that was the problem with the cookies. Use a mixer and make sure there are no butter chunks. Add sugar and continue to beat until smooth.

3. Add the egg, milk and vanilla and mix well.

4. Add flour mixture until combined.

5. Form small balls of cookie dough and roll into the sugar. Then, place on to cookie sheets (leave enough room between the cookies).

6. Use a fork to form a criss-cross pattern on the cookies without flattening them. Then bake 10-12 minutes. Even if they look uncooked they are actually just tender in the middle. Give them a minute and then transfer them to wax paper to cool.

So I let them cool for a while and then I had an epiphany. These have to be pretty cookies. Like, really pretty. I would make peanut butter sandwich cookies with a chocolate ganache between them, dipped in chocolate and peanuts. Yes. I would bake and I would win. And invite all my friends over to finish the leftovers.

I made some chocolate ganache. I used an entire bag of  semi-sweet chocolate and a cup of heavy cream…but I also increased the recipe for my adoring fans. I would suggest using 6 oz. of chocolate and 1/2 cup of cream. Bring the cream to a simmer and then pour over the bowl of chocolate, letting it sit until it melts.

Spread a thin, even layer on one side of the cookie and lightly sandwich another (preferably evenly sized) cookie to it. After letting the cookies sit. I carefully melted some semi-sweet chocolate (about 4 oz.), dipping half the cookie in the chocolate and rolling it in salted crushed peanuts.

Yes.

You can only imagine the surprise of my competitor when he saw what I had to offer. Especially since his cookies looked like this:

My terrible camera aside, these cookies don’t really look like anything special. But let’s see what went down at the Throwdown. My competitor and I each chose a friend to judge  and then picked one person we both knew.  Let’s see the final verdict.

Click here to watch a video of the final verdict on the Throwdown.

Ouch that hurts. But let’s be fair. His cookies were really, really good. His basic cookies were warm out of the oven, and he even spiced them up with some cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg. Obviously, the cookies with the ginger won. Why didn’t I think of that? Good game, Chad. If you want to challenge me to a Throwdown…I’m unfortunately taking the week off from baking because my supplies are (gasp!) no longer in my apartment. But watch out–this time next week I’ll be throwing it down back home in Chicago.