Bakery Style Peanut Butter Cookies

Bakery Style Peanut Butter Cookies - made dough July 19, 2014 from Crazy for Crust

Remember how I say I'm kind of indifferent to peanut butter? I like it well enough but usually with some chocolate thrown in and even so, I could take it or leave it. I like a good peanut butter cookie as much as the next person but it's not like I keep a Top 10 list of outstanding peanut  butter cookie recipes like I do for chocolate chip cookies.

Hmm, well, I might have to start that list now. And this one would take the #1 spot. It's thick, it's chewy, it tastes great and it's not cakey as long as you don't overbake it. The dough is easy to work with and the cookie is just good. If you have any peanut butter lovers in your life, make these cookies for them then see if they'll wash your car for you. I'm thinking of trying that strategy out on my nieces. They love peanut butter. And my car is looking awfully dusty in drought-stricken California. But I digress.

For a little extra touch and because I like to signal what kind of cookie it is, especially for people who might have peanut allergies, I cut up some peanut butter cups and arranged them strategically on top of each cookie dough ball so there's no doubt this is a peanut butter cookie. I prefer that approach than sprinkling peanuts on it or using chunky peanut butter. We know how I feel about nuts in (most) cookies. If you want added chocolate, you can substitute half of the peanut butter chips for chocolate chips.

1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup peanut butter
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon milk
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups flour
1 package (about 1 2/3 cups) peanut butter chips
1/2 cup peanut butter cups, chopped into halves and quarters

1. Cream butter, peanut butter, and both sugars in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, about 2-3 minutes. Add egg, vanilla, milk, baking soda, and salt and mix until combined. Slowly add flour and mix until dough just comes together. Stir in Reese’s Peanut Butter Chips. 
2. Scoop the dough into golf-ball size dough balls, press cut-up peanut butter cups randomly on the outside of each dough ball (embed into dough until they adhere but don't bury them completely) and chill for at least 4 hours. 
3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
4. Place cookie dough balls evenly spaced apart on the prepared cookies sheets. Bake 11-14 minutes until the bottoms start to brown. Cool about 5 minutes and then remove from cookie sheets.

Battle of the Texas Sheet Cakes

Vanilla vs Chocolate - made August 3, 2014

Last week I had a number of social occasions where I normally bring goodie bags – a couple of lunches, a couple of dinners and I was meeting a friend for hiking last weekend. But I don’t have the same amount of time to bake during the week that I used to before so I knew I had to do some prep ahead of time. That was easy enough in terms of making up cookie doughs to bake off at the last minute as well as baking brownies and cakes that could be cut into individual serving sizes, wrapped up and frozen. When I need a lot of baked goods but have a limited amount of time to make them, Texas Sheet Cakes are my go-to baked goods of choice.  Not only are they easy to make and, the way I make them, each recipe is good for a 9 x 13 pan, they can go a long way in filling multiple treat bags. This time around, I decided to do a battle of the Texas Sheet Cakes – Chocolate vs Vanilla. The handy part is I could make 1 recipe of the frosting and spread it over both cakes. I don’t like a lot of frosting so this was the perfect way to leverage a single recipe over two cakes in the time it takes to only make 1 frosting.

While I have several Texas Fudge Cakes I can play with and am agnostic about (they’re all good), this one for the Texas Vanilla Cake is my favorite of the vanilla ones I’ve tried. In fact, I like it so much that in this instance, to me, Vanilla won the battle of Chocolate vs Vanilla. And believe me, I don’t say that very often.

Company Summer Party

Company Summer Party - August 7, 2014

My company held their annual summer party last week. I normally don't go to these types of events as they're usually not my thing but since it was my first one, I decided to go experience it for myself.

1/4 of a Funnel Cake sprinkled with cinnamon sugar

It was at a fairgrounds that we took over and was set up with various activities for both adults and kids, from amusement park rides to Disney-like environments to water slides. And of course, carnival/fair-type food. I'm all about the food so okay, yeah, that was a big reason I went, at least for a little while.

1/4 of a Funnel Cake dusted with confectioners' sugar

The food was all set up in one section of the fairgrounds, various booths and tents with a wide selection of offerings, mostly deep fried. Again, the carnival ambiance which pretty much says deep-fried is mandatory.

My coworker and I did a first pass to peruse all the offerings and to make sure we were knowledgeable about everything at our disposal before we committed ourselves to actually consuming the calories. I didn't want to get overly enthusiastic about one food in particular then regret not having room later for something I might want even more. It's all about controlled, conscious gluttony.

I won't bore you with the (long) list of what I consumed but suffice it to say it was likely deep fried. Some I hadn't had in years (a corn dog), others I only enjoy at farmers' market type events (kettle corn) and a couple of things I'd never had before and was happy to try: funnel cake and yes, a deep-fried Oreo.

Caramel Corn

Seafood barbecue skewers

Deep-fried oreos have never crossed my food sphere before. I know it's possible to deep fry just about anything but I'd never consumed an oreo in this rendition. At the first warm bite, I was a bit skeptical over it. After all, one of the reasons I like oreos is for their crunchy texture. Deep frying them covered in batter makes the oreo inside soft.

Deep-fried Oreo

But halfway through the second bite, I decided it was good. The crunchy outside had the siren call of the deep fried and the inside of gooey Oreo flavor was nothing to be sneezed at. Sorry for the fuzzy picture below. I was taking the shot in bright daylight and it was hard to see whether it was focused or not when I hit the picture button. Apparently it wasn't.

A fuzzy pic of the inside of a deep-fried Oreo

Beignets

Corn Dogs

Shaved Ice

The other thing I tried for the first time was from Frozen Kuhsterd - a mini doughnut ice cream sandwich. I had high hopes for it as I thought it was a cute concept. Unfortunately the concept was better than the reality. The coldness of the frozen custard (it had the texture of soft serve ice cream) altered the texture of the doughnut. I like my doughnuts light and fluffy - this one was more dense, almost like a bagel. Whether that's how the doughnut was originally made or if the frozen custard hardened it, I'll never know but it didn't suck me in as my newest foodie addiction. Thank goodness.

Mini doughnut sandwiched with vanilla ice cream

All in all, it was a fun hour or so and I enjoyed exploring the carnival food concept. One thing I really liked, regardless of how something tasted, was that the vendors plying their foodie wares all seemed like local small businesses. I love that we have events that patronize them and give them exposure for their business as well as giving them actual business. Warm fuzzies.

Caramelita Bars

Caramelita Bars - made August 2, 2014 from The Model Bakery by Karen Mitchell and Sarah Mitchell Hansen

This is the second recipe I tried from the Model Bakery cookbook that I got for my birthday and the one I meant to make in the first place when I started melting caramel before I realized I didn't have enough oatmeal on hand. A trip to Target rectified that but unfortunately, this didn't turn out as well as the brownie had.

That's partly my fault. I wanted the oatmeal crumbly topping to crisp up a bit to provide more texture to the caramelita, thinking it would be a nice contrast to the smooth, sweet, melty/flowy caramel. But I miscalculated because in the time it took to crisp up the oatmeal topping, the caramel lost its flowiness. It didn't get hard but it wasn't drippy caramel decadence either. Instead, it was just....there. Darn.

The part that wasn't my fault is this wasn't all that flavorful either. I prefer caramelitas not only dripping with caramel but also have a brown sugar flavor or a brown butter undertone. This held neither. Again, it was just there. It wasn't bad and remember how picky my taste buds are. Most people would probably think these were fine. To me, they're just okay.

Caramel
2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup water
2 teaspoon light corn syrup
1 cup heavy cream

Crust
3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
1 2/3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup butter, melted
2 tablespoons water

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup chopped pecans, toasted

1. To make the caramel: Stir the granulated sugar, water, and corn syrup together in a large heavy saucepan over high heat until the sugar has dissolved. Boil, without stirring, occasionally rotating the pan by the handle to swirl the syrup and washing down any crystals that form on the sides of the pan with a natural-bristle brushed dipped in cold water, until the syrup is smoking and the color of old copper, 3 to 5 minutes. Reduce the heat to low.
2. Add the cream and stir until the caramel is smooth. Remove from the heat and let cool until tepid and thickened, about 1 hour.
3. To make the crust: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 9 x 13 pan with aluminum foil and lightly spray with nonstick cooking spray.
4. Whisk the oats, flour, brown sugar, baking soda and salt together in a large bowl. Stir in the melted butter and water until the oat mixture is moistened. Transfer about one-fourth of the mixture to a bowl; set aside. Transfer the remainder into the prepared pan and press it firmly and evenly into the bottom of the pan.
5. Bake until the crust is golden brown, 20 to 25 minutes. Remove from the oven and spread the caramel over the crust. Sprinkle the chocolate chips and pecans evenly over the caramel. Crumble the reserved mixture as evenly as possible over the top. Return to the oven and bake until the topping is barely golden brown, about 15 minutes.
6. Let cool completely before cutting and serving.

Triple Vanilla Brownies

Triple Vanilla Brownies - made July 26, 2014 from Classy Cutter

I liked the picture of these on Classy Clutter as I thought the texture was exactly as I like my non-chocolate bar cookies: moist, soft and fudgy. I thought these would be the vanilla version of a good chocolate fudge brownie.

Sadly though, I think I baked these a minute longer than I should have. They weren't dry but they weren't as moist as I could've hoped. I also naively thought from the title that they would be vanilla brownies rather than white chocolate. Why I thought that I can't tell you when, from the ingredients list, it's obvious these are actually white chocolate brownies instead of vanilla brownies. I mean, hello, there are 12 ounces of white chocolate in the base. I guess I thought somehow the white chocolate taste would bake out. Wrong.

If you like white chocolate, these are a good "brownie". I myself am not a big fan of white chocolate except as an accent flavor or as white chocolate chunks in a fudge cookie or a macadamia cookie so I wasn't as thrilled. The white chocolate flavor is just too pronounced for me.

1/2 cup butter

1 (12ounce) bag white chocolate chips
1 1/4 cups flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 eggs

Glaze
3 cups powdered sugar
6 tablespoons butter, softened
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
3 tablespoons milk 

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 13×9 baking dish with foil and lightly spray with nonstick cooking spray.
2. In a large pot, melt the butter and white chocolate chips over low heat, stirring frequently, just until it’s melted. (The mixture will appear slightly curdled.) Remove from the heat and cool. Do not overheat or butter and white chocolate will not blend.
3. Stir in the flour, sugar, vanilla, salt and eggs until well blended. Spread mixture evenly in the pan.
4. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool. 
5. For the glaze: In a medium bowl, mix all the glaze ingredients until nice and smooth & spreadable. You can add more milk a tablespoon at a time if needed. Spread glaze over cooled brownies.

Review: Bootleg Creamery

Bootleg Creamery - visited July 30, 2014

Last week, one of our "Pop Up" shops at work was Bootleg Creamery, a small business based in Berkeley that makes and sells "artisanal and avant-garde ice cream". I'd never heard of Bootleg Creamery so I love having the pop up shop concept at work where local small businesses set up a temporary shop in a dedicated room on campus, we're notified who's coming a few days ahead of time and they open during most of business hours.

It's a great way to try out a new business with very little effort on my part. Bootleg Creamery doesn't have a storefront and they sell their ice cream in pints for pick up or delivery in the Bay Area. For our Pop Up Shop, they brought their own freezer unit with a select number of flavors and you could buy it by the scoop or the pint.

Just like Ici Ice Cream, also in Berkeley, you could get a sample taste test of the flavors. Before going into the pop up shop, the lady outside offered us a tasting spoon of the Cap'n Crunch ice cream which appeared to be vanilla ice cream with Cap'n Crunch mixed in. I'm probably one of the few kids who never got into Cap'n Crunch cereal growing up (my mom rarely bought those sugary cereals) so I wasn't particularly wowed by the add-in but the ice cream was good. When we went in, the same woman asked us if we wanted to try any other flavors. I chose the salted caramel....of course.

The freezer unit housed two layers of different stainless steel containers of ice cream. It was actually pretty clever - compact enough for easy travel and the containers on top slid sideways so the bottom layer of ice cream containers could be easily accessed when needed.

Being a two-scoop girl when it comes to trying out new ice cream, I opted for the salted caramel and the Tcho dark chocolate. I'm normally a milk chocolate person but dark chocolate is fine for an ice cream flavor.

The ice cream was good but I have to admit, I'm not enough of an ice cream gourmand to be all that discerning. I mean, I can tell the difference between ice milk, frozen yogurt, low-fat/slow-churned ice cream and premium ice cream but in the battle between premium ice creams, my taste buds aren't that discerning. If it's good ice cream, it's good ice cream.

Fortunately for Bootleg Creamery, it's good ice cream and I can recommend it for any ice cream fans. Unfortunately for Bootleg Creamery, I don't know that I can distinguish it between any other premium ice cream more accessible to me than driving to Berkeley to get a pint or paying extra to have it delivered to me. So while I enjoyed it, I think I'd chalk this one up to being glad to support a local small business more than sourcing a new must-have ice cream place to buy from. If you're in Berkeley though, I recommend giving them a try.

The Model Bakery's Brownies

Caramel Brownies - made July 26, 2014, adapted from The Model Bakery by Karen Mitchell and Sarah Mitchell

I received this baking book for my birthday. Although I lived in Napa Valley for 8 months while I was in culinary school, ironically, I wasn’t as into visiting bakeries back then as I am now. Frankly, I don’t think it really occurred to me to seek out and go visit different local bakeries; I’m not sure why. Which is a crying shame because Napa and its surrounding area is known not just for its wine but also its variety of foodie offerings, including bakeries. What was I thinking??  And of course I haven’t been back to Napa Valley in awhile so I can’t even rectify that oversight.

So I was happily surprised to get this book from The Model Bakery in Napa Valley from my friend Terri. Okay, if I couldn’t visit it, I could make one of their recipes. Like a moth to a flame, the brownie recipe waved to me from the page while I was flipping through the book. “Pick me,” it beckoned. “You know you want to.” Why, yes, I do.

It went on my “try this someday” list but someday came sooner than I expected. I was actually going to make the Caramelita recipe from the same book first. I put the caramel to melt and thin with a little milk while I got the rest of the ingredients ready. Only to discover there’s a reason why the really professional chefs advise getting your mise en place first before starting any step in a recipe. Because I discovered I was down to a half cup of oatmeal, not enough for the Caramelitas. But the caramel was already on its way to the melty stage so I had to do something with it. No problem, switch to the brownies and make them caramel brownies. I’m flexible.

I did modify the process a bit though. In my experience, it’s hard to keep a distinct caramel layer if you add it directly to raw brownie batter. Oftentimes, if the caramel is a thicker density than the brownie batter, it’ll sink in baking and/or merge too much with the batter and the brownies come out too gooey. and with a messy brownie batter that's difficult to cut and serve. Even if it’s a thinner consistency than the brownie, it can still sink. Plus you don’t want too much (or any) caramel exposed during baking or it’ll overcook and harden when the brownie cools. So I poured half the batter into the pan, baked it for 10-12 minutes, just long enough for the bottom layer to form a crust without being fully baked; then I spread the caramel gently in an even layer over the barely baked brownie and covered it completely with the remaining batter before returning the pan to the oven to bake completely. It’s still a little tricky to tell when it’s done; you’ll need to angle the toothpick near the center to test the top half of the brownie without running into the caramel layer because the caramel is meant to remain still gooey and liquid. The good thing is, it’s almost hard to overbake a caramel brownie. Even if you leave it in longer than you should, the caramel does help to keep the brownie moist. I think I underbaked this a little too much as it was pretty gooey but it does keep it moist enough that this actually held up well the next day. I did taste the espresso in it and, with the caramel, this is pretty rich so you might want to cut these small.

3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon unsalted butter

1 cup (130 grams) cake flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
10 ounces/280 grams semisweet chocolate (no more than 55% cacao)
1 cup sugar
3 tablespoons brewed espresso (or 1 1/2 teaspoons instant espresso dissolved in 3 tablespoons boiling water)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 large eggs

1 1/4 cups caramel, storebought or homemade

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line an 8-inch baking pan with foil and lightly spray with nonstick cooking spray.
2. Sift the cake flour, baking powder and salt together into a medium bowl; set aside.
3. Heat the butter, sugar and espresso together in a medium saucepan over medium heat, stirring often, until melted and combined.
4. Pour hot mixture over chocolate and let stand until chocolate is softened, about 1 minute. Add the vanilla and whisk until the chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth.
5. Gradually beat in the eggs. Add the flour mixture and stir until smooth.
6. Spread half of mixture evenly in the prepared pan; bake for 10-12 minutes. Remove from oven, evenly spread the caramel over the bottom layer and top with remaining half of brownie batter, covering caramel completely. Return to oven and bake for another 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out with moist crumbs. Do not overbake. Remove from oven and cool completely.

Nutella Peanut Butter Cookies

Nutella Peanut Butter Cookies - made dough July 19, 2014 from Averie Cooks

This is the second cookie with nutella that I've made from Averie's blog and the second one that didn't come out looking like the ones on her blog. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong or differently than what she does. I mix it according to the directions, I freeze the dough balls, I even bake with the convection setting on my oven. Comparing the looks of her cookies versus mine where hers are thick and compact while mine are marginally thick but much more spread out, I assume I baked mine longer than she did hers. Which is entirely possible since at the time specified in her recipe, my cookies still looked raw so I let them bake longer.

They were still tasty but I should satisfy my curiosity and make a point of baking a test cookie only for the 9-10 minutes specified in her recipe and see how that turns out. Maybe it would look closer to hers in appearance and once it's cooled, I certainly don't mind a fudgy texture.

Although this tasted fine, I'm not a big enough fan of peanut butter to really love it properly. It's good but I confess, I'm going to stick with my latest cookie crush from her blog instead, namely her amazing chocolate chip cookies.

1 large egg
3/4 cup Nutella
1/4 cup creamy peanut butter or chocolate peanut butter (do not use natural or homemade, it's too runny and cookies could spread)
1/2 cup dark brown sugar, packed (light may be substituted)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
pinch salt, optional and to taste
5 to 6 ounces dark chocolate, chopped

1. To the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the egg, Nutella, peanut butter, brown sugar, vanilla, and beat on high power to cream ingredients, about 5 minutes. Stop and scrape down the sides of the bowl as necessary. 
2. Add the flour, baking soda, optional salt and beat to incorporate. Add the chocolate chunks and beat momentarily to incorporate.
3. Using a large cookie scoop, scoop out golf-sized balls of dough and chill for at least 2 hours or up to 5 days.
4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F, line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper; set aside. Space dough 2 inches apart (8 per tray) and bake for 9 to 10 minutes, or until top have just set, even if slightly underbaked in the center. 
5. Allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet for about 10 minutes before removing and transferring to a rack to finish cooling. Store cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 week, or in the freezer for up to 3 months. 

Easy One Pot Fudgy Brownies

Easy One Pot Fudgy Brownies - made July 20, 2014 from Neighbor Food Blog

I was busy last weekend and my normal time for baking was partially taken up with the visit to my niece so I needed something quick and easy as that week's baking experiment.

Enter brownies. Naturally. Although, since I seem incapable of making plain brownies, I did fancy these up a bit by spreading a thin layer of chocolate peanut butter on top then sprinkling chopped up peanut butter cups over it to make sure people knew what kind of brownie it was. Peanut butter lovers, step on up.

True to its name, this was an easy brownie to make and takes no time at all to mix together. I probably underbaked it just a trifle too much and it would've been better with a few extra minutes in the oven. But still, underbaking is a lesser sin than overbaking and this helped with the fudgy factor. It's been hot here lately so the peanut butter cups were somewhat soft even after the brownie had cooled. And that's not a complaint.

• 1½ sticks butter (12 Tablespoons)
• 1 cup brown sugar
• ¾ cup white sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 cup cocoa powder
• ⅓ cup all purpose flour
• ½ cup chocolate chips

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 8 x 8 inch baking dish. Set aside.
2. In a medium sized pot, melt the butter on the stove top over medium heat. Remove from heat, then whisk in brown and white sugar until smooth and creamy, about 1-2 minutes. Add the eggs and egg yolk, one at a time, whisking well after each addition. Stir in the vanilla.
3. Add the cocoa powder and flour and stir until just combined. Stir in the chocolate chips. Pour the mixture into the prepared pans and bake for 40-45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes back with a few moist crumbs attached.