Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

I know!  The name of this recipe just SOUNDS yummy!  Wait till you see the finished cookies!  I found this recipe on allrecipes.com  I love this website because not only are they recipes that people actually use, but they are reviewed by other users.  The reviews give you advice and opinions, and while sometimes they aggravate me (like when someone doesn't follow the steps in the recipe and then complains that is didn't turn out correctly), I also find them very helpful.  Not to mention, they have recipes for EVERYTHING... and you can add recipes you like to your "recipe box" while you are browsing.  Seriously, check it out.  You will love it.  On to the current baked deliciousness...

INGREDIENTS:

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup peanut butter

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1 egg, beaten

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 tablespoons milk

40 miniature chocolate covered peanut

butter cups, unwrapped

For once, I didn't change any ingredients... oh wait, yes I did, but we will get to that in just a bit.  First preheat your oven to 375.  Whisk together the flour, salt and baking soda; set aside.

Cream together the butter, sugar, peanut butter and brown sugar until fluffy.  Like this...

It's so peanut buttery!  It smells amazing already.  Beat in the egg, vanilla and milk...

Isn't it amazing what one little egg can do to the texture of your batter?  So smooth and creamy!  Get a spoon and just eat the dough.  Now.  Oh wait, you can't do that!  There is raw egg in there after all.  So resist the urge to gobble it up.  Gradually add the flour mixture; mix well...

Here is what the dough looks like when you get it all mixed up...

The recipe says shape into 40 balls and place each into an ungreased mini muffin pan.  I decided not to roll it into balls... I just used my trusty small scoop and scooped it right into the mini muffin pan.  Worked like a charm... and I ended up with more cookies!  I ended up with 52.

 

Bake at 375 degrees for about 8 minutes.  While they were in the oven, I unwrapped my reese cups...

Remove from oven and immediately press a mini peanut butter cup into each ball.  Ta da!

Ok, remove carefully... hmm...  how am I going to get these out of there... AHA!  I've got it!  I'll use my pie server, that will be perfect...

Using the tip, I eased these beauties out of the cute little pan, with no issues.  My mouth was watering, check em out!

I can't stand it!  I've got to see inside...  let's cut one in half!!!

YUMMY!!!  Now, I mentioned changing an ingredient...  after I read the recipe, I had an idea.  What if I stuck another kind of candy in the center...  like a rolo???

Ok, now I gotta see what these look on the inside...

OH WOW!  And I think these might even taste better, if it is possible.  I love reese cups.  They are my favorite candy!  Peanut butter and chocolate is my favorite combo of all time...  but those peanut butter cookies wrapped around a melty, chocolatey, carmely center are irresistible!!!  You know you want to try these... how could you not???

From The Candy Jar To The Cookie Jar

It's been a few days since my last post.  Okay, okay... it's been a week.  I did use my time away from posting to plan new upcoming posts.  Including three new upcoming series of themed posts!  The first one is...  "Baking From The Candy Jar"  There just might be some hints of what is to come in this series in the cleverly crafted photo above.  First up... M&M cookies!

M&M cookies are probably my third favorite cookie.  I've loved them since I was a kid.  I've been looking for the perfect recipe from my childhood since my late teens.  I could never seem to find it.  The recipe I was looking for was NOT merely a chocolate chip cookie recipe that switched the chocolate chips for M&Ms.  While reading some recipes online last week, I finally came across the one I've been looking for!  It was titled, "Oldie But Goodie M&M Cookie Recipe."  I couldn't wait to try it!  So let's get started....

Ingredients: 

• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 cup shortening
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups candy-coated milk chocolate pieces

As you may have noticed (or maybe not) from the picture, I made a couple of changes to the ingredients.  I used half a cup of shortening (butter flavored) and half a cup of butter.  My Meemaw taught me this trick when I first started baking when I was little.  It makes cookies turn out better.  I never questioned it  (Meemaw said so!), but have learned through trial and error that she is correct.  Also, instead of using 1 1/2 cups of M&Ms, I used the whole bag.  You can never have too much chocolate.  (The Princess says so!)

Ok, I know what you are thinking (if you are anything like me).  Princess, these ingredients are VERY similar to chocolate chip cookie ingredients.  And you are correct, but the measurements are a bit different, and besides the recipe is called an oldie but goodie... so we are pressing forward and hoping to not be disappointed.  Don't doubt The Princess!  :-p

Preheat your oven to 350 and in a large bowl mix sugars, eggs and vanilla thoroughly.

Yep, they are all in there.  Some of them are hiding but if you look hard enough, you can see all of the above mentioned ingredients. In a separate bowl whisk together flour, salt and baking soda.  Add the flour mixture to creamed mixture gradually, blending well...

Now the fun part...  add the M&Ms!  The recipe said to add 3/4 cup to the mixture and then has you push a few into each cookie as you drop it on the cookie sheet.  But I say, no way!  Come on, being surprised at how many (or how few, as the case may be) M&Ms you get in your cookie is half the fun of eating them!  Why ruin the surprise.  I say dump them all in at once...

It is trickier than you think to capture this moment, while pouring M&Ms and shooting the camera yourself...   just saying.  :)  Mix them into the batter, I went old school at this point and mixed them in by hand.  I still do the same thing with chocolate chips...  does anyone mix them in with the mixer?  I just always switched back in the day, you know, pre-kitchenaid, so I still do it that way.  Hmmm.... now I'm curious, it never crossed my mind to try it in the mixer, hmmm... maybe next time.  Anyway, here is the dough all mixed up and finished...

Drop dough by teaspoonful onto a cookie sheet.  Bake for 9 to 11 minutes, to your liking.  (The recipe actually said that.)  Here is another baking tip that I learned from Meemaw...  while your first batch is in the oven, get the  next batch ready to go in the oven on another cookie sheet!  It cuts your baking time in half.  As the first batch comes out of the oven, put the waiting one in, move the first batch to the cooling rack and get the third batch ready to go in on the cookie sheet you just emptied.  Repeat until your batter is all gone.  I got 40 cookies out of this recipe.

I couldn't wait to taste these!  I was so hoping that they were the recipe I remembered from my childhood.  (Yes, I was way confident at the beginning of this post.  Don't worry I tasted them before I started this post, so I have reason to be confident.  But you are skipping ahead, be patient!  :-P)

Doesn't it look temptingly delicious?  I can't wait anymore!  I have to try it!  They look right.  They smell right.  Could it be?  I finally found the recipe after all these years???

I did!  This is THE one!  They are so yummy.  Simple, sweet, buttery, chocolatey...  yummy!  You need to try these.  They are super simple and will take you back to your childhood...  or at least to my childhood.  Enjoy!

ROOT BEER Cookies!

My sister found it! The "Root Beer Concentrate" that they used in the "Root Beer Cookie" recipe on Betty Crocker's Facebook page! She found it at a Walmart that I hadn't checked.



So I did the recipe as it was written. The first major change was the color of the batter.

My "Root Beer Float Cookie" batter:


Here is the "Root Beer Cookie" Batter:


It smelled different too. I thought it smelled like gingerbread dough. Even after I took them out of the oven, they didn't really smell "root beery" to me. Then I made the icing. It too was much darker but it really smelled like root beer. Here is the finished cookie:





To me they taste a little like gingerbread, but my friend Dayna assures me that they are very "Root Beer-ish." Either way, they are really good and you should try this recipe if you like Root Beer... or gingerbread. Enjoy!

Root Beer Float Cookies

Much like my last post, this post includes a recipe I came across on Facebook and uses a soft drink! But I made a few slight changes to this recipe. The original recipe was posted on Betty Crocker's Facebook page and was called "Root beer Cookies." It called for Root beer extract. I looked at Four different Krogers, Two Walmarts and a Randall's and didn't find it. (Side note to my friends... if you come across some, buy me a bottle and I'll pay you back!) So I improvised, as you will see later... let's get started!



Ingredients:
Cookies:
4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup flat root beer
2 large eggs
2 teaspoon root beer extract or concentrate
1 teaspoon vanilla

Icing
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 tablespoon flat root beer
2 teaspoon butter, softened
1 teaspoon root beer extract or concentrate

Heat oven to 375F.
In medium bowl, stir together flour, baking soda and salt. Use a whisk.



In a large bowl add granulated sugar, brown sugar, butter,



root beer,



root beer extract, vanilla... only I didn't have root beer extract so I used this instead...



so instead of two teaspoons of root beer extract and one teaspoon of vanilla, I used three of the vanilla butter and nut flavor and dubbed them "Root Beer Float Cookies," crossed my fingers and continued on with the recipe....

and eggs until well blended.



Slowly beat in flour mixture just until combined.





The recipe said to form balls about 1 1/2 inch in diameter using a rounded tablespoon of dough. I used my normal method of scooping out cookies with my medium sized scoop.





Please excuse the condition of my cookie stone... it's well used and well loved... and it shows! Bake them for 9 to 11 minutes or until lightly browned. Do not over bake or cookies will dry out. Cool completely on rack.





The house smelled so good! It almost smelled as yummy as butter beer tasted earlier this summer! Don't they kind of look like vanilla wafers? They kind of tasted like them too... like vanilla wafers dipped in root beer... I think I chose the right name for them and my experiment worked! But they need a little dressing up... oh yes! The icing!

In a small bowl combine all icing ingredients with a spoon until smooth. Add more powdered sugar if too thin or more root beer if too thick. Mine came together perfectly, as directed without having to add anything extra.



I couldn't get over the yummy texture and color! Because I didn't use the root beer extract, I didn't end up with a brown, root beer colored icing, but I think the yellow is much prettier anyway.

Spread on cooled cookies, makes about 4 dozen cookies.








Aren't they cute? Cute enough to box up and surprise a friend at church with a sample!





It made a ton of cookies! I took a plate over to my grandparents, packaged up some for my newphew and I have some ready to take to my sisters tomorrow. So far, I've received rave reviews. If I ever find root beer extract, I'll try the original recipe and compare the two. Enjoy!