#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!

I won I won... I can't believe it.

I'm so excited. I've been doing some blog hopping I'm new to this so bear with me. In the last couple of weeks I learned about something called "Blog Candy" so I took some time and entered a few. How much fun is this? Not only do you get to go look at someone's amazing work and get ideas, but then just for visiting and sharing their blog they give you a gift? WOW. I never expected to win anything it's just fun to go and comment on someone's blog and share with my friends on my blog... One of the blogs I love to visit is Ann's at http://stampwithann.blogspot.com/. She has some amazing card ideas, and she is a stampin up demonstrator so I stop by and drool over the new stamps, of course I have to add to my wish list too..

This is what I won.. I'm so pickin excited.. It's not even my birthday.. lol




Ann also had more blog candies listed if your interested in trying your hand at it..

Wishing you all abundant blessings,

#49) Chocolate Orange Crunchies

These little guys were an after-thought, really. I was in the kitchen waiting and waiting for my Mega-Orange Muffins to come out of the oven, and all the while I was getting more and more enticed by the citrus aroma filling the room. I got to thinking - what can I do next with some orange zest? Well, chocolate goes great with orange, but I wasn't in the mood for a cupcake or cookie... I wanted 100% chocolate. But, I couldn't make candy with just chocolate and orange zest? Well, really I could have (chocoholic, remember?!?!), but I thought it would be better to load it up with some crunchy extras!

Ingredients

2 cups chocolate chips (good quality)
zest of one very large orange
1 cup toasted almonds, chopped
1 cup coconut, toasted

Steps

-Melt chocolate.
-Stir in zest.
-Add almonds and coconut. Let cool slightly.
-Drop by tablespoonful onto parchment paper until hard.
-Eat, crunch, and be merry :)