Fluffernutter Cookies with Chocolate Glaze

Growing up I enjoyed my share of Fluffernutter sandwiches.  It was a great way to eat "lunch" while simultaneously having dessert.  As an adult my palette has advanced far far beyond fluffernutters, because now I add Nutella to my peanut butter and fluff sandwiches :)  Ok, so maybe you're never too old for a fluffernutter.  These cookies have everything that makes a fluffernutter a fluffernutter: Marshmallows and Peanut Butter, with the addition of a rich chocolate drizzle.  The recipe for "Fluffernutter Chocolate Gobs" comes from Bakergirl.  These were so good, I made them twice in 3 days.  Yikes. 


Fluffernutter Cookies with Chocolate Glaze from Bakergirl
makes about 24 cookies
Ingredients for the Cookies:
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup creamy peanut butter (I used Skippy)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg, room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
Mini marshmallows

Ingredients for the Chocolate Glaze: 
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1-2 tablespoons milk, depending on how your desired consistency

Preheat oven to 350°F. Combine flour, baking soda, and salt in a bowl and set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat butter, peanut butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar for 2 minutes until light and fluffy. Add in egg and vanilla.

Gradually add in flour mixture on low speed and mix until it is just incorporated. Chill dough for 15 minutes in the refrigerator.

Using a 1.5 Tablespoons cookie scoop, place on a parchment lined cooking sheet and bake for 7-9 minutes, until edges are very lightly browned. Remove from oven and pat down the cookies with a spatula to flatten them slightly.  Place 5 or 6 mini marshmallows on top of each cookie and return to the oven for 2-3 minutes, until marshmallows are melted. Let cool completely.

When cooled completely, make the glaze by melting the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Stir in the cocoa powder and mix until smooth. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.

Slowly whisk in the powdered sugar, gradually adding the milk as needed to get it the desired consistency (you want it thin enough to drizzle, but thick enough that it won't run all over- a little thicker than molasses). Whisk until no lumps remain.  Spoon a small amount over the top of each cookie.  Glaze with set slightly upon cooling.

Muddy Buddies and a New Apron

Muddy Buddies, Puppy Chow, Monkey Munch, whatever you want to call it,  is a quick to throw together sweet snack thats been around seemingly forever.  I remember first trying it when friends' parents would bring it to class parties at school.  For years and years, I never had puppy chow again until I got a bag of it this past Christmas.  It reignited my love for the chocolatey, peanut buttery, sweet crunchy snack and not long after I whipped up a batch of it.  I made a half batch (see the following recipe) but it could easily be doubled.

Easiest Peanut Butter Cookies

Working full time has given me a new appreciation for super quick and easy recipes.  Most of my baking is done on the weekends now, but every now and then I want something baked fresh on a weeknight.  On those occasions, the fewer the ingredients, the better.  If it involves just a few short steps, even better.  This recipe fits the bill.  It bakes up a small batch of soft, delicious peanut buttery cookies in just a few minutes and involves only 3 or 4 ingredients.


Easiest Peanut Butter Cookies, small batch - around 8 cookies, adapted from I ate Brisbane
Ingredients:
1/2 Cup Jif Natural Crunchy Peanut Butter (non-refrigerated kind)
1/4 C + 2 Tbl granulated sugar
~ 1/2 large egg, room temp
A few chocolate chips


Preheat oven to 325 F.  Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.  Put all ingredients in the bowl of an electric mixer and mix until combined.  Make scant Tablespoon dough balls (use a Tablespoon cookie scoop and don't quite fill it all the way).  Press a few chocolate chips into the top of each cookie.  Bake 13 - 17 minutes.  

CSN Product Reviews: Tartlet Pans, Tart Pan, and Decorating Pen

Shortly after I received my shipment from CSN Stores, I got to work!  I put my new items to use to test them out and see how they faired in my kitchen.  

Peanut Butter Cookie Dough Brownies

Occasionally I'll spent a lot of time preparing something, getting creative, making it fancy, and it just doesn't go over well.  Usually, though, the classic treats are home-runs.  When you want to make a dessert the family will surely go nuts for, stick to time-tested flavor combinations and family favorites.  These Peanut Butter Cookie Dough Brownies were one of those home-run desserts that was actually pretty easy to make, too.  If you're still searching for a recipe to make for the Fourth of July festivities you'll be attending, keep these in mind.  Moist, chocolately brownie layer on the bottom, Peanut Butter Cookie Dough-ish frosting in the middle, Rich chocolate ganache on top...  You'll definitely hit one out of the park with these.

Sweet Melissa Sundays: Peanut Butter Truffles

Our host for this week's Sweet Melissa Sundays was Mara of Love Your Mother Earth. Mara chose Peanut Butter Truffles as our recipe, which has the classic combination of Chocolate and Peanut Butter. If you ask ME, sweet is almost always made better by the addition of Salty, and these truffles do just that. The truffle base is made with heavy cream, chocolate, butter, and peanut butter, and it is rolled in a coating of chopped, salted nuts. Yu-um.

Based on everyone else's reactions in the SMS forum, this was a.) light on the peanut butteriness and b.) a very messy procedure. Knowing this ahead of time, I upped the amount of peanut butter in the recipe and decreased the butter a tiny bit. I made a half batch of these bad boys, and halved all of the ingredients. But instead of halving the Peanut Butter, I actually increased it from 1/4 C to 1/3 C. I'm glad I upped the PB because, even with my more than doubled ratio of PB to chocolate, the chocolate flavor was still more prominent (though you could taste the PB). I decreased the butter to 2 TBL, used high quality belgium dark chocolate (its 71% was the closest I could find at the grocery store to the 64-68% Melissa calls for in the recipe), and used sea salted, dry roasted, chopped peanuts. Also, from the kind warning of the other SMS-ers about how MESSY this was, I was prepared and took off my rings before starting. :) And just how messy did I get? Well...

UUUHH, very.

Overall these were very good. Definitely needed to up the Peanut Butter in order to call these "Peanut Butter Truffles". I'm glad I read and learned from the other SMS'ers before preparing these, because the more-than-doubled amount of peanut butter was totally necessary.





Thanks for hosting, Mara! For the recipe, visit Mara's blog, Love Your Mother Earth. How did this work out for all of the other members of Sweet Melissa Sundays? Visit the SMS Blogroll to see for yourself!

Rocky Ledge Bars

Unfortunately, there will be no Sweet Melissa Sundays for me today. I'm sorry! But I do have a recipe to share with you and it is pretty scrumptious. It's quick and easy, too - so if you forgot to get your Valentine something there's still time to whip up a batch, throw a bow on it, and pretend like you've been slaving away in the kitchen for them all morning.

What do you get when you combine a blondie, a s'more, peanut butter and nilla wafers?? Well... these Rocky Ledge Bars, based off of a Martha Stewart recipe. I scaled it back, made some substitutions, added some yummy things and left others out and ended up with this. These are a great use-whatever-you-have-on-hand kind of recipe...very substitution friendly.



Rocky Ledge Bars adapted from Martha Stewart
Ingredients:
1/2 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup + 2 Tblspn all-purpose flour
1 1/8 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon coarse sea salt
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1.5 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup miniature marshmallows
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup peanut butter chips
1/4 cup crushed nilla wafer crumbs, and extra for dusting
cinnamon sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease an 8x8 square baking pan and line with parchment.
Whisk together flour, nilla crumbs, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl. In the bowl of an electric mixer, mix butter and brown sugar until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add eggs and vanilla, and mix until combined. Add the flour mixture and stir until combined. Fold in 1/4 cup each of the marshmallows, chocolates, and peanut butter chips.
Spread batter in prepared pan. Sprinkle the remaining marshmallows, chocolates, peanut butter chips, and nilla crumbs on top. Sprinkle with powdered sugar to taste. Bake until golden brown and a cake tester comes out clean, about 30-35 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack.



(For SMS, visit Spike Bakes' Blog to see the recipe... They did Chocolate Mousse this week, mmmm!!!! And see how it came out for the bakers by checking out of the blogroll. Happy Valentine's Day... or Happy Anna Howard Shaw day!)

SMS: Chocolate Pie Crust + Brownie Pie

For Sweet Melissa Sundays this week, the recipe of choice was Chocolate Pie Crust, the pick of Donna from L'Amour de Tarte. And we could choose whatever filling we like to put in it. Nice choice, Donna! I love that this recipe left a lot of room for creativity. It is so much fun to check out everyone else's post in creative ones like this and see the different things we all came up with.

That being said, I was totally scared to do this. I have never made a pie crust, and judging by the amount of tutorials and advice on how to make a pie crust that flood the internet, I assumed it was a difficult and delicate process. So, I just avoided it all together. That, coupled with the fact that the fiance likes his fruit cold and crunchy, not cooked, soft and squishy, I never had the reason to make my first pie crust. But when it came up next on the list for SMS, I decided to give it a go. Before attempting my pie crust, I tried to read up all about it. I watched this and this. I looked at this step by step (with a different recipe) and a few others to see how the dough is supposed to look as it is coming together. I know the Sweet Melissa book said not to use a food processor, but I don't have the pastry cutter thingy (yet) and in the video, Alton made his in the same food processor I have! So I gave it a go with the Cuisinart. And it came out very nicely! I took about a gajillion pics of this one... of the process and the final product.


I did the squeeze test, and it stuck together perfectly. Time for making into a bally and chilling!


It rolled out perfectly! (with Dan's help, of course. There are certain things I am not good at and Daniel always help me when I get frustrated... rolling out dough, kneading, and crumb coating to name a few! <3 He's the best)


Going into the pie plate


So impressed with ourselves!


So for the FILLING... what to do! We could choose any filling we like. Since Daniel doesn't like cooked, soft, squishy fruit, Cherry, Apple. etc. were out. So I went searching for inspiration on Food Network. When I came across Paula Deen's "Corrie's Kentucky Pie", I knew I found THE ONE! The user comments and reviews on this one were very positive, and many described it as, a "Brownie Pie". Mmm, since the New Year's Brownies were such a big hit, and Daniel was still craving brownies, I chose Paula's "Corrie's Kentucky Pie" as my filling. Since her recipe made 2 pies, I just halved the recipe. I just made a few small changes to the filling, which I listed below. But also make sure to click here and check out the original recipe, and the multitude of positive reviews of this pie!

BUT.... before I made the batter.... I added a small secret layer to my already decadent Brownie Pie with Chocolate Pie Crust....


Because isn't every chocolate recipe a little better with a bit of peanut butter???

Brownie Pie with Chocolate Pie Crust, adapted from Paula Deen's "Corrie's Kentucky Pie"
enough to fill one 9.5" pie plate

Ingredients
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 cup sugar
4 oz semisweet chocolate. chopped
2 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1/2 cup all purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp fine sea salt
1 stick unsalted butter, melted and allow to cool slightly
1 Chocolate Pie Crust, from the Sweet Melissa Baking Book
handful of peanut butter chips.

Preheat to 350 F. In a large bowl, combine eggs and sugar and beat. Add melted chocolate and stir. In a separate small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. Add to chocolate mixture, mixing just until incorporated. Stirring in remaining ingredients except for pie shell and peanut butter chips.
Lay your prepared pie crust into an ungreased 9.5 inch pie plate. Sprinkle with peanut butter chips. Add brownie pie batter. Bake 50 -55 minutes. Use toothpick to test for doneness.





The end product was fantastic. The crust was a breeze to put together - So happy! And I thought it had a great taste. Not very sweet, but I think that mixes well with the sweetness of the filling. And the filling.... amazing. Nice gooey inside with a slight crust to the top. And after it has been allowed to cool and sit, it slices very nicely and cleanly. Perfect served warm with some ice cream. :)







Crust shots!!!!

Really good pick, Donna! Be sure to check our her blog, L'Amour de Tarte, for the recipe. And visit all the SMS bakers' sites to see their results and crust+filling combo's!

Sweet Melissa Sundays: Devils Food Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting

Chocolate. And Peanut Butter. A combination that will never ever ever get old. For this week's Sweet Melissa Sundays recipe, Holly of Phe/mom/enon chose Devil's Food Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting. Yesssss!!! I decided to make cupcakes instead of a full cake and let me just tell you, this new addition to our kitchen REVOLUTIONIZED the cupcake making process. Ok maybe not revolutionized but it made it considerably more efficient.


Dan's mom got us this batter bowl from pampered chef, and it made the pouring-the-batter-into-the-cupcake-pan process much quicker and easier. I used to put the batter into a large zippy bag and then sort of pipe it into the wells, but this new bowl and its little spout eliminated that unnecessary step. I'm totally loving it.

I made the recipe for the devil's food cake exactly as is, except that I used water instead of coffee. I'm a coffee-addict, but some of these cupcakes were piped with pink buttercream and were donated to Making Strides Against Breast Cancer so I didn't want to assume everyone would like or want coffee in their treat. For the other cupcakes, I made the Peanut Butter Frosting, but I chose to use chunky peanut butter, and do Karen's variation, just scaled down:

Peanut Butter Frosting ...this made enough to frost 8 cupcakes
1 stick of butter, softened
2 cups of powdered sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup natural super chunky peanut butter

Combine the first three ingredients in a mixer with the whisk attachment, mix until smooth. Add the peanut butter.

The cupcakes and the frosting came out delicious. Nice choice, Holly! Be sure to visit Holly's blog, Phe/mom/enon, for the recipe or buy the Sweet Melissa Baking Book. And check out how this recipe came out for the other SMS bakers!

Sweet Melissa Sundays: Chewy Peanut Butter Cookies

It's finally my turn to host Sweet Melissa Sundays! Yey! Since it was my turn to choose a recipe, I went for something simple, and something that I think mostttt people would like. It was a tough choice.. there are so many delicious recipes in the Sweet Melissa Baking Book! Finally I decided on Chewy Peanut Butter Cookies. Me and pretty much everyone I know LOVES Peanut Butter but for some reason, I don't make Peanut Butter cookies that often. Maybe because the boy likes chewy cookies, and the few times I have made them, I don't ever remembering them coming out that chewy. Fortunately, this recipe whipped up some seriously good, seriously simple to make, seriously soft and chewy cookies. Mmmm, Sunday breakfast perfection.

I decided to make them a bunch of different ways. For my first batch, I made some the straight up Peanut Butter Cookie way, with the fork indentations and everything (though I didn't cross them, what can I say I'm a minimalist). With others, I rolled them in some turbinado sugar for a little extra crunch. And with others, I made little pockets - some were filled with grape jelly and others were filled with fluff:



With this first batch of cookies, I decided to leave out the egg to make Peanut Butter Shortbread Cookies... Ok, FINE you caught me. I did that by accident. After my precious little goodies were cooking in the oven and I began cleaning up, I noticed that sneaky little egg on the counter. Bit of advice: when you're baking mise en place , make sure your placing all of your pre-measured ingredients ON THE SAME COUNTER. Or else you might forget the SNEAKY LITTLE EGG!!!!

But, as my good friend Cicero said, "We must not say every mistake is a foolish one." I think maybe he made peanut butter cookies and left out the egg one time, because this mistake was pretty delicious. They turned out like shortbread!! If you like shortbread and peanut butter, try the recipe this way some time!! :) Maybe I should re-design my measurements APRON to also include, in a nice large font, "DON'T FORGET TO PUT THE SNEAKY EGG IN!" :)

The only thing that didn't come out so well was....

6 out of 9 of the Jelly filled ones came out looking like they puked on my baking sheet. Oh wells!! Maybe I'll try this idea again in the future when I put the egg in... I think they cracked open because the cookie was dry and crumbly. It would probably work if they were chewy like they were supposed to be.

Since it was my turn to host this week, I couldn't post a MISTAKE! So I whipped up another batch and this time I REMEMBERED TO PUT THE EGG IN. With these ones, I made some the traditional way, others I rolled in turbinado sugar, and others I threw a few chocolate chips in.

Result?? DELICIOUS. I know I will certainly be making Peanut Butter cookies more often from now on. They came out nice and soft and perfectly chewy, just like the recipe said! And they are Peanut Buttery, but not so overwhelmingly peanut buttery. I thought they were rather perfect. One reviewer said it tasted like a sugar cookie with a kick of peanut butter. Hope everyone enjoyed baking with me this week! I can't wait to visit your blogs and see what you came up with!!



Recipe, pg. 66 of the Sweet Melissa Baking Book!
"The cookies are best when they are chewy, so don't over-bake them!"
Makes 2 dozen cookies.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup Smooth Peanut Butter
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 large egg which may or may not be optional :)
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt

Before you start: Position a rack in the top and bottom thirds of your oven. Preheat the oven to 325 F. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper or aluminum foil.

1. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream peanut butter, butter and sugars until light and fluffy, about 3 - 4 minutes. Beat in the egg.

2. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

3. Add the flour mixture to the peanut butter mixture and mix until combined. Be sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl so that everything is combined evenly.

4. Scoop dough by rounded tablespoons and roll into balls. Place the balls about 2 inches apart on the prepared cookie sheets, and press down slightly. Using a fork dipped in flour, press down on the cookies first one way and then the other to form an "X" pattern, creating the crosshatch effect. (The cookies should now measure approx. 2 inches in diameter.) Bake for 10 minutes or until the edges are lightly golden. Overbaking will cause these chewy cookies to become crunchy so try to avoid it.

The cookies will keep in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days. For longer storage, they can be frozen wrapped in plastic wrap and aluminum foil for up to 1 month. Do not unwrap before defrosting.







Please be sure to check out all the other fabulous SMS Bakers' posts!!

SMS: Not So Double Chocolate Cherry Cookies (Double Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies)

This Sunday, Megan of My Baking Adventures chose our recipe for the Sweet Melissa Sundays baking group. Her choice was Double Chocolate Cherry Cookies.. ooooh. It sounded delicious to me, but I knew the BF wouldn't love the Cherry component, and I knew he probably would love them all that much anyway because he isn't so into the super chocolately stuff. So, I halved the recipe and omitted the Dried Cherries. To eliminate some of the Double-Chocolatiness, I used Peanut Butter Chips in place of half of the chocolate chips the recipe called for.

The dough came together very quickly and painlessly. I was a little scared about my chocolate substitution like many other SMS Bakers since I couldn't seem to find Dutch processed cocoa like the original recipe calls for, but my regular ol' cocoa did just fine.


Please excuse Dan's fingernails, he's very self-conscious about it. Right before this photograph was taken, he was repotting some plants out front, but I forced him to eat a cookie right away.

The final result? Amazing. I followed the SMS bakers' advice to watch the cookies carefully before the 15 minute mark the book suggests to avoid overbaking. I checked at 13 and they were just about done. The cookies are chocolately, but not too chocolatey. Since I avoided overbaking, they are moist and not too dense, very Brownie-like. And the Peanut Butter chips were an excellent addition.

Be sure to visit the SMS Blog roll to check out the other SMS Baker's Posts!!!

Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Chocolate Chip Cookies

A little while back, we bought a large amount of mini Reese's cups to mix in to brownies. Since we only used about 12 reese's cups in that recipe, there's still quite a few left. Besides for the occasional snack, they were just sitting idly in the pantry. When Dan requested I make cookies, he suggested I mix in reese's cups instead of chocolate chips (he's a genius, right?). So, we promptly sat on the couch and had a reese's peanut butter cup unwrapping party. 30 minutes and what looked like about 500 foil wrappers later, we had about 43 reese's cups in a bowl. How tempting it was to just sit there and eat it like popcorn.... but alas, our willpower won (well, MINE did, I can't say the same for Daniel... he ate about every other one that he unwrapped), and we stuck the bowl in the frig. I measured out the ingredients for my cookies and waited for my butter to soften while my reese's cups were chilling in the freezer. When chilled enough that they were hard, I put them in my food processor and pulsed until it looked like this:


Perfect for mixing in to cookies!

For the cookie recipe, I chose Martha Stewart's Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies because I've been reading such good reviews on it lately. The only change I made was to sub in my chopped reese's cups for both the semisweet and milk chocolate chips called for in the recipe.

The cookies came out very good. Martha's recipe produced a very nice, soft, kind of light and cakey cookie, and the reese's cup flavor is excellent. Next time, I would repeat the Reese's Cup add-in idea, but would probably use a sturdier, more dense & chewy cookie. But don't get me wrong, they're still delicious! I might also pulse the food processor a little less and use slightly bigger chunks.

I did not flatten the cookies out like the recipe said, so my cookies are kinda lumpy and ugly... but who says ugly can't be tasty?



Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Cookies adapted from Martha Stewart's Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies.
Ingredients:
1 1/4 C All purpose Flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
7 tblspn unsalted butter, softened
1/4 C granulated sugar
1/4 C packed light brown sugar
1 large egg, room temp
1 tsp vanilla
3 tablespoons sour cream
~43 miniature reese's peanut butter cups, frozen and chopped

Directions:
Preheat to 350. Whisk flour, salt, and baking soda together to combine. Cream the butter and sugars together until pale and fluffy. Beat in the egg and vanilla. Reduce speed to low and add the flour mixture in 2 batches alternately with the sour cream. Beat until just combined - Don't overbeat! Stir in reese's cups. Cover, and chill for at least 10 minutes.

Using a 1 to 1 1/2 inch cookie scoop and drop on to parchment lined baking sheets (you will probably need a teaspoon to ease the sticky dough out of the scoop and on to the baking sheet. Bake 12 - 15 minutes, until cookies are slightly golden.

Banana Fluffernutter Cupcakes and Mini-Cupcakes with Nutella Frosting

I'm back from my trip, and back in the blogosphere! The trip was beautiful. Venice, Bari, Olympia, Mykonos, Santorini, Athens, Croatia, and home. We had wonderful weather, tremendously enjoyable excursions, and outrageously good food. And now, we're back in the land of dollars instead of Euros, homework instead of guided tours, and peanut butter sandwiches instead of 6 course european meals. Ehh... its...good.. to be home? I'm joking. It was a great trip, but it is nice to be back in our house with our beloved puppy. Unfortunately, life is still chaotic and busy. Thesis deadlines are rapidly approaching and I need to continue doing some serious intensive work on it for the next few weeks. But, I still found time to make cupcakes.

This week's cupcake of the week, the Banana Fluffernutter Cupcake, is... really ugly. In my head, they looked quite adorable. Once executed, however, the cupcakes appearance proved to be less than cute. But oh well, they still taste good. I just don't know how well they will sell. This week's flavor combo was inspired by that amazing Fluffernutter sandwich from childhood, (or adulthood if you're a child at heart like me and still eat them) made from Peanut Butter and Marshmallow Fluff spread on bread. With the addition of banana, the flavor combo is a total winner. Banana cupcakes, topped with peanut butter frosting, and then some homemade marshmallow cream and crunchies for a garnish (an attempt to make them look a little less ugly... didn't help.)

Banana Fluffernutter Cupcakes
The Banana Cupcake recipe was the same one I used as my Hound-dog Heaven cupcakes, and the Peanut Butter Frosting is the same one I used here in the Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Cupcakes (except this time I made the mistake of skipping the step of food processing the Peanut Butter... so it is much clumpier and MUCH drier...NOT cute). For the Marshmallow Cream frosting, I used this Epicurious Recipe scaled down.

Marshmallow Cream Frosting
Ingredients:
1/3 cup + 2 teaspoons white granulated sugar
1 Lg egg white
1/8 teaspoon Cream of tartar
2 tablespoons Water
1/2 teaspoon clear Vanilla extract
Tiny dash of salt

In large metal bowl, whisk together water, sugar, egg white, cream of tartar, and salt. Set bowl over pan of barely simmering water and mix with handheld electric mixer at low speed. Gradually increase speed to high, beating until mixture holds stiff peaks, about 5 minutes.

Transfer bowl from pan to folded kitchen towel on counter and continue beating until mixture is cool and billowy, about 2 minutes more. Beat in vanilla. Cool piped frosting on to cupcakes.


Ehh, I told you they were ugly. The marshmallow frosting was pretty easy to do, and had a great consistency for piping. Very much like marshmallow fluff. I will definitely use this recipe for frosting again.


BUT THATS NOT ALL. That's right! There's a bonus recipe this week! Tonight, I have a little get-together with the girls from my Italy abroad trip. For the occasion, I whipped up some mini-vanilla cupcakes topped with nutella frosting, in honor of the delicious hazelnut spread we ate daily during our time abroad there. The cupcake recipe is my usual one, scaled down to 1/4 of the original, so that it only makes 24 mini-cupcakes (approximately 7 or 8 regular sized cupcakes). But its the frosting thats the star of these cupcakes.

Nutella Frosting
Ingredients:
2 tablespoons butter, softened
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons nutella
1 1/2 cups of sifted confectioner's sugar
1 teaspoon cocoa powder
Little sprinkling of salt
4 teaspoons milk

In a small bowl, In a medium bowl, using an electric hand mixer, beat softened butter, nutella and vanilla until well mixed. In a small bowl, mix sugar, salt and cocoa powder until its thoroughly mixed. Gradually, add this dry mixture to the butter mixture, adding milk as needed to get a creamy frosting-like consistency.
I got JUSTTTT enough out of this to pipe frosting on to 24 mini-cupcakes. It is very, very good if you like nutella.

Peanut Butter Cookie Topped Brownies

Contest Update: No, I have not forgotten about the contest. I'm still weighing the options you all have presented - comparing pricing, trying out different methods - It is a much longer process than I thought! There are many good entries and lots of feasible options, so I have to really think about which method would be best for my intended use. But I promise, I will arrive at a decision soon and let you know. For now, entries are still being accepted, so continue to submit if you wish. Please - if you left a comment/entry on the contest post, and you do not have a working blogger account and did not leave an email address, please leave it either on that post, or email me with which comment was yours. Or else if you win, I won't be able to contact you to send you your prize! :)

Now, on to the Peanut Butter Cookie Topped Brownies - brownie on the bottom, peanut butter cookie on top. As you may or may not have heard, Central Florida has been suffering from the intolerably slow-moving, water-drenching Tropical Storm Fay. We had some strong winds, but the real bad news was in the amount of rain it dumped on us here on the East Coast. Fay moved so slowly (and sometimes not at all), so for a few days, she just sat on top of us and showered us with inches and inches of water. Well... were quite flooded. There have been fish caught in driveways and parking lots, and communities became newly lakeside over night. I did not want to tempt the fates by bringing my petite little Mazda, Mrs. Moneypenny, out into the high waters, so we have been stuck in the house. Needless to say, the entire house is spotless, there is not a speck of laundry left to be done, I've started reading for my thesis, and thank god for exercise TV on demand! When all that was over... there was still more time to be bored, and unfortunately, with no one leaving their homes, there will be no Cupcake of the Week needed this week, so I didn't even get to bake that to take up some time! My baking fingers were itching! Daniel wanted brownies to go under his ice cream, and I wanted to make peanut butter cookies. How to reconcile these differences? Do BOTH... together! A while ago, I made Chocolate Chip Cookie Topped Brownies, so I used this same basic concept, with a slight spin. On to the recipe!


Ok, maybe mine were a tad undercooked, but I didn't hear any complaints about that!

Mocha Brownie Batter adapted from Epicurious
Ingredients:
3 ounces semi-sweet chocolate
1 unsweetened chocolate
3/4 Stick of butter
1 Cup sugar
3 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 Cup flour
1/6 Cup cocoa powder, unsweetened
1/2 teaspoon espresso powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 Cup Ricotta
Slightly less than 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
3/4 Teaspoon milk

Non-stick spray an 8x8 baking dish, line it with parchment paper, and then non-stick spray the parchment.
In a small saucepan on low, stir chocolates and butter together to melt. Let cool to lukewarm. While this is melting, combine the flour, cocoa, espresso and salt in a small bowl and set aside.
Beat the sugar, eggs, and vanilla until light and fluffy - about 5 minutes. While this is mixing, combine the ricotta, milk and lemon juice and set aside.
Next, add the cooled chocolate mixture to the egg mixture, beating just until combined.
Add the flour mixture, beating just until combined. Stir in the ricotta mixture, and pour into the baking dish.

Peanut Butter Cookie Batter
Ingredients:
1/2 stick of unsalted butter, softened
1/4 cup peanut butter, smooth or crunchy - whatever floats your cookie boat
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp milk
1 egg
1/8 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup + 3 tablespoons flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt

Preheat over to 365.
In an electric mixer, beat peanut butter, butter, and sugars together. In a small bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt and set aside.
Add the milk, vanilla and eggs and beat until combined. Add the flour mixture and beat until just combined.
Drop the batter in teaspoon sized amounts over the top of the brownie batter. It will take a lot of drops of dough to cover the top of the 8x8 dish. When all the cookie dough has been dropped on top, gently use your fingers to spread it. The brownie batter doesn't have to be completely covered, just do as best and you can. Bake for about 35-40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean, with just moist streaks on it.







The brownie came out nice and moist, with a little hint of espresso... and a little gooey thanks to being taken out of the oven a few minutes early (oops). The peanut butter cookie portion is nice and chewy, not crunchy and is subtle compared to the brownie flavor, but definitely noticeable. Definitely a would-make-again.