Peanut Butter Surprises

Don and I have been so saddened for all the people sick as a result of the recent peanut butter salmonella poisoning that we decided we wanted to make and post a little something in their honor.  

Since Saturday is splurge day for us, we found a really great Martha recipe for chocolate cookies with peanut butter filling to bake.  Our peanut butter at home was of course safe, so we said a little prayer for those who had not been so lucky with their recent peanut butter products and went ahead with our cookie project of salute. 

As per the norm, I decided to change up the original recipe a bit, so I will just list my version here:

Peanut Butter Surprises (based on Martha's)

INGREDIENTS

Makes about 2 1/2 dozen.

Cookie Dough:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup Dutch-process cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup firmly packed light-brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

PB filling:

• 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
• 1/4 cup firmly packed light-brown sugar

DIRECTIONS

1. Sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and baking soda, and set aside.
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter, granulated sugar, and 1 cup brown sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing until fully combined between additions. Add vanilla; beat to combine. Gradually add dry ingredients; mix on low speed until fully combined. Add chocolate chips; mix on low just until combined. Cover bowl and chill until firm - about 1 hour.
3. In a small bowl using a rubber spatula, stir together peanut butter and remaining 1/4 cup brown sugar. Chill for 1 hour.
   
4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 
5. Drop 1 tablespoon of dough at a time onto baking sheets, spacing cookies about 2 inches apart. Make a thumbprint in the center of each cookie. Fill thumbprint with 2 teaspoons peanut butter mixture. Top with a second tablespoon of flattened dough. Carefully mold dough to cover the surprise.
6. Bake until firm, about 12 minutes, rotating halfway through. Transfer baking sheets to wire racks to cool for 5 minutes. Remove cookies from baking sheets, and let cool completely on wire racks.

Sifted dry ingredients.

Suuuuuuuugar.

If you're not lucky enough to have a sister who has gifted you some of her homemade vanilla, you should definitely give it a try for yourself (see here).  There's nothing like it!

The dough will need to be refrigerated for an hour, so don't preheat your oven just yet.  

Make the peanut butter filling and refrigerate at the same time as the cookie dough.

Scoop your first scoops...

...make a thumbprint...

...fill with the peanut butter filling (a baby spoon works well)...

...then cover with another scoop of dough and seal the top.

The refrigeration really helps the cookies keep their shape.

These Wilton, three tier, collapsible cooling racks are so super!  If you're not lucky enough to be gifted a set from your folks (like I was :-) check them out here. 

Wow, these cookies are goooooood.  The best description I have is... a soft, brownie-like cookie with a hidden Reese's peanut butter cup in the middle.  Do yourself a favor - stay out of the peanut butter candy isle and bake up a batch of these beauties instead.  They're worth it.

Mickey Nonpareils and Microwave Tempering

Starting last November, Disneyland has been offering a really awesome deal - free admission to the Magic Kingdom on your birthday!  My friend and co-worker decided to go for her birthday this Friday, so I thought I'd send her off right with some Mickey treats.

I'd been wanting to make some nonpareil candies for a while.  I knew they'd be really simple to do and I had a jar of nonpareils sprinkles burning a hole in our cabinet so I thought some Mickey nonpareils would be just the thing!

The recipe is so easy peasy that I'm just going to spell it out step by step here:

Choose a good quality chocolate that will melt easily in the micro. (or that you can melt in a double broiler, if you so choose.)  I always try to use fair-trade, organic chocolate when I can (Dr. Neuhaus' Sweet Earth Chocolates are fantastic) but I already had a bag of Ghirardelli semi-sweet chips that I needed to use and I happen to know that it works well for this quick and easy micro. method so please forgive the breach...

Place 1 full teaspoon of shortening on top of your chips in a heat-proof cup/bowl.

Microwave on a lower (~50%) power and stir frequently (about every 10-20 seconds).  Remove the chocolate when there are just a few lumps left and stir until completely smooth.  This really helps preserve the integrity of the chocolate and saves it from getting fried.

Choose a medium sized parchment bag and fix with ~size 4 tip.  It is so much easier to put your bag into a glass like this to keep it upright and then open it up with a spatula to prepare for filling.  

I have a really great set of Wilton decorating tips and parchment bags that I keep in a caddy similar to this one - they are fantastic for all sorts of baking and decorating.  You'd be surprised how often these tools come in handy!

Pour the chocolate into your bag - filling it just enough so you can twist the top and have some hand control without too much chocolate spillage. 

On a parchment lined sheet, start your Mickeys by doing three simple circles and filling in. Experiment with different sized Mickeys for a nice variety.

(Little soldiers all in a row!)

Let your chocolate sit for about 20 minutes to partially set up, then sprinkle with nonpareils and let set completely.  You may refrigerate your Mickeys to really get them to set up solidly, but be aware that there could be some blooming that can occur if they aren't consumed right away due to the great changes in temperature (which doesn't hurt the flavor, but just does not for a pretty Mickey make.)

Since this chocolate was not tempered, the consistency of the candies at room temp. is more like that of the chocolate chips they started as, just slightly chewy.  This un-tempered chocolate worked out well, though, because my friend said that she would enjoy these so quickly that there wouldn't be any left to sit around and melt!

If you choose to use tempered chocolate, it will have the solid snap like that of a chocolate bar and will remain as such in various temperatures.  Here is a really effective and easy way that fair-trade chocolate entrepreneur and professor, Dr. N taught me (which worked wonders for coating the Mayan truffles I made for my sister's birthday!):

Microwave Chocolate Tempering

(*Works best on days when your kitchen is cooler than 80°.)

Start with a good couverture chocolate bar or disks (Valrhona, Callebaut, Lindt, or Scharffen Berger are great.)  This chocolate is very solid and shiny and snappy (versus softer, duller sheen of chocolate chips.)

Chop the chocolate into small chunks and place in microwave-safe bowl.

Heat chocolate at ~50% power for 30 seconds.  Stir chocolate, and repeat heating for 30 seconds and stirring until about 2/3 of the chunks are melted and about 1/3 are still in soft lumps.  Stop heating.  The temperature of the chocolate at this point will be about 100°.  Continue to stir until the soft lumps disappear and the temperature of the chocolate is at 89° (take a reading with your digital thermometer for accuracy.)

At this temperature the chocolate should be in temper and ready for use!

Sprinkle your Mickeys with just a little bit of nonpareils...

...or a lot!

(Even the backs turn out pretty cute.)

All snuggled up in their "Fancy Flours" gift box ...

...and dressed up in appropriate Mickey colors!  :-)  So fun.

Please visit Sweet Earth's website here for more information about fair-trade chocolates and why this process/certification is so important.

 

Dr. P's "Perfect Blend" Juice

I had the great misfortune of going through two bad spells of bronchitis this Fall but on the upside, was treated to this incredible concoction of healing as a result.  Dr. P created the recipe for this "perfect blend" as she calls it - a result of her many years of credentialed expertise in nutrition - and swears by its nutritional wonders.  It is delicious and sweet and has the perfect little kick of heat, too. 

All you need is a decent juicer to do all the work, a great local farmer's market for the veg, and a health food store for your powders and you can get started!

Dr. P's "Perfect Blend" Juice

*Makes about 5-6 cups

Carrots: 7 - 10

Beet: 1

Apple: 1 - 1 1/2

Bell Pepper: 1 (red or green)

Lemon: 1

Ginger: 1 chunk (~thumb sized / to taste)

Celery: 1-2 stalks

1 scoop of soluable fiber

1 scoop of whey protein

I feel lucky to have been gifted this second-hand Braun juicer from my family.  It works great!

You start with this beautiful assortment of organic vegetables and wash thoroughly (skins and all.)

Check out these colors...

Reds/Purples: Antioxidants to help the heart and delay cellular aging.

Oranges/yellows: Beta-carotene for Vit. A - anti-oxidant and immunity boost.

Greens: for lutein- eye health, and some anti-tumor properties.

Ginger:  for good digestion, circulation, and anti-inflammatory properties. 

Such a cornucopia of colorful nutrition!

Chop your raw veg into pieces just big enough to fit in your feeder.  Don't even worry about roots, peels, etc. - they all go in whole.

Place a large enough bowl to catch the juice.

(Even the pulp is beautiful.  Compost piles or torties will eat this right up!)

Lastly, add your scoops of soluable fiber and whey powder and stir to incorporate.  Keep juice chilled and enjoy a glass a day all week. 

Thanks, Dr. P - à votre santé!  :-)

Horchata Almonds

Talk about lucky - we were recently gifted a huge (50 pound!) box of beautiful raw almonds at work from a farmer friend.  I packaged some up for my boss who quickly turned them over to me because he said that raw almonds get stuck in his throat when he tries to swallow.  Hmmm, well that immediately made me start dreaming up what to do with them bake-wise:  almond flour? home-made marzipan? bear claws?  As yummy as those all sounded, it was getting close to Christmas so I decided to try some yummy, cinnamon-y, vanilla-y concoction of partially dreamed up, partially looked up, and alas, finally "named up" (by my sis):  "Horchata almonds."  What started as a search for candied almonds led to a sinfully delicious and easy flavor that my Mexi-culinary chef sis perfectly described as: "...these taste just like horchata!"

Horchata Almonds

*preheat oven to 250°

Yield: 3 cups

Ingredients:

1 egg white

1 tsp. vanilla

1 tsp. cold water

3 cups whole almonds (if raw - toast slightly first)

1/4 cup white sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 tsp. kosher salt

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

Directions:

-Line a 10x15 inch jellyroll pan with parchment paper, lightly buttered or sprayed.

-Lightly beat the egg white; add water and vanilla; and beat until frothy but not stiff.

-Add to nuts and stir until well coated.

-Mix the white and brown sugars, salt, and cinnamon, and sprinkle over the nuts.

-Toss to coast, then spread evenly in pan over parchment paper.

-Bake for 1 hour in the preheated oven until golden, stirring occasionally with a spatula to keep nuts separated, about every 15 min.  (Be careful not to overbake - nuts will start to harden and get crunchier once they are cool.)  

-Allow to cool completely, then store nuts in airtight containers.  Nuts will keep fresh for almost 1 month, covered.

If you have raw almonds as wonderful as these at home, just toast them slightly for a few minutes and let cool.

This is definitely one of those recipes where high quality ingredients make all the difference.  Try organic white and brown sugar for this - the taste and texture just cannot be beat.

The egg whites are beat just until frothy/soft peaks form (be careful not to overbeat.)

Gently fold in...

...and add your spices.

Fold carefully to blend...

...and make sure to layer on top of parchment paper that has been sprayed (on both sides helps it to stick a bit to your sheet.)  

I decided to package these in the container of my favorite Vanilla Honey Bee ice cream carton with cute honey bee ribbon.  Wouldn't you love to find these little gems in your stocking?  mmmmm  :-P