peanut butter

Homemade Bacon Dog Treats

August 13, 2018

While I don’t have a pup of my own (something I remind my husband of, daily), there is a special place in my heart for all dogs. If I see a person walking down the street with their doggo, I will instinctually talk…yes talk…to the dog while totally ignoring the human.

It typically goes something like this:

“Hey puppy! How are you today? Oh, you’re so sweet! Yes, you are!” in the most annoying baby/pet voice imaginable.

I am sure the owners think that I am a total weirdo, but I don’t care. I just want the dog to like me!

And that’s why I have gone about testing my own dog treat recipe! We have a few dogs in our community, and while they are all very friendly, I will do anything I can to win them over. Even if it means carrying around homemade bacon dog treats with me whenever I go outside.

I have no shame.

This recipe for bacon dog treats seems to be a hit amongst my test group. I mean, they have bacon in them. How can they be bad?

How to Make Them

Because some dogs have a wheat sensitivity, the recipe mainly consists of whole ground oats which can be kinder on a puppers tummy.

Process the whole oats in a food processor until slightly coarse.

Then add in the whole wheat flour, baking powder, and very crispy bacon. The reason for adding crispy bacon at this stage is so that it creates a bacon “flour” that is incorporated throughout the treat. Pulse until there are no large chunks of bacon left.

Add in the eggs and process until you have a crumbly dough.

Lastly, add in the rest of the less crispy bacon strips and just process until there are chunks of bacon throughout the dough.

Dump the dough onto a sheet of plastic wrap and wrap into a disc. Refrigerate for about an hour so that all the moisture has a chance to be absorbed into the dough.

When you are ready to bake, roll out the dough and cut into shape. Bake at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes on one side, then flip over and bake for another 5-10 minutes on the other. You want these treats to be completely dried out.

Once they are out of the oven and cooled, you can choose to give them to your dog right away, store them in an airtight container, OR to add even more yumminess!

I know my old dog loved herself some peanut butter. You could give her anything if it had peanut butter on it and she would eat it. So in honor of her, I added a little peanut butter drizzle on top.

Tell me what dog could resist bacon covered peanut butter?

And I know what you are wondering. Did I try them?

Of course I did! I have to try everything I make. The verdict? Well, you probably won’t be reaching for these any time soon. They are a wee bit bland and definitely bacon-y, but really not that bad. Kind of like a bland bacon cracker.

But the pooches sure seemed to like them!

Supplies and Recipe

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Peanut Butter Chocolate Rice Krispie Treats

July 24, 2018

I don’t know about you, but these days I loathe turning on my oven. It is just SO hot outside, I do everything in my power to avoid adding any heat inside. Which is why I have been loving no-bake desserts!

The most popular no-bake dessert has to be the Rice Krispie Treat. They are easy and quick to make, and now there are so many different flavors and varieties so you will never get bored.

My current favorite Rice Krispie Treat flavor is this peanut butter chocolate Rice Krispie Treat! It’s like a cross between a Reeses Peanut Butter Cup and a Rice Krispie Treat. Two of my favorite things!

The best part is that they only require a few more ingredients and they’re just as easy to make as your traditional cereal treat!

How to Make Them

In a large saucepan, melt together butter and chocolate. Once the chocolate is melted, stir in the cocoa powder and peanut butter.

Then pour in the marshmallows and let them melt a bit over the heat before stirring them into the rest of the ingredients.

Once the marshmallows are completely melted, pour the mixture over the Rice Krispies and immediately stir to coat the cereal in that delicious marshmallow mixture.

Then dump everything into a baking pan that has been lined with some parchment. Use a spatula to press the mixture into the corners and to flatten out into one large sheet of delicious Peanut Butter Chocolate Rice Krispie Treats.

It only takes a few minutes (about 30) for these treats to set, then you can cut into them and enjoy!

Like I said above, these are the best of both a peanut butter cup and a Rice Krispie Treat. I am just so thankful to have a sweet treat to snack on that doesn’t require an oven!

Recipe

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Peanut Butter Pretzel Chocolate Chip Cookies

August 24, 2017

Peanut butter and pretzels. Chocolate and pretzels. Peanut butter and chocolate. All wonderful combinations on their own. So what could be bad about a cookie that combines all of them!?

I’ll tell you. Not a darn thing.

I told my husband that these cookies were specially created for him. He’s not a big cookie eater (it’s the only thing we ever bicker about), but he does love peanut butter pretzels. So I thought that maybe I could trick him into liking cookies if I also included peanut butter and pretzels in them!

Fortunately for both of us, my evil plan worked. He thoroughly enjoyed these cookies thanks to those delicious peanut butter chips and salty pretzels.

These cookies start out as a normal chocolate chip cookie, with a few minor tweaks.

The obvious tweaks are the addition of the peanut butter chips and pretzels, which I mixed into the dough at the very end. However, there are also some not so obvious tweaks I made to this recipe. I added some extra brown sugar and an egg yolk to help make these cookies extra rich and soft. While I love a good crispy cookie, I wanted these cookies to be extra soft so that the crunchy pretzels really stood out.

I like to refrigerate my dough before I form them into balls and bake. It not only helps all the flavors meld together, but it helps the cookies stay nice and thick instead of flattening out into one flat disc.

If you like your cookies on the chewier side, remove the cookies just at the point the cookies are golden brown around the edges but still a bit soft in the center. They will continue to cook a bit after you take them out of the oven.

The resulting cookies are a little crunchy on the outside and soft and chewy in the center. As far as I am concerned, its the perfect cookie.

But seriously, this is a darn good cookie. How can you not like peanut butter, chocolate, and salty pretzels are packed into one little convenient cookie package? You can’t. I dare you.

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Peanut Butter and Jelly S’mores

August 18, 2017

You all know I love peanut butter and jelly. So I wouldn’t be fooling anyone if I told you I just happened to come up with the pb&j s’mores on a whim. You guys know better. I knew exactly what I was going to do with my homemade graham crackers and marshmallows before I made them.

It’s really the only reason I made peanut butter marshmallows.

Actually, what inspired these s’mores were these raspberry filled Ghirardelli chocolate squares. They have a little Instagram contest going on to see who can use their chocolate squares in a s’more in the best/most unique way. I have seen a lot of other bloggers use their caramel filled squares, so I wanted to do something different. I spotted the raspberry squares at the store and I knew exactly what would go perfectly with them! Peanut butter!

But to be clear, this is in no way sponsored by Ghirardelli. This is just me throwing my s’mores into the proverbial hat (a.k.a the Instagram contest).

Also to be clear, you absolutely do not have to use these Ghirardelli raspberry chocolate squares to have a kick-a pb&j s’mores.

You also do not need homemade graham crackers or peanut butter marshmallows. But they do help!

Start by slathering on a generous layer of peanut butter onto one graham cracker. Then roast up your marshmallow (preferably your homemade marshmallow) the best way you know how. If you have an open fire available, have at it! I, personally, like to use my handy dandy kitchen torch.

Once the marshmallow is toasty on all sides, place it on top of your peanut butter.

Top the marshmallow with your chocolate, then spread some raspberry jam (or jam of choice) on your other graham cracker.

It’s like the best thing ever. How could it not be? Combining two childhood favorites the s’mores and the pb&j.

I made the mistake of making these before dinner so I could take pictures. Then I promptly ate both of them (or most of both of them) completely ruining my dinner.

Worth. It.

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Homemade Marshmallows (Four Ways!)

August 16, 2017

Making marshmallows is a bit like a conducting science experiment. At least that’s what my husband said when we made a batch together over the weekend. He was a bit astonished that we took powdered gelatin, mixed it with some water to make a very thick gel. Then mixed that at high speed with some hot liquefied sugar and somehow we created marshmallows. Something that doesn’t resemble either of the two main ingredients at all.

It is kind of astonishing, isn’t it?

While it may seem more like a science experiment than baking, making marshmallows at home is a ton of fun! It would be a really fun thing to make with kids (with adult supervision of course because it does involve boiling sugar). Just be prepared for the stickiness. I still have marshmallow finger prints in random places around my kitchen.

Marshmallows require only a few simple ingredients: gelatin (plain), corn syrup, and sugar. That’s it. Of course, you can add in flavorings like vanilla….or….

You can really step things up and make peanut butter, chocolate, and strawberry marshmallows like I did.

I knew that I wanted to make some different flavored marshmallows, not just plain old vanilla ones, and fortunately, I didn’t have to look far for my inspiration. I used peanut butter powder and cocoa powder to flavor the marshmallow mix peanut butter and chocolate flavored. Then I used freeze dried strawberries, that I ground up into a powder to mix it in the same way as the other powders.

But I am getting a little ahead of myself…

Start by blooming your gelatin with half of the water in a bowl or measuring cup. I recommend doing this in a separate bowl or cup (unlike what I did in my first batch), because some of the gelatin may stick to the bottom of the bowl and will never get fully incorporated into the rest of the marshmallow.

Meanwhile, what the gelatin is blooming away, bring the sugar, corn syrup, and water to a boil. A candy thermometer will come in really handy right about now because you want your mixture to come to 240 degrees.

With your mixer on low speed, drizzle the sugar mixture into the bowl with the gelatin. After everything is poured in, turn the speed up to high and get the party started!

After about ten to fifteen minutes the mixture should look a lot like a stiff meringue, except a lot stickier! The mixture should be thick, but still very light and airy.

If you are flavoring your marshmallows with anything, now is the time to add that in. I added a couple tablespoons of peanut butter powder and mixed it into my marshmallow mix. I did the same with the cocoa powder and strawberry powder.

Forming the marshmallows may be the trickiest part of this whole process because the marshmallow is just so stubborn. It does not want to go where you want it to go, and it sticks to everything. I found that using a couple of well-oiled hands or an offset spatula works the best for spreading it out on to the pan.

Note that my pan is heavily dusted with powdered sugar. There is actually a layer of parchment under there, too, to make sure that nothing sticks!

Also, since I made several flavors, I sectioned off my pan with a piece of parchment so that the flavors wouldn’t stick together. If you plan on doing the same, I would recommend only try two flavors per batch.

Let the marshmallows sit overnight so they can dry out. Then you can cut them to whatever size you wish! Since my marshmallows were going to be used for s’mores, I cut them to fit my graham cracker.

After your marshmallows are cut up however you like them, give them a toss in a bit more powdered sugar. If you flavored your marshmallows with any of the powders I used, add a teaspoon or two to your powdered sugar before tossing in your marshmallows. For instance, I added a teaspoon of cocoa powder to about a half a cup of powdered sugar then tossed in my chocolate marshmallows to make them extra chocolatey! And ensure that they marshmallows don’t stick to one another. But mostly the former.

And voila! Homemade marshmallows! Nothin beat them! They are so soft and spongey. Even after a few days, they are still so soft and just melt in your mouth (I am currently eating left over marshmallows as I type. I work best on massive amounts of sugar.)

Even the plain vanilla ones are just better. But let me tell you, those peanut butter marshmallows are perfection! I brought some leftovers to a coworker who loves to drink hot cocoa (even in the Summers). He confirmed my suspicion that hot cocoa is 100% better with peanut butter marshmallows. I bet it would also be good with chocolate or strawberry marshmallows! Also, can imagine a s’more made with white chocolate and the strawberry marshmallows? Oh man, delish!

Now it’s time to go make some s’mores!

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Peanut Butter and Jelly Thumbprint Cookies

August 4, 2017

Apparently, I blinked and July passed by in a flash and now it is August. How did that happen? Summer is almost over and there are back-to-school supplies everywhere. I am not a child under 18, nor do I have any children under 18, but somehow I still get caught up in the back-to-school “season”. I take full advantage and stock up on pens, highlighters, notebooks. (binders, pencil pouches…don’t judge.) It’s also a great time to get nostalgic about my favorite school lunch: the peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

I love peanut butter and jelly. Love. There are very few foods I truly love (who am I kidding, there are lots), but this one is at the top of the list. Last year around this time I made peanut butter and jelly cupcakes, and oh my were they delicious! So when all those school supplies popped up in Target a few weeks ago, I got a hankering to make another pb&j treat, this time in the form of these peanut butter and jelly thumbprint cookies.

Like any good pb&j, it starts with the peanut butter. In this case, a peanut butter cookie. If you have a favorite recipe, you could probably sub that in, instead. But this recipe is perfect for making thumbprint cookies since they spread out just enough and are soft, not crumbly.

Start by mixing the butter, sugar, and peanut butter together until they are light and fluffy. Then mix in the egg and vanilla. Lastly, incorporate the flour, baking soda, and salt.

When I mix up cookie dough, I tend to do a lot of mixing up until the point I add the flour. Once the flour is added, you run the risk of developing a really tough cookie (something about the gluten in the flour). But before the flour is added, mix away to your heart’s content!

After a quick rest in the fridge, form the dough into small ping-pong ball or smaller sized balls (I like to use my handy dandy cookie dough scoop for that). Then roll them around in sugar. I used turbinado sugar, which is more coarse, but regular granulated sugar would work just fine.

Bake these cookies for about 15 minutes. Then as soon as you take the out of the oven use the back of a teaspoon to form the little indentation for the jam. You can also use the end of a wooden spoon, handle of a rolling pin, or your thumb. But I find the teaspoon works perfectly.

A good pb&j is only as good as the j. In my opinion, raspberry jelly is the only jam/jelly/preserve that should be in a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Strawberry is too sweet, and grape is too artificial. Raspberry is the perfect amount of sweet and tart to balance out the creamy peanut butter. But you can pick whatever jam/jelly/preserve you like to spoon into the centers of these cookies (just know that if you pick anything other than raspberry, you chose poorly…just kidding…sort of…not really).

Can you tell I feel strongly about my jelly?

I am just passionate about my pb&j. And equally as passionate about these cookies, because they combine two of my favorite things: peanut butter and jelly and cookies!

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Lightened Up Buckeye Dip

February 15, 2017

Do you like peanut butter and chocolate? Yes?! Okay, we can be friends. I can think of no other flavor combination I love more! Reese’s peanut butter cups, Tagalong cookies, and Buckeye balls are some of my favorite foods ever. Which is why I could not wait to make this Buckeye Dip!

I made this particular dip for a Super Bowl party a couple weeks ago. It was a huge hit with the crowd, but especially with this girl. I took the rest of the dip home, eating it for the rest of the week until I was scrapping that last of it from the bowl with a spoon. I had run out of graham crackers and apple slices but couldn’t bare to let it go to waste. Hence the spoon. Don’t judge.

I didn’t really feel all that guilty about ~~stuffing my face~~ snacking on this buckeye dip because I cut out a lot of fat, calories, and sugar compared to some of the other recipes I have seen online.

Don’t believe me?

I compared my recipe to one of the most popular recipes out there (according to Google) and ran them both through MyFitnessPal’s handy dandy recipe calculator. Using the same serving size, this recipe cuts out 24 grams of fat (that’s HALF the fat of the original recipe), 10 grams of sugar, and 250 calories per serving!

So what’s the secret to making this dip a little bit lighter? Well, I have a couple. First, instead of butter I used Greek yogurt. I used fat free, but if you are worried about the tartness of the Greek yogurt coming through, I would recommend using 2% or full fat Greek yogurt, which has a much milder flavor.

The second secret is peanut butter powder! I have been using peanut butter powder in a lot of recipes lately because it is just so easy to work into baked goods. It also cuts out a lot of the fat without compromising flavor.

I threw everything except the chocolate chips into a bowl and whipped it up until nice and fluffy. Then I mixed in some chocolate chips and also drizzled in some melted chocolate.

To make the presentation a bit more fun, I drizzled some chocolate around the inside of a glass bowl and then popped it in the fridge until the chocolate had hardened. Then I spooned the peanut butter dip right on top. I also like to mix in some melted chocolate along with the chocolate chips. I spooned about a third of the dip into the bowl then drizzled on some melted chocolate before adding in more dip. Then I topped the whole thing off with more chocolate drizzle and a chocolate chips.

I recommend serving this buckeye dip along with some graham crackers, chocolate cookies, and/or apple slices. Just make sure to bring enough, because if you run out, your friends may resort to eating this with their fingers.

[amd-yrecipe-recipe:126]

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Kitchen Sink Cookies

January 13, 2017

In case you didn’t hear, this past weekend the South got hit with a bit of snow. If you live in the North East or Midwest, you would laugh at what we consider snow. But here in the South, we go a little crazy.

I stopped by the grocery store the night before the impending snow to stock up on some essentials: butter and eggs. If I am going to be stuck inside all weekend, you better believe I will be doing some baking!

I made a lot of things that weekend, but my favorite were these amazingly random cookies! I didn’t have enough chocolate chips for a full batch of chocolate chip cookies, but I did have a little bit of everything else. I pretty much threw everything except the kitchen sink in these cookies…

…coconut flakes, oats, milk chocolate, white chocolate, and peanut butter chips.

Hence the name.

I used my favorite chocolate chip cookie as a base, then added in all the goodies and hoped for the best!

Because these cookies needed a little something more (obviously), I added some flaky sea salt to the tops them. All chocolate chip cookies should have some sea salt on top, if you ask me. There’s nothing better than that salty sweetness.

And despite the the completely random mix of ingredients in these cookies, they turned out amazing! Somehow all those flavors actually go together. Who would have thought!?

I will definitely be making these cookies again. Probably tomorrow.

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Chubby Hubby Brookies

November 9, 2016

Okay, I bet you are asking yourself a couple questions right now. 1) What is a brookie?, and 2) What makes it a Chubby Hubby Brookie?

Both great questions. Let me inform you.

A brookie is a brownie-cookie. In this case, it’s a brownie that is mixed with a cookie dough and baked in a bar form. In some cases it can be brownie mix baked in cookie firm.

A Chubby Hubby brookie is a brownie combined with a peanut butter cookie,and topped with pretzels. Basically all of my favorite foods in one delicious and indulgent bar.

I can’t take credit for the name “Chubby Hubby”, which was coined by the fine folks at Ben and Jerry’s when they created the Chubby Hubby ice cream. Nor can I take credit for having a chubby hubby. My hubby is most certainly not chubby, but I am sure I could get him there if I made these brookies more often.

I started with a layer of peanut butter cookie dough, then topped it with the brownie batter. I would not recommend switching the order of these layers. If you start with the brownie batter, then top with the dough, the dough will just sink to the bottom. I like having the two distinct layers of the cookie and the brownie.
In between the two layers, I popped a couple pretzel pieces, just for some extra crunch! I also added the pretzels to the top of the brookie which get extra crispy in the oven and also add that nice salty bite.

My only gripe about these (and with brownies in general), is that you can’t really dig into them right away! It’s best to let brownies cool completely before cutting them so that they don’t get stuck on your knife. Most of the time I can’t wait that long. It was so hard to have these sitting on the counter, smelling the wafts of sweet chocolate and peanut butter, and not cutting myself off a corner (I am team corner brownie all the way!).

But finally, when I was able to give them a taste, I was in heaven! Like I said before, peanut butter and chocolate AND pretzels is pretty much the all my favorite flavors combined, so these were pretty damn near perfection. They not only had all my favorite flavors, but I loved the mix of textures, too. The peanut butter cookie is crumbly, almost like a crust, and the brownie is soft and fudgy (if that’s even a word). Then, with every bite there’s that little pretzel crunch!

Sounds amazing right? Well, I suggest you make these for your chubby (or not so chubby) hubby immediately!

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[amd-yrecipe-recipe:95]

Peanut Butter Chocolate Popcorn

October 31, 2016

Do you need a last minute treat to make for Halloween? I’ve got you covered!

This peanut butter chocolate popcorn mix was something I mixed up at the last minute for a pumpkin carving party last night. I has just spend the weekend baking cookies for a baby shower and my cookie decorating class, so the last thing I wanted to do was bake something. Since one of my favorite holiday treats involves popcorn and melted chocolate, I figured I could adapt that to make it more suitable for Halloween.

I started by popping 1/4 cup of popcorn kernels over the stove (which will make approx. 6 cups of popcorn). You could always pop the popcorn with an air popper, or use the microwave popcorn, but I think stove-popped popcorn tasted a little bit better.

To pop the popcorn on the stove, I start by putting the oil and a couple kernels in the bottom of a stock pot and place it over medium heat. Once the kernels have popped, I know the oil had heated up enough to pop the rest of the kernels. I add the rest of them in, put the top on the pot, give it a good shake, and let them pop away. When I don’t hear any more popping, I remove the pot from the heat.

For the toppings, I used white chocolate, bittersweet chocolate, and peanut butter chips. I wanted it to look white, orange, and black, so I added a bit of orange food coloring to the peanut butter to brighten it up a bit. I also ended up mixing in some white chocolate because it was looking a little too dark.

Once all the popcorn was coated in chocolate or peanut butter, I dumped it all out on a sheet of parchment to harden. I also too the opportunity, while the chocolate was still wet, to add in some sprinkles and candies. I used orange and black sprinkles, candy corns, and M&Ms. Reese’s piece would have also have been good in this (But, I didn’t want to buy the giant bag of them, knowing I would only use a handful. I would just send up eating the rest…probably in one sitting. I certainly didn’t need that.)

After the chocolate was hardened, I tossed all the popcorn together. That way each bit contains a bit of chocolate and peanut butter!

The popcorn mix came out just as I had hoped. It was perfectly festive, and most importantly, very tasty! It made a great little treat to snack on while we carved pumpkins. If you want to make this in the last remaining hours of Halloween, you could serve it in a bowl or in little treat bags, which would be very cute.

If you happen to read this after Halloween, you can still make this recipe! Just skip the food coloring in the peanut butter chips and swap out the Halloween-themed candy! Peanut butter chocolate popcorn is good all year long!

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[amd-yrecipe-recipe:90]

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

August 19, 2016

Is there any better flavor combination than peanut butter and chocolate? Seriously! Name one that’s better! I dare you!

Even though I don’t eat as much peanut butter these days (damn you, Whole 30!), every once and a while I get a serious craving for peanut butter and chocolate. What do I do to satisfy that craving? Make peanut butter chocolate chip cookies! (Or one of the Reese’s Eggs I store in my freezer after Easter. You know…if I’m in a pinch.)

When these cravings hit…and they hit hard…I don’t ~~have time~~ want to take the time to try to come up with my own recipe. So I turn to the wonderful Internet and it’s plethora of recipes to find one that a) looks good, and b) doesn’t require any ingredients I don’t already have on hand. I have tried quite a few and for some reason have been a little disappointed. The recipes I have tried are often WAY too dry. I know peanut butter cookies are often on the drier side, but there’s got to be a sweet spot where they are still a bit crunchy, but also not a cracker!

Well, I was determined to figure it out.

After some trial and error, I found that the trick is brown sugar. Brown sugar helps keep the cookies moist so they are a lot softer than your average peanut butter cookie. Brown sugar also reacts with the baking soda so that they rise a little bit more making them more soft and less dense.

My other new trick that I picked up from my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe, is a sprinkle of sea salt on top. I think a sprinkle of sea salt should be mandatory on just about all chocolate chip cookies. It takes them to a whole new level!

[amd-yrecipe-recipe:69]

Peanut Butter Chocolate Overnight Oats

July 25, 2016

Lately I have turned to making my own overnight oats as a quick, yet healthy breakfast option that I can just throw in my lunch bag on my way to the train in the morning. My first few attempts were pretty bland and, frankly, not all that good. In search of something a bit more palatable, I turned to my all-time favorite flavor combination: peanut butter and chocolate.

When I make these peanut butter chocolate overnight oats, I actually make a big batch and portion it out into 4 jars so I have breakfast for most of the week. I start with the peanut butter oatmeal. I mix together old fashioned rolled oats (not quick/instant oats), milk (I use whatever nutmilk I have on hand), honey, and peanut butter powder.

Next is the chocolate chia seed pudding. For this, I mix together chia seeds, milk, coco powder, and stevia or honey. Both the oats and the chia seed pudding need to sit overnight so that all the moisture is absorbed. What I am left with is thick and creamy peanut butter oat meal and rich and chocolatey chia seed pudding. Then I spoon about a quarter of each into a small jar and keep them in the fridge until they are ready to be eaten.

I don’t know about you, but I am in a frenzy running out the door to work in the morning. Which is why I love these peanut butter chocolate overnight oats. They keep in the fridge all week. They are a mix of complex carbs and healthy fats that keep me full until lunch. And not to mention, they are delicious!

And for those weeks when I am trying to be extra healthy, I add protein powder to the oats which really makes them a complete breakfast. I will definitely be experimenting with more flavors of overnight oats. They have quickly become my favorite week day breakfast.

[amd-yrecipe-recipe:60]

Peanut Butter and Jelly Cupcakes

June 13, 2016

Quick question: If you could only eat one food/meal for the rest of your life, what would it be?

Without hesitation I can tell you that mine would be a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Specifically creamy peanut butter and raspberry jelly on white bread (although I will accept wheat bread) and maybe a few potato chips thrown in there for some crunch. If you haven’t tried potato chips in your pb&j, you should rectify that immediately. It’s amazing.

As you can see my love of peanut butter and jelly runs deep. So when I was trying to think of something fun (and different) to bake for a work bake sale, I immediately thought of making peanut butter and jelly cupcakes.

For the cupcakes, I started with a vanilla boxed cake mix and added some peanut butter powder so that the cupcakes had a little bit of a hint of peanut butter.

Then for the jelly in this peanut butter and jelly, I piped some raspberry jelly into the center of the cupcake. I just used a sharp star pipping tip to punch through the top of the cupcake (but they also make piping tips just for this occasion). I will say, it was a little hard to tell how much jelly was getting piped in, so I watched the level of the jelly in the bag to make sure there was a healthy jelly filling.

The last step, and the literal icing on the cake, is the peanut butter frosting. This stuff is amazing and basically tasted like the center of a peanut butter cup. How could that be bad, especially when it’s combined with a delicious jelly filled cupcake?

So when I originally made these cupcake for the bake sale I didn’t actually eat them. I was doing the Whole 30 then so I made my husband taste test everything and make sure they were okay. I took them into work not really knowing if they were any good. The feedback was immediate. Within a couple hours I had multiple emails requesting the recipe. Clearly they were a hit so I knew I had to make them again once I was off the Whole 30.

Even though each individual piece of these cupcakes is nothing special (except for that icing – I could eat it slathered on some cardboard), the whole cupcake together literally tastes like childhood. If I close my eyes I can picture 9 year old Lindsey eating a pb&j at the lunch tables at school.

[amd-yrecipe-recipe:42]

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Muffin

April 19, 2016

It’s been a while since I have made muffins, hasn’t it? I used to make muffins all. the. time (ex. here, here, and here). It took a special occasion to get me back to muffin making. One of my coworkers and friends had a birthday last week. Her and I did the Whole 30 challenge together the first time, and started our second round together on Monday. Since she was about to give up all the wonderful food groups, like gluten, chocolate, and sugar, I wanted to make her something that packed all of them into one convenient package! Thus was born the peanut butter chocolate chip muffin!

While this recipe is very similar to my basic muffin batter recipe, I did add in one critical ingredient: peanut butter powder. My original plan was to mix in classic peanut butter, but when I was perusing the grocery store aisle I came across this powder. I figured that this would actually be so much easier to incorporate into the muffin batter and wouldn’t add as much fat. But, since it is peanut butter chocolate chip muffin, I did add in a swirl of peanut butter which add just the right amount of peanut butter creaminess throughout the muffin.

And for an extra punch of peanut butter goodness (because who can get enough peanut butter?), I mixed together a strussel topping using some of the pb powder. I think it was the topping that made the muffin. I mean, the top of the muffin is the best part anyways; it’s crunchy on top and flaky on the bottom. But this just put it over the edge and gave it even more peanut flavor to balance the semi-sweet chocolate chips peppered throughout the muffin.

So really, when you think about it, this muffin is pretty much a cupcake without the frosting. But what is wrong with cake for breakfast? Especially on your birthday!

Nothing. Nothing is wrong with that.

[amd-yrecipe-recipe:21]

The Loaded Brownie

October 28, 2015

Have you guys heard of the slutty brownie (variations here, here, and here)? If you haven’t, you need to acquaint yourselves quickly! It has been called, by some, the best brownie ever. Well, that may be true, but I would like to throw my brownie into the competition. This is my version of the slutty brownie. Instead of a cookie dough base, this is 100% brownie loaded with whole Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups and Oreos. So I will lovingly refer to it as the Loaded Brownie.

To make these brownies, all you need is your favorite brownie recipe or mix (confession: I used a brownie mix) and some leftover candy and Oreo’s. I used peanut butter cups because…well, just because. Who doesn’t like chocolate and peanut butter?

I cut each peanut butter cup and Oreo in half and placed them on top of half of the brownie mix. I wanted to ensure that each brownie would have both pieces of Reese’s and Oreos. I topped them with the rest of the brownie mix and baked according to package directions.

I found that these took a little bit longer to bake because they are thicker than normal, but if you like fudgey, gooey brownies, then don’t worry about the extra time.

It took every patient fiber of my being not to cut into these brownies immediately out of the oven. And I clearly didn’t wait long enough because the chocolate was still melted inside….but OH MY GOSH…how could I resist?! This brownie is simply amazing! Don’t believe me? Well, don’t take my word for it, but take my sweet coworkers word for it. A little old man on my floor who I rarely see, let alone talk to sent me an email to tell me this was the best brownie he’s ever had. Proof!

And he’s not wrong. It’s the best brownie I’ve ever had! So if you have any leftover Halloween candy (wait, whats that?), make these brownies. Load them up with Reese’s, Oreos, Snickers, Rolos, Twix, or whatever chocolaty candy you like best.

[yumprint-recipe id=’72’]