Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies

I love peanut butter, in case this blog hasn't made that clear.  I've waxed lyrical enough about it, suffice to say...it would certainly be one of my desert island foods.  I love peanut butter sooooo much that I finally managed to figure out how to get a photo onto this blog!  

These cookies are a lot of work, but they are ridiculously tasty.  The original recipe is from the Bouchon Bakery's "Nutter Butter" recipe, but I've changed things around a bit to suit my tastes.  Also worth noting, this recipe makes a TON of cookies.  This is a good thing and a bad thing.  I have no idea how many calories are in these cookies, but I can only assume it is an enormous amount.  For heaven's sake, there is 750 grams of butter!  My best advice is not to think about it and make these with a concrete plan to share with others. 

Ingredients:

Cookie Dough 

2 cups plain flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

4 teaspoons baking soda

500 grams butter, softened

2/3 cup smooth peanut butter

1 cup caster sugar

1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla

2 1/2 cups quick oats (not rolled oats)

Filling 

250 grams butter, softened

1 cup smooth peanut butter

3 cups powdered sugar

Method:

Start by making the cookies.  

Using a mixer with the paddle attachment, cream the butter.  Once the butter is nice and creamy, add the peanut butter and cream together until smooth.  Add the brown sugar and the caster sugar, and beat on medium speed for 4 to 5 minutes.  Scrape the bowl down regularly to make sure everything is thoroughly incorporated.  

Add the eggs and vanilla and mix together on low speed until incorporated.  Add the flour mixture in about three goes, and make sure the mixer is set to low.  Again, scrape things down regularly to make sure it is all incorporated.  Add the oats and mix well.  

Pop the mix into the fridge for at least an hour, for it to firm up.  It's quite a light mixture, despite all of the oats.

Preheat the oven to about 170C while you are prepping your baking sheets.  I highly advise baking these cookies on baking paper.  I use a 1 inch cookie dough scoop, but if you don't have one try to get evenly sized balls spread at least 2 inches apart on the pan.  Don't press them down or anything, they will flatten fairly evenly on their own.  

Bake for between 10 and 12 minutes, depending on your oven.  You want them to be golden brown, but not burnt.  When you take the cookies out of the oven, they need to cool on the tray for about five minutes before you try to transfer them to a wire rack.  Cook the cookies completely before you put the filling on them.

To make the filling,  pop the butter in a medium sized bowl and cream with a hand mixer.  Add the peanut butter, and mix together completely.  Add the powdered sugar, and ensure it's mixed until very smooth.  

To assemble, pair the cookies of similar size and shape together.  Spread a thick layer of filling on one cookie and then sandwich with another.  

Serving suggestion - a glass of milk and a quiet moment.  

Homemade Pizza

My beautiful husband loves few things more than pizza.  With yesterday being his birthday, I thought I might do something special for dinner.  I’ve been experimenting with yeast breads recently...and must remember to post my dinner rolls recipe which is a delight.  Buoyed by my recent ability to make flour and yeast bend to my will, I decided to make Ant a pizza. 

The toppings are fun to play with, but getting the base right is the key.  Birthday Pizza had crispy crumbled bacon, baby spinach, grated parmesan and fresh mozzarella.  I used a simple tomato passata (but not too much) as the base.  You could really play with this element a lot – could use BBQ sauce, could use an alfredo sauce...maybe even a hoisin sauce.  Just figure out a harmonious meat/sauce/veggie/cheese combination and go for it. 

Pizza base:

Ingredients -

·         1 ½ cups plain flour

·         1 teaspoon dried yeast

·         1 teaspoon salt

·         1 teaspoon sugar

·         155 mls lukewarm water

·         1/2 tablespoon olive oil (I used a garlic infused olive oil and it was amazing)

Method -

Place the flour, yeast, sugar and salt in a large bowl and mix well with a wooden spoon. Make a well in the centre and add all the water and olive oil to the dry ingredients. The water needs to be warm enough to activate the yeast and encourage it to grow but not so hot that it kills the yeast.  Stir mix until combined and then use your hands to bring the dough together in the bowl. It should be soft and slightly sticky.

Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 3 minutes, or until the dough is almost smooth. You will probably need to re-flour your work space a few times until it all comes together.  For a pizza, the dough doesn’t need to be as well worked as for bread. Brush a large bowl with olive oil to grease.  Place the dough in the bowl and turn it over to lightly coat the surface with the olive oil. Cover the bowl with a clean, damp tea towel and place in a warm, draught-free place to allow the dough to rise.  Leave the dough until it doubles in size - about 1 hour.

Once the dough doubles, punch it down in the centre and knead lightly in the bowl for 20-30 seconds until the dough is smooth and has returned to its original size. Do not overwork - the dough should be soft and easy to roll out. This dough makes 1 pizza crust with a medium thickness crust.

Preheat oven to 200°C.  Brush a round pizza tray (I used a pizza tray that had holes in the bottom, allowing the crust to really get crispy) with a bit of olive oil to lightly grease. Sprinkle with a little flour. The flour will help give the pizza a crisp, dry base.  Roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface until almost large enough to line the prepared pizza tray.  Lift the dough onto the tray and use your hands to gently ease the dough out to the edge, allowing it to come a little up the side to form a thicker edge when baked.  Bake the crust for about five minutes before topping the pizza and continuing the baking.

Use the back of a spoon to spread the pizza sauce over the pizza base, avoiding the edge. Place the mozzarella under all the other topping ingredients so it remains soft and stringy. If placed on the top, it can over brown and toughen.

Bake in preheated oven for 10 - 15 minutes. The pizza is ready when it shrinks from the sides of the trays and slides off easily.

Chocolate Chess Pie

Anyone reading this blog would have figured out that I have a wicked sweet tooth, and an abiding love of chocolate.  This recipe is one of my father's, and is a surprisingly wonderful dessert treat.  I have no idea where he got the original recipe, so can't attribute it anywhere.  I have scaled his recipe up from an 8 inch pie to a 9 inch pie - that extra inch is worth the effort.  The original recipe calls for a pre-baked pie shell, and I've opted to make my own pastry.  I have modified my favourite sour cream pastry recipe for this pie, with the addition of a bit of powdered sugar for sweetness.  

Pie Crust

Ingredients:

100 grams butter (I use salted or lightly salted butter for this pastry)

125 grams plain flour

2 tablespoons powdered sugar

65 mls sour cream

Method:

Cut up the butter into small cubes, then pulse with the flour and powdered sugar in a food processor until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.  Add the sour cream and continue to pulse until the dough starts to incorporate into a ball.  If needed, add a small bit of cold water and pulse until it comes together.  Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for half an hour. Roll the chilled pastry out until about 1/8 inch thick, and fit to a 9 inch pie plate.  Gently pinch the edges making sure not to stretch the dough at all, or the pie crust will shrink when it bakes.  Line the pie crust with baking paper and pastry weights (or rice/beans).  Bake in a preheated 180 C/ 350 F oven for about ten minutes. Remove the weights, and prepare the filling.

Filling

Ingredients: 

1  ½ cups caster sugar

5 tablespoons cocoa powder 

2 tablespoons flour

¼ teaspoon salt

½ cup evaporated milk (NOT sweetened condensed milk – importantly)

3 large eggs, room temperature

1/3 cup unsalted butter, softened

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method:

Turn oven down to 160 C / 325 F.  Combine the sugar, cocoa, flour and salt.  Blend in the evaporated milk.  Beat in the eggs one at a time with an electric mixer.  Add the butter and vanilla and beat until smooth.  Pour into the pie crust. Bake for about 50 – 55 minutes.  Keep an eye on it, so your crust doesn’t get too brown.

Serve with whipped cream.  

Red Velvet Cupcakes

This Saturday was our daughter's 15th birthday.  For her birthday celebrations, she wanted Red Velvet Cupcakes.  I've cobbled together the elements of all of the Red Velvet recipes I like, and found a frosting that works beautifully with them...and voila.  These are moist and not too terribly sweet.  The cream cheese frosting is good enough to eat on its own - Claire and I have discussed at length the merits of turning it into some sort of pie filling with berries perhaps.

Ingredients:

Cake Mix

2 cups plain flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 cups caster sugar
1 cup buttermilk
200g unsalted butter, melted
2 eggs, lightly whisked
1 Tbs white vinegar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
2 tsp red food colouring

Frosting

2 x 250g pkts cream cheese, at room temperature
2 cups pure icing sugar
120g butter, extra, at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla essence, extra
1 tsp Vanillia bean paste

Method:

Preheat oven to 170°C. Line muffin pans with paper cases - should do between 18 and 20 cupcakes. Sift flour, cocoa powder and bicarbonate of soda into a bowl. Stir through the sugar.

In a separate bowl, Whisk the buttermilk, melted butter, eggs, vinegar and vanillas in a large jug until combined. Make a well in the centre of the flour mixture. Add the buttermilk mixture. Stir until just combined. Stir in the food colouring.

Divide the mixture among the lined pans.

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Use a stand mixer or electric beater to make the frosting. Beat the butter until light and creamy, then add the cream cheese, icing sugar, and vanillas until smooth. Put frosting into a piping bag, and pipe onto each cupcake.

Keep refrigerated, but bring to room temperature before serving.

1970's Comfort Food Classic - Chicken Divan

Comfort food is really at the heart of my cooking.  I know we shouldn't show love with food, but I'm a Kansas girl at heart and that is just how we do it.  The time and effort put into making a casserole or a pie or cookies just shows folks that you were thinking of them, and that they are loved. 

This casserole is an absolute 1970's classic, and I'm sure variations have been star of many church socials and family get-togethers.  I love this for the flavor of the curry which just lifts what is basically a creamy casserole into something nicer.  I make my own breadcrumbs (just toast leftover bread and then blitz in a food processor), and find they are much nicer than the powdery commercially available ones. 

I'm sure you could do this with cream of mushroom soup if you wanted to, but...not in my kitchen.  Blech.

Chicken Divan

Ingredients

2 heads of broccoli, chopped into small florets
2 chicken breasts, chopped into bite size "stir fry" style slices
1 can condensed cream of chicken soup
1/2 cup mayonnaise
2/3 cup sour cream
1 cup grated sharp Cheddar
1/2 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 heaping teaspoon curry powder
Salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup dry white wine

1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan
1/2 cup soft bread crumbs
3 tablespoons butter, melted

Method

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Get out a good sized casserole dish (11" x 7" or thereabouts), no greasing required.

Put a small drizzle of oil in a fry pan, and cook the chicken pieces until just cooked.  Don't overcook the chicken at this step, it will spend quite a while in the oven at a later step. 

Meanwhile, place the broccoli florets in boiling water for 4 minutes, and then drain it and put into a casserole dish. Top with the cooked chicken.

In a medium bowl, combine the soup, mayonnaise, sour cream, Cheddar, lemon juice, curry powder, salt and pepper (to taste - I don't think this dish requires any salt) and wine. Whisk together to make a sauce. Pour the sauce over the broccoli and chicken. Mix it all together in the casserole dish. Pat down evenly and eyeball an even distribution of chicken and broccoli.

Combine the Parmesan, bread crumbs and melted butter and sprinkle evenly over the top.

Bake for about 30 to 45 minutes.

I serve this with a serve of steamed rice. 

It heats up beautifully in the microwave for a "leftovers lunch" at work the next day. 

Blueberry Shortbread Slice

I adore blueberries...always have.  One of my very first recipes was for blueberry muffins.  I've shared my perfected version of that here in a prior post.  I have recently been working on a blueberry slice, and have found one that is just lovely for afternoon tea.  It isn't too sweet, and the tartness of the blueberries matches well with the buttery shortbread. 

Ingredients:

Shortbread Dough

1 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 cups plain flour
1 cup butter, cut into small cubes
1 egg
1 pinch salt
1 pinch ground cinnamon
Berry Filling
4 cups blueberries
1/2 cup white sugar
3 teaspoons cornstarch

Method:

1.Preheat oven to 190 degrees C. Grease a 13x9 inch pan.

2.Combine 1 cup of the sugar, the flour, baking powder, salt, ground cinnamon, butter, and egg. Dough will be crumbly. I usually do this step in my Kitchen Aid. 

3. Pat half of the dough into the prepared pan.

3.Combine the remaining 1/2 cup sugar, the cornstarch and blueberries. Place mixture over dough in pan. Crumble the remaining dough over the top of the blueberries.

4.Bake for 45 minutes or until the top is golden brown.

5. Enjoy!