Peanut Butter Smooch Cookies

Since I consider cookies to be in a food group all their own, I have a hard time deciding which kind is my absolute favorite. I’ve never met a cookie I didn’t like, but anything with peanut butter automatically scores more points in my book. I have to say though - the Hersey’s Kiss (Smooch) crowning each one of these peanut butter pillows makes me SWOON. They make my boyfriend swoon too :) He doesn’t have nearly the sweet tooth I do, but he loves these cookies. We’ll be celebrating his birthday his weekend by tailgating and going to the Chicago Fire soccer game with friends. Sweet! It’s the perfect opportunity to crank out 4 dozen cookies! Hope our friends like peanut butter and chocolate as much as we do! Happy Birthday (in advance), old man! Hehe!

Ingredients

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup creamy peanut butter
1 cup white sugar
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
Additional sugar for rolling
1 (9 ounce) package Hersey’s chocolate kiss candies (unwrapped)

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper and set them aside.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Set this aside too.

Using an electric mixer, cream together the softened butter and peanut butter. Gradually add in both the white and brown sugars. Continue to cream these together until the mixture is light and fluffy (about 2 minutes). Next, beat in your eggs and vanilla until well incorporated.

Add a third of the flour mixture at a time and mix well. After the first third, my batter was so thick that my electric mixture started to groan. Literally. So I mixed in the last of the flour using a large spoon. Once all the flour is incorporated, the batter will be thick and slightly crumbly. That’s good!

Pour a few tablespoons of white sugar in a small bowl. Roll dough between your palms to form 1” balls. The heat from your hot lil’ hands will make the dough less crumbly and will create a tacky surface. Roll each ball in sugar – coating well – and place on the cookie sheets.

Bake the cookies for 8-9 minutes and then remove the trays from the oven. (The cookies will retain their ball-like shape so don’t worry that they haven’t spread-out). Take an unwrapped Hersey’s kiss and press it into the center of one of the dough balls. This will flatten the cookie. Repeat with all the cookies on the sheets and return them to the oven for 1 to 2 more minutes. This step just helps the kiss (the smooch) adhere to the cookie.

If you are feeling super fancy, try placing a miniature Reese’s peanut butter cup on each cookie instead of the Hersey’s kiss!

She's Crazy Good!

I’ve talked about my friend, Melissa, before on this blog. But in case you haven’t picked-up on it yet, she’s a crazy-good photographer! Last night she took some photos of me for my blog profile, and they surpassed my wildest expectations! I thought I’d share all of them with you – not just the one that is now my profile picture. She also took pictures of my Reisling Cupcakes for today's post as well. If you want to see what else she is doing, check out her website and blog.

Reisling Cupcakes

Wanted to give a shout-out to my friend, Melissa, for taking these AWESOME photos! Gracias!



Psssst. Let me fill you in on a little secret. I like wine. Scratch that. I LOVE WINE! I love wine tastings, wine flights, and girly wine nights. I love it on its own or with cheese, and oh, with chocolate too, please! Heck, I like it some much I’m rhyming! What is this? Anyway…

I stumbled upon this recipe from the January 2009 addition of Gourmet magazine. Little cakes made with wine?! Say whaaa? Yes, that’s right, wine. Wine AND grapes. I had never baked with grapes before and was a little apprehensive at first. I was even more so after my first batch failed to bake evenly. I blame it on my fickle oven and the “guess the temperature I’m at” game we play and not the fact that I was drinking the extra wine while making them. That couldn’t possibly be it!

The trick to baking with grapes is to coat them in flour before folding them into the batter. Since they are so dense they’ll sink, and then you’ll have a soggy mess at the bottom of the cakes. Also, the standard rule of “golden around the edges and they’re done” doesn’t really apply to this recipe. You want the tops of the cakes to be really, really brown. Otherwise, again, you’ll have soggy bottoms. And that’s just gross.

Ingredients

1-1/2 cups plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour, divided
1-1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
2/3 plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar, divided
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon grated orange zest
2/3 cup Riesling or other sweet wine
1-1/4 cups seedless red grapes

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Butter and flour a 12-cup muffin tin and set it aside.

Whisk together the 1-1/2 cups of flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set that aside too.

Cream together the butter and 2/3 cup of sugar until it’s nice and fluffy (about 2 minutes). Add your eggs, one at a time, until those are thoroughly incorporated. Beat in the zest next.

Beat in ½ the flour mixture and then beat in ½ the wine. Repeat with the last of the flour and wine.

Sprinkle the grapes with the 1 tablespoon of reserved flour. Toss them until they are well coated, and then fold them into the batter.

Fill the muffin cups 2/3 full with the batter and then sprinkle the 2 tablespoons of the reserved sugar on the top of the batter. Bake them for about 20-23 minutes. The tops should be very brown when they are done.

Allow the cakes to cool slightly after you remove them from the oven. Run a knife along the outside of the cakes to loosen them. Remove them from the pans and allow them to cool on a rack.

Enjoy them with what else? WINE!

Lemon-Blueberry Upside-Down Loaf

It’s SPRING – finally some fresh berries in the supermarket! I made another little twist to a classic recipe this weekend besides the raspberry tiramisu (see previous post). This is a great tangy lemon loaf on its own, but I added some fresh blueberries for an upside-down affect. Try it with some whipped cream or vanilla ice cream. I’m heading to visit my sister tomorrow since she just moved back to the Chicago area (YAY!!) I promised I’d have a blog-worthy treat in tow. I have no doubt that we will be able to polish-off the whole thing in one sitting. That’s how we roll…

Classic Lemon Loaf Ingredients:

½ cup (1 stick) butter, softened
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
½ cup whole milk
¼ cup lemon juice
1-1/2 cup flour (spooned and leveled)
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons lemon zest
---
1 cup blueberries (optional)

For the Tangy Glaze:
½ cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons lemon juice

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Grease a 9x5” loaf pan and set it aside.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt and zest. Set it as side.

Using an electric mixer, cream together the sugar and butter for about 2-3 minutes until it is light and fluffy. Mix in the eggs, one at a time, and then the milk and lemon juice.

Add the flour mixture and the blueberries to the wet ingredients and mix by hand until it is just moistened. DO NOT OVERMIX. Otherwise, you’ll be looking forward to munching on a brick…

Bake the lemon loaf for about 55 to 60 minutes or until the top is golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Allow the loaf to cool for a few minutes after you take it out of the oven. Run a knife along the edge of the loaf and carefully invert the pan onto a cooling rack.
While the loaf is still warm, whisk together the powdered sugar and lemon juice. If the glaze is too thin, add more powdered sugar. If it is too thick, add more juice. Now drizzle the glaze over the warm loaf and allow the entire thing to cool.

To store, wrap the loaf tightly in foil.

Tiramisu with Raspberries

Ahhh a captive audience (insert creepy voice here and picture me tapping my fingertips together). A new batch of guinea pigs! I love the opportunity to bake for a big group. Most of the time it’s just me and my boyfriend tasting the things I make (leftovers usually make it to my coworkers), so I jump at the chance to make a big batch recipe. Tonight my boyfriend is having a couple of our friends over for a cookout. The first one of the year! I STILL have a bunch of ice cream-filled cupcakes from a previous post that I am hoping to unload, but I want to make something fresh. Trader Joe’s had fresh raspberries so I new I wanted to incorporate them. But into what? I finally decided on a light and creamy tiramisu. The original recipe is from my friend, Rachel (Scan) Scanlan. Scan and I used to live together, and we’d bake from time to time. She made this tiramisu, and I almost died. I stole the recipe and now it’s my own – with a raspberry twist!

Original Tiramisu Ingredients:

Syrup
1/3 cup water
1/2 cup white sugar
2/3 cup espresso

Filling
1-1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
1/3 cup white sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 pound mascarpone cheese, softened

1 package of lady fingers

1 pint of raspberries, rinsed (optional)

2 tablespoons sifted cocoa powder (optional – for garnish)

Directions:

Place a mixing bowl and wire whisk in the refrigerator. You want to use a cold bowl and whisk when making your whipped cream. It just makes things easier.

For the Syrup
Combine the water and sugar in a saucepan on top of medium heat. While constantly stirring, bring to a simmer. Remove this simple syrup from heat and allow it to cool slightly. Then add in your espresso. Set this aside.

For the Filling:
Remove the bowl/whisk from the fridge. Whisk together the cream, sugar, and vanilla until soft peaks form. In a separate mixing bowl, fold the whipped cream into the softened mascarpone cheese.

To assemble:
Place a layer of ladyfingers on the bottom of an 8 x 8” pan. Drizzle half of the syrup mixture over the ladyfingers. Top the soggy fingers with half of the mascarpone/cream mixture and spread until smooth. Arrange the raspberries over this layer. Top the raspberries with another layer of ladyfingers, drizzled with the other half of the syrup, and spread the other half of the mascarpone mixture.

Cover the tiramisu with cling wrap and allow it to set overnight in the refrigerator. Before serving, dust with cocoa powder.

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Some people are annoyed by forwarded email chains – not me! Especially when they are hilarious! I just got these images in my inbox and couldn’t resist a post…

Glazed Lemon Ricotta Cookies

Goodbye, gross Chicago winter! HELLLLOOOOO SPRING! Baking in the spring is the best! Lots of berries, cream, and citrus will be slung around my kitchen in the coming weeks. With Easter just a few days away, it’s the perfect time to put some of these ingredients to use! Last year I made these lemon ricotta cookies, and they were such a hit, I’m makin them again. Unlike some of the other Easter recipes I’ve made in the past (peanut butter pie, rhubarb pie, oreo truffles), these cookies require no refrigeration and travel really well. Since we will be embarking on the Tour de Central Illinois this weekend, those details come into play. Ahhh well, we’ll just have to save those other recipes for future posts!

Recipe courtesy of Giada De Laurentiis

Cookie Ingredients:

2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 (15-ounce) container ricotta cheese
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1 lemon, zested

Glaze Ingredients:

1-1/2 cups powdered sugar
3 tablespoons lemon juice (have extra on-hand)
1 lemon, zested
Directions

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt, and set it aside. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper and set those aside as well.

In a large bowl using an electric mixer, cream together the butter and the sugar until it’s light and fluffy (about 2 to 3 minutes). Add the eggs, one at a time, and continue beating until incorporated. Add the ricotta cheese, lemon juice, and lemon zest. Again, beat to combine. Stir in the dry ingredients adding 1/3 at a time.

Spoon the dough (about 2 tablespoons for each cookie) onto the baking sheets. Bake for 15 minutes, until slightly golden at the edges. Be careful not to over bake! The tops of my cookies didn't brown at all, and you only want the bottoms to be light brown. Remove from the oven and let the cookies rest on the baking sheet for a few minutes. The cookies are extremely tender and have a cake-like consistency.

After the cookies are cool, whisk the powdered sugar, lemon juice, and lemon zest in a small bowl and stir until smooth. Using a rubber spatula, smear the glaze over the cookies. Let the glaze harden for about 2 hours before packing them into containers.