A Smorgasbord of Treats

For those of you alarmed by the different nature of my last post, this post should make up for it.

Last night I made brownies, but I didn't stop there. While the brownies were in the oven, I made mints too! Then I went to bed and woke up this morning and made peanut butter cookies! Lots of baking going on when I really should be doing anything but. I have a lot going on since it is my last semester of college, which I have mentioned, but it is getting a little hectic to say the least with under a month to go.

Lets start with brownies. I wanted to experiment with some kind of add-in that I hadn't tried before. I had some cream cheese in the fridge and some blackberries so I made a blackberry cream cheese to swirl in. Since I wasn't sure how berry cream cheese would compliment the brownies, I only added it to half of the brownies. Both sides turned out wonderfully. I have been craving brownies for a long time and these hit the spot. The berry cream cheese totally worked with the brownies, and the blackberry taste wasn't too strong (which I was worried about). My favorite part of the berry cream cheese brownies was how the seeds from the berries mixed in so every couple of bites I'd get a seed. Those of you who aren't a fan of crunchy seeds probably wouldn't enjoy these brownies as much.

Mixing up the brownie batter.

My very elementary attempt at blackberry cream cheese, with a touch of honey

Since brownies take forever to bake, I decided to occupy my time with another recipe. I actually found the brownie recipe in the little recipe book that came with my stand mixer (which I've used many other times). This same recipe book has a recipe for no-bake mints that I have always been curious about. The mints were very simple to make, just a few ingredients; all I had to do was mix it together, shape the mints, and then store them in the fridge! I was done in 20 minutes. The mints are pretty good, but I think that tonight I may try dipping some in chocolate for a peppermint patty effect.

Mints!

Half and half brownies... just ignore the fact that I poked them a billion times...

Today also happens to be the birthday of one of my awesome friends, Holley, so I wanted to make some cookies for her. Since Holley is the birthday girl, I asked what she had in mind and she requested peanut butter cookies. I've been wanting to make peanut butter cookies forever and had them in mind as well; apparently these cookies were meant to be! In case the coincidence wasn't enough, I recently purchased a giant tub (see photo below) of peanut butter from Costco, so I definitely had the means (and then some) to make peanut butter cookies.

In case you didn't believe me; this thing is enormous! Also, that is a full-sized mixing spoon.. mixing this jar of peanut butter up for the first time was extremely difficult as evidenced in the mess that I was making when I took this photo.

The peanut butter cookies turned out a little crunchier than I would have liked, but they still have an addictive property about them... I ate three right away. I also dipped some of the cookies in chocolate to mix it up, but I was operating under a time crunch so I wasn't able to share any because the chocolate hadn't hardened enough by the time I needed to leave. The chocolate had set by the time I got home and is a nice compliment, but I think next time I'll mix peanut butter in with the chocolate to give it more flavor.

Peanut butter cookies ready for the oven.

Chocolate-dipped! Holley, if you read this... I'm sorry these weren't ready in time to bring to class!

It's a Miracle!

I actually baked something! Thanks to Zach and Nina for your suggestions, I really appreciate it. Since Zach came up with a suggestion so quickly I went with his ideas and actually ended up (coincidentally) satisfying both of your requests. Zach suggested that I make some peanut butter brownies, but instead of making brownies I decided to make brownie cookies! The idea has crossed my mind before, but I never followed through until now. I decided to go with a little improvisation from a few recipes I found online and came up with the following:

Peanut Butter Brownie Cookies:

For the chocolate brownie batter:

• 12 ounces  bittersweet chocolate
• 1 stick butter (melted together with the bittersweet chocolate, either double broiler style or carefully in the microwave)
• 3 eggs
• 1 tablespoon vanilla
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• pinch salt
• 1 cup chocolate chips

For the peanut butter filling/topping:

• 3/4 cup peanut butter
• 1/4 cup powdered sugar

For the peanut butter, I basically did the same thing that I did for peanut butter cups except that I didn't really measure anything so these measurements are estimates. I tried a few different methods for combining the peanut butter mixture with the brownie batter. I tried spooning a little on top of a few cookies as well as putting some in the middle of the cookies (kind of like a cookie version of a peanut butter cup) and left two cookies without peanut butter (just to get the full effect of plain brownie cookies in case the peanut butter concoction baked funny).

Peanut butter dollops on top

The alternative - peanut butter innards

I had some batter and lots of peanut butter leftover, so a few days later I mixed the two together and baked the rest, which turned out a little dry but pretty good. Ultimately, I think that I prefer the cookies with the peanut butter on top.  My boyfriend prefers the cookies with the peanut butter inside, so I suppose it's up to the eater to decide. Not sure which method I would go with if I make these again.

This isn't a very good photo, but it is the only evidence I have of the peanut butter/brownie mix

What's next?
I might experiment with some whoopie pies (even though the name and concept has always freaked me out a little bit... I'm willing to bite the bullet so that I can become a real baker one day!) or chocolate/vanilla sandwich cookies (you might know them as Oreo cookies, but I'm trying not to sell out to a brand name here... especially because Oreos have hydrogenated oils in them, boo Nabisco!). Got an idea? Share it.