Sweet Treats Saturday: Kitchen Sink Blondies

Friday night. Dinner is devoured. Dishes are done... and I'm itching for something sweet.

I decided to surprise the hubby with blondies. Chocolate chip cookies are probably his #1 favorite dessert that could only ever be topped by blondies.  But in order for me to fully enjoy them, we would have to include toffee. Fair is fair, right?  So I started collecting ingredients and decided to basically throw in all of the add-ins I could find. Thus, the kitchen sink blondies were created.  Chocolate chips, heath bar, peanut butter chips, walnuts... enjoy!



Kitchen Sink Blondies
Recipe modified from AllRecipes
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Ingredients:
2 1/4 c all-purpose flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 3/4 c firmly packed brown sugar
3/4 c (1 1/2 sticks) butter, softened
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 c semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 c heath bar bits
1/2 c peanut butter chips
1 c chopped walnuts

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Grease a 9x13" cake pan.
2. In a small bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt.  Set aside.
3. In a large bowl, beat butter and brown sugar until fluffy.  Beat in eggs and vanilla extract. Then, gradually beat in flour mixture.  Stir in desired add-ins (chocolate chips, heath bar, peanut butter chips, walnuts).
4. Spread batter into greased baking sheet. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until the top is golden and a toothpick inserted comes out clean.  Cool on a wire rack.

Sweet Treats Saturday: Peanut Butter Cheesecake Swirl Brownies

Ohhh these brownies are good.  When Annie's Eats listed these as one of her top recipes of 2011, I knew I had to try them.  They sounded so decadent! Brownies... cheesecake... peanut butter... yummmm.

Ok, enough drooling.


These seem like standard peanut butter swirled brownies, but I think the trick is the cream cheese that is also in the brownie base.  I think it adds to the moisture to make these the ultimate fudgy brownies.  Seriously. Give these a try. Pronto.


Peanut Butter Cheesecake Swirl Brownies
Recipe from Annie's Eats
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Ingredients:
For the brownies:
14 tbsp unsalted butter
6 oz bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 cup cocoa powder
2 cups sugar
6 oz cream cheese, at room temp
6 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup all-purpose flour


For the peanut butter cheesecake swirl:
8 oz cream cheese, at room temp
2/3 cup creamy peanut butter
6 tbsp sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350˚ F.  Line a 9 x 13-inch baking pan with foil and spray lightly with cooking spray.  


2. To make the brownie batter, combine the butter and chocolate in a large heatproof bowl set over simmering water.  Heat, stirring occasionally, until the mixture is completely melted and smooth.  Remove the bowl from the heat.  Whisk in the cocoa powder, sugar, eggs and cream cheese until smooth and well blended.  Mix in the vanilla and salt.  Add the flour to the bowl and whisk just until incorporated.  Pour the brownie batter into the prepared baking dish and smooth the top with a spatula.


3. To make the peanut butter cheesecake portion, combine the cream cheese, peanut butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer.  Beat on medium-high speed until completely smooth, about 2-3 minutes.  Blend in the egg and vanilla until incorporated, scraping down the bowl as needed.


4. Drop spoonfuls of the peanut butter mixture over the brownie batter in the pan, creating a cobblestone appearance.  Use a knife or wooden skewer to gently swirl together the peanut butter mixture and brownie batter.  Bake 30-35 minutes, until the center is just set.  Transfer to a wire rack and let cool to room temperature.  Cover and refrigerate until well chilled before slicing and serving.

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Sweet Treats Saturday: Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Blondies

As much as I love apples and fruit based desserts, the hubby was begging for blondies.  I couldn't do the same ol' thing, so it's time for another twist on a classic recipe.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Blondies

Recipe from Two Peas and Their Pod

Ingredients

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter

2 cups light brown sugar

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

2 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 cup chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Grease a 9x13 inch pan and set aside.

2. In a saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter and brown sugar, stirring constantly until smooth.  Remove from the heat and stir in the peanut butter, until creamy and combined.  Set aside mixture to cool.

Peanut butter mixture, cooling.

3.  In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

4.  Add the eggs, one at a time to the peanut butter mixture, mixing well after each addition.  Add the vanilla extract and stir to combine.  Pour the mixture into the prepared dry ingredients, and stir until the batter is smooth.  Fold in 1/2 cup of the chocolate chips, reserving the rest for sprinkling on top.

*My peanut butter mixture was still a little warm, so some of the chocolate chips melted into the batter.  I think it actually had a cool effect (swirling the batter), and still tasted delicious, so I didn't mind.  If you do want to keep your chips whole, make sure the mixture has cooled completely before mixing in.

5. Transfer the batter to the prepared pan, spreading the batter evenly to the edges of the pan.  Sprinkle with the remaining 1/4 cup chocolate chips and lightly press them into the batter.

6.  Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the top is golden and the edges are slightly browned.  Remove blondies from oven and place them on a wire rack to cool.  Once cooled, cut into squares and serve.

Sweet Treats Saturday: Peanut Butter Toffee Cookies

Let's take a step back from chocolate for a minute. Ok, I know that's kind of a harsh statement, but most of the time, I'm a vanilla-cookie kinda girl.  I'm not going to go extreme on you, but another one of my favorite flavors is toffee. So how about we try some Peanut Butter Toffee cookies?  It's a nice twist on the traditional peanut butter cookie, but the addition of toffee is almost genius!  

These cookies are so simple to make, and a great use for one of those bags of toffee bits that you probably have stashed in your pantry.  Or, should have stashed in your pantry.  Really, you should always have a bag of toffee on hand.

Peanut Butter Toffee Cookies

From MarthaStewart.com (I know, I know, my go to source... I get her daily recipe emails so it's hard not to want to make them all)

Ingredients:

3/4 cup all-purpose flour, plus more for fingertips
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
1 large egg
2 chocolate-covered toffee candy bars (1.4 ounces each), chopped (As I mentioned above, I just use a bag of the already chopped up bits)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt.
   
2. In a large bowl, with an electric mixer on high speed, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add peanut butter and egg; beat until smooth. With mixer on low, gradually add flour mixture. Stir in toffee.
   
3. Using 1 level tablespoon batter per cookie, drop onto baking sheets, about 1 inch apart; flatten slightly with floured fingertips. Bake until edges are golden brown, 16 to 18 minutes, rotating sheets halfway through. Transfer cookies immediately to a wire rack to cool completely.
   

 

 

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Sweet Treats Saturday: Peanut Butter Chocolate Macarons

Ahhh meringue.  It continues to scare me but I keep finding recipes involving it that look so delicious!

Macarons alone have scared me for a while, but as I love most things French, I was determined to try these too.

I was drooling over the pictures on the Annie Eats blog of her Peanut Butter Chocolate Macarons.  I had not convinced myself to try making them, especially as I saw all of the ingredients measured in grams.  I almost thought I had stumbled upon a British recipe blog.  It wasn't until I read further along that I realized they were just finicky and required exact measurements in weight.  Another ding against them.  Still, undeterred, I kept reading.

The macarons: piped, chopped peanuts added, and ready to go into the oven.

I decided to humor myself and to read her blog post about her initial experience making macarons.  Ok, now the challenge was on.  I decided I too could conquer these sweets.  But just in case of failure, I didn't plan on taking too many pictures.

The bottoms of the macarons.
Know for the future to let them set a little before putting them in the oven to avoid the tips.

The filling piped in. Chocolate fudgy ganache and peanut butter.

Ultimately, the macarons were surprisingly easy to make. They were time consuming in the multiple steps for preparation, but as long as I kept my eye on them along the way (especially in the oven so I didn't overcook them), they weren't too high maintenance.  Piping the centers was fun and the ganache was so rich and delicious.

The final macarons were light and fluffy which went perfectly with the dense and rich filling.  I'm looking forward to trying more flavor combinations and recipes for macarons.

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