Chocolate Peanut Butter Brownies

Really now, who doesn't love the taste of chocolate and peanut butter? huh? who? I found this recipe and thought I would give a try. Oh, it is so rich and creamy. I cut it into small bite sized pieces because it is so rich. It has a brownie layer on the bottom and a creamy peanut butter layer on the top with chocolate drizzle. 

I really like the way they turned out. Happy Baking.

The recipe is from an older cookbook magazine and it calls for 1 square of unsweetened chocolate. Well, the newer Bakers chocolate come in these easy to break squares. So 2 'squares' equals 1 ounce. I like the new easy to break style.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Brownies
recipe from 2003 Taste of Home magazine

Ingredients
1 ounce  unsweetened chocolate baking bar
1/2 cup butter
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup all-purpose flour

Filling
1 1/2 cup confectioners sugar
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1/4 cup butter, softened
2-3 Tablespoons half-and-half or milk

Glaze
1 ounce semisweet baking chocolate baking bar
1 Tablespoons butter

Directions

In a small saucepan, melt chocolate and butter over low heat; set aside. In a mixing bowl, beat eggs and sugar until light and pale-colored. Add flour and melted chocolate; stir well. Pour into a greased 9-inch. square baking pan. Bake at 350F for 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool.

For filling, beat confectioners' sugar, peanut butter and butter, in a mixing bowl. Stir in cream until mixture reaches desired spreading consistency. Spread over cooled brownies; cover and chill until firm.

For glaze, melt chocolate and butter in a saucepan, stirring until smooth. Drizzle over the filling. Chill before cutting. Store in the refrigerator.

~Michelle

Chocolate Cream Bars

I am always on the hunt for something to bake and another reicpe to try. I decided to go back to and old cookbook. This is another recipe from Pillsbury - Simply From Scratch cookbook, circa 1978. I made one of my favorite take along snack cakes from this book. You will love it too. It is a Chocolate Chip Cake.
I thought I would try something else from the book. 

These looked tasty even in this old looking photo. 

These bars are on the left. Is that a candle in the background?

Cut into bars.

The topping really fell off as I was cutting it into bars. Hmmm

Chocolate Cream Bars

Crust / Topping
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups rolled oats
1 1/2 cups firmly packed light brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter softened

Filling
12-oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips
14-oz. can sweetened condensed milk
2 Tablespoons butter
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup chopped nuts

Directions
Pre-heat oven to 350F. In a large bowl, combine first six ingredients; mix at low speed until crumbly. Press 4 cups crumb mixture into ungreased 15 x 10-inch jelly roll pan.

In medium saucepan, combine first four filling ingredients. Heat, stirring constantly, until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth. Stir in vanilla and nuts.

Pour filling over crumb crust. Sprinkle remaining crumb mixture over filling.

Bake 25-30 minutes until golden brown. Cool; cut into bars

~Michelle

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Frozen Yogurt

I found this fun and easy recipe. I love to look at recipes, she says with a little sass. Now, who doesn't like to eat cookie dough. It is so popular that they make ice cream with it and there are recipes all over the place. Well here is a raw cookie dough that is safe to eat. I thought I would give it a try.

It is very sweet so just a small couple of scoops really hits the spot. My sons and I love it. Well, mostly my one son and I. We both have a sweet tooth. :)

Serve it in a pretty dish and enjoy.

recipe from here
Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup mini chocolate chips
6 oz plain Greek yogurt

Directions:

In a mixing bowl, beat the butter and both sugars together until light and fluffy. Add vanilla and beat until combined.
In a small mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, soda and salt. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix gently. Mix in the chocolate chips.
Add the yogurt and fold with a rubber scraper.

Place in a container and cover with lid. Freeze until set. preferably overnight.

~Michelle

Halloween Decor

I thought I would put up some Halloween decorations around the house. I love Christmas lights so I used orange lights for these areas.  Here are a few things that I did. I made those orange puffs out of tissue paper. I watched some YouTube videos last year to see how to make them. I bought the paper from Hobby Lobby and cut them in half the long way. I used 6 pieces to make each puff. I also bought some black tulle and attached them to the orange strand of lights. oh.. pretty.

Here is the other side of the front hall. The office I framed the doorway the same way that I did the other side. Look closely I covered some of the books on the shelf with black and orange wrapping paper.

Here is a close up of the books :)

This is the fireplace mantle in the family room. Just some lights with pumpkins, tissue paper puffs and a black tree candle holder.

~Michelle

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

I must admit, I don't think I have ever made a Spice Cake. I always wondered if anyone would like the flavor and I wasn't sure if I would like the flavor. When I saw this recipe I thought it was interesting that it had a spice cake mix as the base. I love chocolate and pumpkin mixed so I had to give this recipe a try.

It came out great. I put everything in one bowl and just mixed it by hand. Very moist and had a great mix of spice, pumpkin and chocolate flavor. I certainly got rave reviews on the muffins.

I found the recipe here


Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins
I got around 18 muffins (standard size)

Ingredients:
1 box spice cake mix
1 (15oz) can pumpkin
2 eggs
1/2 cup canola or vegetable oil
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup mini chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350F. Place paper liners in muffin pan.
In a medium mixing bowl, mix all ingredients until well blended (I mixed it all by hand so I dumped the chocolate chips right in)
Scoop the batter into lined muffin tins. Bake standard-sized muffins for 25-30 minutes and for mini muffins, bake for 15-17 minutes.

~Michelle

Red Velvet Sandwich Cookies

I made this recipe for a fundraiser for a friend. It was an amazing event that my brother and sister-in-law put together for a lovely teacher and friend. Here is a bit of her story. http://www.4caryn.org/

The cookies turned out delicious.

Ingredients:

Cookies

1 box red velvet cake mix

2 eggs

1/2 cup canola oil

2 Tablespoons

Filling:

4 ounces cream cheese

2 Tablespoons

2 Tablespoons butter

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups powdered sugar

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350F. To make cookies, mix together cake mix, eggs, oil and flour. Scoop onto lightly greased or parchment baking sheets. Bake for 8-10 minutes, until tops look cracked.

Cool completly.

Meanwhile, make the filling by beating the cream cheese and butter with an electirc mixer. Mix in milk and vanilla, then beat in powdered sugar until smooth. Place 1-2 Tablespoons of filling in the center of a cookie. Top with a second cookie and press toghether until the filling reaches the edges of the cookies. Makes about 15 sandwiches.

~Michelle

recipe from here

Mother's Day Muffins

It seems that I'm a little behind in my postings. But, better late then never, I suppose. This recipe is totally worth the wait. I have made these muffins before, check here, but they deserve an encore. I made them this year for my Mother's day brunch along with a sandwich platter, overnight french toast bake, noodle salad along with a few other items. My mother is always happy when someone else is doing the cooking:) 

These muffins are bursting with blueberries and I love a thick layer of crumb topping. The first batch I made I didn't think that there was enough topping so I doubled the topping ingredients the second time and that is reflected in the recipe below. If you like less topping like the pictures here then just cut the ingredients in half. Enjoy

recipe from here

Blueberry Muffins

Ingredients for muffins:

2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 cup canola oil
1 cup buttermilk
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup fresh blueberries, I use a whole container
2 Tablespoons flour

Ingredients for the crumb topping:

4 Tablespoons butter, cold
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350F. Line a muffin tin with paper liners. I was able to make 16-17 muffins.

Begin by making the crumb topping.
In a small bowl mix the brown sugar, flour and cinnamon until well mixed. Add the butter and rub it in until the mixture resembles coarse sand.
Cover and chill until ready to use.

In a small bowl add the blueberries and 2 tablespoons of flour. Toss until the berries are evenly coated. Set aside.

In a large bowl add the flour, brown sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon  Whisk until the mixture is well blended. Set aside.

In a medium bowl whisk the oil, buttermilk, egg and vanilla until well mixed.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and fold them together. When most of the flour is moist add the blueberries and fold to incorporate evenly.

Scoop the batter evenly between the muffin cups. Top each with the crumb mixture. Bake for 18-22 minutes, or until the muffins are golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean. Cool in the pan for about 3 minutes before turning them onto a wire rack to cool.

me and the boys

my brother, mom and me

~Michelle