cook-eat-write

Everyone loves a good cookie. Especially a good chocolate chip cookie. This recipe is an amalgam of several other recipes that I’ve found over the last two years plus a few twists of my own. If you don’t like peanut butter or (god forbid!) are allergic, it’s quite easy to leave out the peanut butter chips (replacing them with extra chocolate chips, of course) and just make chocolate chip cookies! I, however, love peanut butter and always throw those chips in. 

Mmmmmm so very good.

Not my picture (oh google images how I love theee) but this is what they look like:

Ease of preparation: 3
Taste: 4
Feeds: makes about… 24? It depends on how big you make them…

I have gotten MANY great reviews about these cookies. I took them to work once and the ladies I work with were hiding them in their desks to have extras for lunch. I could eat 6 in a sitting, probably, which is saying something since I have a very low tolerance for sugar. Ohhh, yes.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip Cookies

Ingredients:
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup margarine/butter, softened
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup peanut butter chips

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375
2. Mix both sugars, butter, eggs and vanilla in a large bowl
3. In separate bowl mix together flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg
4. Stir dry mixture into wet mixture
5. Stir in chocolate and peanut butter chips (if you have been using a mixer so far, do this part by hand)
6. On a lightly greased cooking sheet, place about 1.5 tablespoon sized balls about 2 inches apart
7. Bake about 8-10 minutes (keep an eye on them and take them out when the edges start to golden!)

Hooray! 

I have a problem. That problem is that I am really a picky eater. There is a lot of foodstuff that I really don’t like. Mayonnaise, melon, cooked fish, yogurt, cream cheese, jam, etc. It sucks. I wish I liked these things. I have tried over and over to like a lot of these things. My life would be so much easier if I liked yogurt. But anyway. My point is that, because I like to cook, sometimes I come across recipes that I really want to try, but I don’t because I know I won’t like the finished product, and that seems like a big waste to me. Example: cheesecake. I SO want to make a cheesecake, but I hate cheesecake. I know, I’m not a real human being, etc. etc.

But sometimes the desire to try a recipe overcomes the distaste for the actual finished product. One of these occasions involved marshmallows. I can’t stand the things. They’re gross. Ew. But when I came across this recipe for S’more Brownies, I had to give it a try. I figured, even if I didn’t want them, someone would eat them, right?

Recipe for you!:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/smore-brownies-recipe/index.html

Ease of preparation: 3.5
Taste: 2.5
Feeds: 9 or so if I remember correctly

As it was, I did actually sample this in the end. I just pulled off the marshmallows and tossed them and ate the brownie part. They weren’t the best brownies I have ever made or had, but they weren’t bad and the graham cracker crust was different and tasty. Those others who tried them gave me good reviews!

Suggestions / Changes

Make sure you follow the instructions about the foil exactly. it’s important to being able to remove these from the pan and making the end result pretty as well as tasty. Be sure not to over bake the graham cracker crust. I would maybe even bake it 5 mins less than indicated. Mine was very close to having a lightly burned taste.

Also, the large marshmallows seemed to overtake the entire dish. In the future I would suggest trying small marshmallows instead. Make sure you have a sharp clean knife to cut these babys up!

Recipe and photo property of: The Food Network (http://www.foodnetwork.com) 

Here is the recipe:

Ease of preparation: 5
Taste: 4
Feeds: ~12-16 servings, depends on how large you slice the bars

As the picture indicates, this bar is essentially 4 cookies plopped on top of each other and baked together into one sugar-coma inducing crazy bar of awesome. It’s quite complicated to put together, or at least it was for me. Be prepared to spend 2 hours or more actively working and making a big (but fun!) mess. These are well worth the hassle. Best Friend and I had a great time when we were making them (but then, we have a great time whatever we do)!

Changes / Suggestions

I never did the chocolate drizzle on top. I’m sure that it tastes great but by the time I got to that step I was too tired to care! Also, these are sugary enough without that, hah.

Recipe and photo property of The Picky Palate (http://picky-palate.com/)