Peanut Butter Cup Brownies

Some people don't like the combination of peanut butter and chocolate, but for the other 99% I've got a pretty awesome new way to eat it.



What appears to be a regular old delicious brownie...

...has a peanut butter cookie dough core! Like a giant, ridiculously good peanut butter cup, this treat has the best of both flavors and a fantastic texture.

Step 1. Whip up a batch of peanut butter cookie dough. I used this recipe and it was (in my opinion) the perfect texture and flavor for regular cookies and to use in this brownie. Refrigerate overnight.


Step 2. Prepare brownie batter (from scratch or Ghirardelli's Double Chocolate mix - it's so easy and makes brownies better than most).
Prepare muffin tin with cupcake liners, and divide brownie batter evenly among the twelve cups. Form 12 small balls of cookie dough and press into the center of each cup. You may have to spoon some batter over the top of the cookie to completely cover them.


Step 3. Bake in a 325 degree oven for about 25-30 minutes, until the top of the brownies are cracked and the batter is set (just like normal brownies).

Step 4. Make 11 new best friends. Of course, one's for you.

Obviously, the leftover dough has to turn into cookies!

A Lotta Ricotta

I wanted to start titling my posts like a grown-up, but I couldn't resist this one.

After some lovely experiences with making lemon ricotta pancakes for lazy Saturday breakfasts, I've been on a bit of a kick with this creamy, impossibly fluffy cheese. It's a yummy dessert topped with honey or roasted berries, or it adds fantastic lightness to the texture of cakes and pancakes. Now that spring is springing, you can try my delicious recipe for Lime Ricotta Cupcakes or start your morning with my newest project, Blueberry Ricotta Muffins.

I'm not going to try to justify these muffins with the words hearty or fiber. In my opinion, the only real difference between the most delicious muffins and cupcakes is a bunch of frosting. I can tell you confidently, however, that they are a treat that may just give you the soul food you crave at the beginning or end of a long day. Warm it up, spread a little butter on (I won't tell...) and enjoy with a cup of tea while enjoying the San Francisco fog. The turbinado sugar sprinkled on top adds some sparkle and sweet crunch that puts on the perfect finishing touch. 

Feel free to substitute raspberries, blackberries or even sliced strawberries if that's more your style; I threw in the last of the blueberries that I froze from last August, and they still taste as sweet as the day I bought them. If I haven't mentioned it enough, you should definitely buy a large container of blueberries when they are in season and freeze them - you'll be so glad you did when you're enjoying fresh blueberry pancakes in the middle of December!

Nutmeg from the wild!

A couple of notes about the recipe:
- I found that using half whole wheat pastry flour gave the muffins a little bit more substance.
- If you can, invest in a few whole nutmegs and a microplane. Fresh nutmeg is SO much better, in every recipe, when you've just grated it yourself!
- Depending on the ricotta you buy, it may be a little bit grainier in texture. I popped mine in a Cuisinart and blended it until it was a uniform, creamy texture that mixed into the recipe more consistently.

Blueberry Ricotta Muffins

Adapted from Two Peas & Their Pod

Makes 12 muffins


1 C granulated sugar
1/2 C (1 stick) butter - softened
1 C ricotta cheese
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract

2 C all-purpose flour (or I used 1 C all-purpose and 1 C whole wheat pastry flour)
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground nutmeg

1 C fresh or frozen berries
Turbinado sugar (for topping)

Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin tin with cupcake liners or nonstick spray.

Cream butter and sugar together in an electric mixer on medium-high speed for several minutes until light and fluffy. Add ricotta and mix, scraping down the bowl as needed. Add egg and vanilla and blend together.
Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and nutmeg. Blend into the ricotta mixture gradually, being careful not to overmix. Add berries and stir to combine.

Divide batter evenly among cupcake liners. The dough won't rise a lot, so don't be afraid to essentially fill them. Sprinkle the tops of each muffin with turbinado sugar. Bake for about 20 minutes or until the tops are golden brown.

Back to the classics

Just like it's important to watch the original Star Wars, sometimes it's necessary to go back to the classics and make sure you've got the best recipe possible - one you can always rely on to deliver amazing results with a taste of nostalgia. Clearly, the first stop is chocolate chip cookies.

Say what you will, but a good chocolate chip cookie will always be the ultimate crowd-pleaser, bad day-fixer and good day-improver. Lucky for you, I've gone through a lot of mediocre (and downright bad) cookies on my way to the following recipe, and with my years of trial and error I think I can help you make the best chocolate chippers you've ever pulled out of the oven.













There are a couple of choices that you have to make when working through your ingredient list. Most importantly, chocolate can make or break the finished cookie. I tend to prefer a mix of milk and dark chocolate, which I buy in blocks and chop when needed (or just eat in large chunks). I think it gives more dimension and a sophisticated flavor, but everyone has their own preference - run with it!









Secondly, your choice of flour makes a big difference in flavor and texture. Traditional all-purpose white flour is the usual choice, but I think there's something to be said for tempering sweetness with a bit of the heartier, nuttier flavor of whole wheat. It only took once for me to learn never to bake with "whole wheat flour" - it actually tastes like wheat, and kind of has the texture of sand. Luckily Bob's Red Mill makes a "whole wheat pastry flour" which is much finer ground and lighter texture, and has performed swimmingly in many cookie recipes. It produces noticeably more substantial cookies, but I tend to use it regularly.

Thanks to research and my own experiments, I've determined the following essential steps for the ideal cookie texture and color. Ultimately, you want the dough and baking sheet to be very cold when you put them in the oven, which will prevent over-spreading of the dough and preserve a thick and fluffy cookie.

1. Do not pack the brown sugar while measuring it out - just treat it as normal sugar.
2. Use cold butter. Do not soften the butter before beating with sugar. Electric mixers are more than powerful enough to handle cold butter - apparently that part of most traditional recipes is a relic from pre-power mixer days.
3. Freeze dough in an airtight container for 24 - 48 hours before baking. This prevents excess spreading of the dough when baking. Just make sure you shape the dough into balls before you freeze them!
4. Use a silicone baking sheet or parchment paper. NEVER use a bare cookie sheet.
5. Never use a heated baking sheet for a new batch of cookies. If you're going to reuse the sheet, make sure it's cooled completely before putting dough on it.
6. Remove the cookies from the oven when lightly golden in color, and leave the cookies to cool completely on the baking sheet. Don't move them to a wire rack.



Best Ever Chocolate Chip Cookies
Yields about 30 cookies
Adapted from Betty Crocker

1 C brown sugar (not packed)
1/2 C granulated sugar
1 C (2 sticks) butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
2 1/4 C all-purpose flour (or whole wheat pastry flour)
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 C chocolate chips or chopped chocolate

 
Directions: Beat butter and sugars in the bowl of an electric mixer for several minutes, until light and fluffy. Scrape down bowl to make sure everything is incorporated. Add vanilla and egg and beat to combine. Gradually add flour, baking soda and salt. Add chocolate when there is still a little bit of flour left to incorporate, so everything comes together at the same time. Scrape down bowl as necessary to prevent pockets of dry ingredients. Don't overmix, as it activates the gluten and can make the dough tough.










Form dough into balls about one inch in diameter, then freeze for at least 24 hours in an airtight bag or plastic container.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. When oven is up to temperature, place a dozen frozen dough balls onto parchment or silicone sheet and place in oven. Bake for about 10-12 minutes, until top of cookies are a light golden brown. Remove from oven and let cookies cool on the baking sheet (if you can!)

Try and resist...

It's been a while...

Wow. To say that a lot has happened since my last post would be a bit of an understatement, and to be honest I wasn't sure I'd ever post on this blog again. Between 8 hours of class every day and working on the weekends, I haven't exactly had a lot of time for extracurriculars. No one ever told me grad school was this hard...?
I've been uninspired and not feeling particularly enthused with my baking. Let me tell you, I've made a lot of chocolate chip cookies in the last six months - but that would make for some dull reading, don't you think? It's also easy to think that no one actually reads any of this, and I was writing for an audience of one.

But then - people started coming out of the woodwork to ask where I'd gone! Honestly, I'm very pleasantly surprised and flattered, and it got me thinking about giving this little project another shot. I think that with summer clinicals in sight (meaning a semi-vacation), I've let myself consider new, exciting and most importantly, delicious projects.

The best I can say right now is to stay tuned. Something new is coming soon, but I want to make sure it's quality stuff worthy of my lovely readers. Thank you all for making me feel so loved :)


Here's a little something to hold you over. You may remember that during my last year in San Diego, I worked at a little place called Extraordinary Desserts. The short version? They make ridiculously good (and complex) cakes. I was overjoyed when the owner Karen Krasne released a cookbook - Extraordinary Cakes - in October, but haven't had the chance to attempt any of these whopping creations until now.

Spring break seemed to mix well with tequila and lime, and the result was the Vallarta. Lime sponge cake brushed with a tequila simple syrup, then layered with lime pastry cream, lime curd and lime whipped cream. Yup.

This exquisite combinations of textures and flavors was perfect for a Mexican dinner party and margaritas with friends, but it was certainly a project that I wouldn't recommend to the faint of heart or those without hours to spend on several days prepping the different components.

For the recipe (all 6 pages of it), you have to get the book! Regardless, the gorgeous pictures of dozens of cakes are worth the price of the book alone.