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Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

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I have to warn you in advance of the incredible indulgence and satisfaction you will gain from these cookies if you were to make them. You will want to make them over and over again. I made three batches this weekend alone. In my defence I like to thoroughly test a recipe before I share it with you guys but these cookies did not last long in my house although I did of course share them with family members.. a little anyway.

I am a real fan of anything which combines salty and sweet, salted caramel is one of my greatest addictions and these Peanut Butter Cup cookies manage to tick all of the boxes. The cookie is sweet but not overpoweringly so and the peanut butter is salty and rich and unctuous..I do so love that word. You could adapt the sizes and make them bigger or smaller, I went for fairly large ones similar in size to a Millie’s cookie or the one you get in coffee shops. The most important thing to remember in this recipe is to chill the dough and also freeze your dollops of peanut butter ( I picked up this tip from the late Izzie King from the Coriander Queen blog, she was a pretty clever baker ) as it makes it so much easier to work with and stops them spreading too much and just becoming a swirly mess.

Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

You will need:

225g softened butter

225g golden caster sugar

175g self raising flour

50g cocoa powder

30ml golden syrup

10 teaspoons of peanut butter

First you need to place your dollops of peanut butter on a sheet of baking paper and freeze for at least an hour, don’t remove from freezer until your dough is ready.

In a large mixing bowl, combine your butter, sugar and syrup before adding your flour and cocoa powder. Mix well to form a smooth cookie dough mixture. Cover and pop in the fridge for about 30 minutes.

Preheat your oven to 180c. Remove your dough from fridge and peanut butter from freezer. Take a lump of dough and press a dollop of Peanut Butter into the middle, press the dough around it so the peanut butter is completely covered. You should be able to make between 8-10 depending on how large you want your cookies to be. Bake for 8-10 minutes. Remove and leave to cool for at least 10-15 minutes, don’t attempt to move as they will just fall apart.

Now just try and stop yourself eating them all in one go because I have to tell you that these are even better the next day when the layers have firmed a little and they are an absolute delight with a cup of tea. I am currently testing a batch of the uncooked but formed dough balls in the freezer to see how well they cook from frozen. I think these would just be the ultimate treat to serve impromptu guests. I’ll keep you posted on how they turn out.

 

 

 

More More S’mores – Toasted Marshmallow Banana Boats

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If you are an avid Pinterest user like me then you will probably have seen at least one image of a banana stuffed with chocolate and other treats and cooked on a campfire. I know I’ve seen it thousands of times and every time I drooled a little and thought I must try that.

Well last week I received my Degustabox subscription and in the box was a pot of Solo Toasted Marshmallow Creme. This is every bit as good as it sounds. The box actually suggests s’mores as a serving option so I thought why not try the campfire s’more style banana boats so.. I did and they are incredible. So simple, a perfect last minute dessert and it tastes extremely indulgent. I added peanut butter to ours as I think it works really well with banana and some chocolate chips – because chocolate enhances most dishes.

I hardly feel this needs a recipe but here we go:

You will need:

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1 Banana
1 tbsp of peanut butter
1.5 tbsp of toasted marshmallow creme OR a handful of mini marshmallows
1 tsp of chocolate chips

Slice through the peel of your banana almost through to the peel on the other side but not quite.

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Wrap in a loose foil pouch and bake in a very hot oven ( gas mark 6) for about 15 minutes. Eat fairly quickly whilst your ingredients are melted and oozing but watch you don’t burn your tongue. You could serve with icecream or whipped cream but it’s perfectly awesome on its own. Enjoy.

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You can buy Solo Toasted Marshmallow Creme from American Soda.

* I was gifted a Degustabox box for the purposes of a review.

Homemade Peanut Butter Cups.. The easy way.

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It seems that posting my I miss cooking blog post last week inspired me to do some cooking. I haven’t gone overboard as I still have a serious lack of energy but I did make a huge batch of slow cooker bolognese last week followed by a lasagne ( using the bolognese sauce) an emergency batch of chocolate cupcakes on Saturday night at 10pm as I was craving cake and then yesterday I decided to make a recipe I’ve made quite a few times over the past two years so much so that I can’t remember where I found the original recipe and also I don’t think I even keep to it anymore as I found I made too many and they were too sweet on my first attempt so apologies if this recipe is adapted from yours!

This is an easy peasy recipe for peanut butter cups, if you love the Reeses version then these are a great substitute. You don’t get the two separate layers of chocolate/peanut butter but it still tastes awesome and well it’s simple! There are lots of far fancier recipes online if you want the real deal.

Peanut Butter Cups

You will need:

200g of good quality milk chocolate – I’ve used Cadburys dairy milk which was fab but yesterday I just used Aldi own brand (30p a bar) and that was pretty good too.
1/2 a cup of peanut butter ( smooth if you like the reeses texture) this time I used crunchy Skippy peanut butter which was delicious.

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Using a Pyrex glass bowl over a saucepan of simmering water melt your chocolate slowly before adding your peanut butter and slowly melting/stirring to combine.

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Once you have a gorgeous silky chocolatey peanut mixture feel free to taste (be careful) and add more peanut butter if needed.

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Remove from heat and spoon into cupcake cases. This made about 8. Don’t overfill your cases as these are very rich and you will find it very hard to eat more than one in one sitting. Place in the freezer on a cupcake/muffin tray for 45 minutes then refrigerate in a sealed box for as long as they last.

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Sandwich fit for THE king

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I took a photo of my Sunday supper to use for my Silent Sunday post but after eating it I decided it would be a little unfair if I didn’t explain this delicious naughtiness.

So here it is some photos of a fried peanut butter and banana sandwich. Ok so it wouldn’t be good to eat this every day in fact I’ve had it maybe twice in the past year but as a one off on a cold autumn evening why not?

This sandwich was made famous by being a favourite food of Elvis Presley but I first discovered the recipe in a Nigella Lawson book (Nigella Bites) a few years ago.

A friend of mine tweeted that she was having a non fried boring old peanut butter and banana sandwich yesterday so it’s been kind of on my mind..
When I discovered a bag of bananas that were well … shall we say ripe in my kitchen tonight it seemed like a sign so I made these deliciously indulgent gooey delights to enjoy whilst avoiding X factor and watching Dexter! It was a perfect combo.

I won’t bore you with any more chatter when all you really want is the recipe so here you go: Nigella takes on the Elvis sarnie

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