Mini Peanut Butter Pies

 I was hankering for peanut butter pie, but didn't want a whole pie in my fridge.

  I was not craving moving up a pant size.  

Enter the mini pie.  

Can we make fun of my chocolate drizzling skills for a minute?  Someone help me with the drizzle, I need lessons!

I decided to make a few mini pies, to test how they freeze, to share with my friend (yes, I have a 

friend - don't laugh) and, really, to scratch the itch.  The peanut butter pie itch.

I've made the traditional pie, with whipped topping before (yes, lots of times) but I really hate using it.  It's so gross.  Whipped oil and sugar.  I can't stand eating that crap.  

Well, I can obviously stand it - I just really really don't like it.  It also means I don't make it more than once every few years, which isn't a bad thing I guess.  Oh well, I adjusted the recipe so I could make it without it.  I still used Jell-O, just as yucky.  Ha!  What I do for this pie I tell ya.  

Mini Peanut Butter Pie

Preheat oven to 350.  Prepare a muffin pan with liners (this recipe makes 12).  

1/3 cup melted butter

1 1/2 cups graham crumbs

1/3 cup sugar

Combine sugar, graham crumbs and butter in small bowl.  Each muffin paper will get 2 tbsp of graham crust.  Scoop 2 tbsp in each cup and when done, press graham firmly around sides and bottom.  Try to do this as evenly as possible.  

Bake for 4-5 minutes.  Don't over bake the crust.  A large crust would take up to 10 minutes and I (foolishly) over baked my crusts the first time.  Let cool while making filling. 

1 8oz package cream cheese

1 cup peanut butter

1 package of instant vanilla pudding (serving size 4, not 6 - they come in two sizes!)

1 cup of whipping cream

1 cup milk

Mix the cream cheese until smooth.  If you've left it out for a few hours, this is easily done by hand.  Add peanut butter and mix again.  Make pudding in a separate bowl.  You are NOT following instructions on box.  Mix one package of pudding with one cup of milk.  Add it to the cream cheese and peanut butter and mix well.  If you want to use Cool Whip, use one cup where I am using whipping cream.  Blend the heck out of these ingredients until the mixture is smooth.  

Use an ice cream scoop to evenly divide filling into each mini pie crust.  You should have just enough for each mini pie and for the kids to get a good lick out of the bowl.  

Refrigerate minimum 4 hours before serving.  You can drizzle chocolate on top, warm peanut butter, add whipped cream, etc.  Dress it up how you'd like and enjoy!  

Happy Baking!

*Bonus Blabbering*

The story of "the fattest thing I've ever said"

I was making this pie over Christmas.  My sister was in the kitchen with me.  

She has made this pie plenty of times.  

I began to soften the cream cheese and whip it with a fork and good old arm power.  

With sadness and shock she asked what happened to my beautiful stand mixer. 

I said it was fine.

That I like to mix things by hand because it was a little bit of extra exercise before eating something so unhealthy. 

We looked at each other. 

Silence.

Silence.

Laughter.

My face grimaced and I professed 

"That is the fattest thing I've ever said!"

Ooh Baby Butterscotch Buns

A lot of buns taste better warm out of the oven - and slowly lose their appeal as they sit around.  If there are any buns left by the next day, they're practically inedible in comparison to what was experienced when they were literally hot out of the oven.  Not with these buns!  

These actually taste better when you let them get to room temperature.  They are great the whole day, the next afternoon - and even the day after that.  If that's not enough, they're also very simple to make - I'd say beginners level baking.  Turn the oven on, you're making Butterscotch Buns!

Butterscotch Buns

Preheat oven to 425

1/2 cup butter

3/4 cup plus 1tbsp packed brown sugar 

Cream butter and brown sugar together until light and fluffy.  Set aside.

2 cups cake and pastry flour (or all purpose flour)

2 tbsp white sugar

4 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

Mix dry ingredients together in large bowl

1/4 cup chilled butter or vegetable shortening*

Cut butter or shortening into cubes and put in flour mixture.  Cut into flour mixture using a pastry cutter until crumbly.  Make a well in the middle of the bowl.

3/4 -1cup milk

Slowly add milk 1/4 cup at a time.  You may not need to use all the milk, please don't add it all at once!  You want just enough liquid to hold the dough together.  Once combined, knead the dough in the bowl a few times to ensure it's fully mixed.  

Transfer dough to floured board and roll out to 2cm thickness, roughly a 10X10 inch square.  Spread butter and sugar mixture evenly on dough - spreading right out to the edges.  I usually do this with a butter knife so I don't get overzealous and rip the dough with vigorous spreading.  Tightly roll the dough into a log and slice into 1 inch pieces.  Place a few centimetres apart from each other on a parchment lined baking tray and bake for 15-20 minutes.  While buns are baking prepare a second cookie sheet with parchment paper.  Once buns are done baking, place second tray over the first and invert the buns (flip them over on the clean tray).  If you're a butter-a-holic, you can brush melted butter over the tops of the buns before they cool to keep the edges from getting too dry.  If you can manage to wait until they are cool, they are better at room temperature - but I'll admit, knowing they're better cool hasn't stopped me from eating one hot almost every time I make them! 

Happy Baking!

*Biscuits are traditionally made with lard.  They turn out lighter, flakier, and truly scrumptious.  I've tried this recipe with both butter and vegetable shortening and I prefer the shortening.  They are delicious either way, but if you eat anything deep fried at restaurants you're eating lard so just try it the proper way :) *  

Shortbread Saturns

If you can think of a better name... submit it!

Remember my burnt butter, fried banana banana bread?  If you do, you know I have a sick and twisted brain when it comes to baking.  While baking this weekend I wanted to make something extra special for a cousin who recently had a beautiful little baby.  Enter Saturn Shortbread.

 Melt in your mouth shortbread with burnt butter icing...... 

These sweet little cookies are so easy to make but have a BIG taste.

Shortbread

1 cup of butter, room temperature

1/2 cup icing sugar

1/4 cup corn starch

1 1/2 cups flour

Cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.  Add corn starch and flour and continue to mix well.  It will seem crumbly for a while, but the butter will continue to warm and you will end up with a dough similar to a fondant.  

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.  I used a melon baller to scoop out perfect bite sized cookies.  If you don't have one, make one inch balls and gently press down.  This shortbread is VERY crumbly when baked, so don't make your cookies too big or they won't hold together.  Bake 10-12 minutes, until the bottom edges are just brown, in 375 oven.

While cookies are cooling, start the icing.

Brown 1/4 cup butter in sauce pan.  It should look something like this when finished.  

To brown your butter, simply melt butter on high heat and keep on stove until it smells like caramel and is a rich brown colour.  You may need to swirl the pan while browning to avoid burning and to brown evenly.

Let butter cool and add

1 cup icing sugar

This will make a crumbly mixture, to which you can add heavy cream or milk until desired consistency.  I added 1tbsp to make a thick icing that would hold its shape in between the cookies.  

*Makes 12-15 sandwiches*

I miss my Nanny-O

Cooking from Nanny's Favorites

Marjorie O'Neill.  I loved that woman.  She was so sweet to me, even when she had no reason to be.  She taught me how to knit (several times), taught me how to bake but more importantly taught me to be a better person.  To be patient, to listen, to serve others with a happy heart and to show love through baking.  This is one of her recipes I added a trendy ingredient to.  It doesn't make me cry like her Belgium Cookies (renamed Crying Cookies) but I do love opening her cookbook and remembering her in this small way.  

Nanny called this recipe "Chocolate Cookies" which might lead someone to believe they are dark, with cocoa in the recipe.  I renamed it, but the ingredients are the same-ish.

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup shortening

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

2 eggs

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

Cream butter, shortening*, sugars, eggs and vanilla until light and fluffy. 

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

I make a well in my wet ingredients and blend the dry ingredients in the well before mixing into the wet.  If you want to do that separately (mix dry, add to wet), that's totally cool but you're doing an extra dish. Mix dough thoroughly.

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 cup milk chocolate chips

1 tbsp rock salt

Mix chocolate chips and salt into dough so it's evenly dispersed, no mouthfuls of salt once baked - blah.

Bake at 375F for 8-10 minutes until just brown on the edges.  I used an ice cream scoop to make even sized jumbo cookies, and 10 minutes did the trick.  

*Do you ever wonder how bakeries make such yummy treats?  It's because they use things you don't normally use.  Shortening, lard, tapioca starch - stuff we don't normally add to our cookies can really make a difference.  If you don't want to use shortening in the recipe, replace it with butter (or any other fat - margarine, coconut oil) - but you eat shortening all the time and don't know it*

Hey, these are ACTUALLY good!

"Hey these are ACTUALLY good" Cookies

I love baking.  The only thing is, once something has been baked it inevitably gets eaten.  When I'm making pretzels, cookies and buns this can be a bad thing.  I want to be healthy and more importantly I want my kids to be healthy.  We limit our treats to Fridays, but throughout the rest of the week I get the urge to get creative in the kitchen and turn the oven on.  

You'll need a food processor or amazing blender to whip these up.

Preheat oven to 350.

3-4 ripe bananas

1 small can black beans

1/4 cup unsweetened Dutch cocoa

Add first three ingredients to food processor, and blend thoroughly.  It will be quite runny, goopy looking.  

If you want to add a bit of sweetness, this is the time to do it.  If I have unsweetened applesauce I add about 1cup at this time (I didn't have any this batch and they were fine).  You could also add 1/4 cup of Agave nectar or even maple syrup if you need to slowly adjust your tastebuds (or your kids tastebuds) to a different kind of sweet cookie.

1-2 cups of uncooked quick oats

Starting with 1/2 cup at a time, add oats to mixture and pulse.  You will decide when there are enough oats to hold a "cookie" shape on your baking sheet.  I used 2 cups for a thick dense cookie.  

Optional: 

1 cup chocolate chips, carob chips or raisins.

When I first started making these I always had to add a few chocolate chips to entice the kids to eat it.  Last night when I made them, my 5 year old came running in to the kitchen to remind me NOT to put chocolate chips in half the batch!  

Scoop out 2inch balls of dough with a large spoon and just plop (ewww, better word anyone?) them onto a parchment paper lined cookie sheet.  Bake for 10-12 minutes and enjoy at room temperature.

*If I have leftovers (I almost never do) I store them in the fridge.  If you choose to store them otherwise, simply place a clean dishtowel over them instead of plastic wrap as they are quite moist and you do not want them to mold* 

Enjoy!

Rosie's Haystack Brownies

Originally posted to the Lent Experiment 12/19/10

Sometimes I go out and eat something yummy - want to replicate it at home and can't find a recipe!  I came up with this recipe all by my lonesome and I have to say, it's everything a sugar addict could hope for.

Begin with the brownie base:

• 1 cup melted butter
• 2 cups organic white sugar
• 1 tsp pure organic vanilla
• 2 eggs
• ½ cup organic cocoa
• 2 cups organic all purpose flour

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Cream butter and sugar. This works well with a mixer, but you can do it by hand.
3. After the creaming stage, do switch to a spoon for mixing. Brownies tend to get tough if worked too much.
4. Add the vanilla and eggs and mix just until smooth.
5. Pour in cocoa and flour. Again, mix until smooth and lumps are broken up. But, don't go to wild on the mixing.
6. Bake for 20 minutes in 11 X 7 pan lined with parchment paper. You are taking these out of the oven 10 minutes premature and they will not be fully baked.

Prepare the macaroons while the brownies are baking....

• 4 ounces (115 grams) semi sweet or bittersweet chocolate, chopped (chocolate chips work)
• 3 large (90 grams) egg whites
• 1/4 cup (25 grams) organic cocoa powder (regular or Dutch-processed)
• 3/4 cup (150 grams) organic white sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon pure organic vanilla
• 2 1/2 cups (220 grams) sweetened flaked coconut

1. Melt chocolate in a double boiler. Set aside.
2. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, whisk together the egg whites, cocoa powder, sugar, salt, and vanilla extract. Stir in the coconut and melted chocolate, making sure the coconut is well coated.
3. Carefully spread macaroon mixture over the brownies being careful not to lift the brownie and mix it with the macaroon. Place in the 350 oven for 15 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool COMPLETELY before cutting. It will be hard to resist, but if you try to cut them too soon the macaroons will be sloppy. Let it set!
4. That's it. These are absolutely decadent and delightful! Enjoy!

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