Nutella Peanut Butter Cookie Cups

Hello everyone! It's officially Spring! To kick off the season in delicious style, I whipped up a batch of cookie cups. Simple really, just use your favorite cookie recipe, hollow out the middle and fill it up with nutella, white chocolate, peanut butter, or any combination of the three. I made peanut butter cookie cups and chocolate chip cookie cups. I tried a couple different flavor combos, my favorite was the chocolate chip cookie filled with Nutella and white chocolate. Amazing. Next time I want to do white chocolate macadamia cookies filled with nutella. The cookie/filling possibilities are endless.

Nutella PB Cookie Cups

Adapted from Pillsbury

1 batch of your favorite cookie dough

1/4 cup white chocolate chips

1/4 cup nutella

1/4 cup creamy peanut butter

Preheat oven to 350 degrees (F), line a muffin tray with muffin liners or coat well with butter. For the cookie cups you can use whatever cookie recipe you like, you may have to adjust the cooking time though.

Peanut Butter Cookie Dough

Chocolate Chip Dough

Once you've got your dough ready, scoop into the muffin tins (I used an ice cream scoop).

Bake 18 to 22 minutes or until edges are golden brown.

Cool in muffin cups on cooling rack 30 minutes. Centers of cookies will sink slightly.

If the cookies don't sink enough to form a "cup" scoop out the middles using a spoon or a melon baller.

Peanut Butter Filling

In small microwavable bowl, microwave white chips on Medium 1 minute to 1 minute 30 seconds, stirring every 30 seconds, until smooth. Stir peanut butter into melted chips until blended. Spoon about 2 teaspoons peanut butter mixture into each cookie cup.

Nutella Filling

If you prefer nutella filling you can either mix it with the white chocolate or just spoon it as is into the middle of the cookies.

If you're feeling especially adventurous, combine white chocolate chips, peanut butter and nutella. It's delicious, I promise!

Have a sweet day!

Butter Toffee Marshmallow PB Cookies and some thoughts on multitasking

Does anyone else feel like they have a million and one things to do?? I have been noticing lately that I am constantly trying to accomplish multiple things at once (multitasking). I used to be proud of the fact that I am such a great multitasker, now, however, I am beginning to wonder if it is really something I should be proud of or maybe something I should try and do less. Maybe, by splitting my attention and energy into so many things, I am not really doing anything as well as I could if I gave it my full and undivided attention. So, this week I have been forcing myself to focus on accomplishing one thing at a time, and doing that thing the best that I can. Obviously this is not possible all the time, but even the bit of time I have been able to devote wholly to ONE thing has made a HUGE difference. I find myself crossing more off my to do list and feeling more competent, productive, and happy with what I accomplish. Has anyone else tried this before? I would love to know what you guys do when you feel overwhelmed!

That being said, I have made time for baking this week (of course) and this is the latest recipe I tried out. I got the idea from Cakespy who got it from the Betty Crocker Cookie Book (one of my personal favorites!) I changed it up and added marshmallows and butter toffee peanuts. The cookies are crumbly and peanut buttery and the marshmallows melt while baking creating an ooey gooey filling. The best part, though, was the addition of butter toffee peanuts, they added a delightful sugary crunch to these already over the top cookies!

Butter Toffee Marshmallow PB Cookies

Ingredients

1 cup butter

1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla

3 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup butter toffee peanuts

1 cup peanut butter

ABOUT 3/4 cup mini marshmallows

Grease or line two baking sheets with parchment; put to the side.

Heat oven to 350 degrees F.

Grate cold butter into sugar. This makes it easier to incorporate, just use a cheese grater! Works well for pie crusts too by the way. Cream together butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla.

Sift flour and blend with soda and salt; stir in with wet ingredients.

Mix in peanuts and peanut butter.

Using a cookie or ice cream scoop, scoop the dough and release onto your prepared baking sheet, leaving at least 2 inches between cookies.

Push a few marshmallows into the top of each cookie, shaping the dough around them so the dough almost covers the marshmallows.

Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until golden brown on the edges (if you make your cookies smaller, it may be more like 8-10 minutes).

I look forward to hearing all your great ideas on what you do when overwhelmed!

Have a lovely weekend!

Sister Sister Sunday

Inside-out Peanut Butter Cups

Reeses peanut butter cups are some of my favorite candys. Peanut butter is one of the greatest pleasures in life, in my humble opionion. So when I saw this post from cakespy on Serious Eats, I knew I had to try it! Inside out peanut butter cups?! I'm in!

The outer cookie cooked up nice and peanutbuttery, and the inner feeling was kind of reminiscent of peanut butter fudge or pudding. All together the combo was great. I think I would need to come up with a way to get a creamier outer peanut butter shell to truly be able to see these are inside out peanut butter cups. But these turned out more of like a cookie with a creamy chocolate filling. Which is pretty darn good too! Enjoy!

Inside Out Peanut Butter Cups

Thanks to Cakespy!

For the cups:

4 tablespoons butter (softened)

6 tablespoons brown sugar

2 1/2 tablespoons creamy peanut butter

1/4 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup flour

Filling

2 tablespoons milk (I used heavy whipping cream)

1 tablespoon butter (softened)

1 tablespoon peanut butter

2 1/2 teaspoons baking cocoa

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Line 24 mini muffin tins with liners. Set aside.

Cream together butter, sugar, peanut butter and vanilla until light and fluffy.

Gradually add the flour in (I did a fourth cup at a time), mixing to incorporate. Mixture is very crumbly. Take about 2/3 of the mixture and press into 12 of the muffin cups, being sure to cover the bottom and sides. This took me longer than I thought it would but I persevered ☺

Take the remaining mixture and press it into the bottom of the rest of the muffin liners (you will later crumble this for topping). Bake for about 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove from oven. Mine were too puffy at first and didn't look "cup-like" enough so I let them cool for a minute or two and then pressed in the middle, molding them into more of a cup shape. Let cool.

While shells are cooling, mix up the filling ingredients in a microwave safe bowl. Microwave for 30 seconds or until melted together.

Stir to incorporate all ingredients.

Spoon this mixture into your peanut butter cups.

Take remaining peanut butter dough (remember, the stuff you cooked to be the topping) and crumble it over the top of each cup, completely covering the filling. I recommend setting the cups in a muffin tin to catch runaway cookie crumbles.

You could also, as Cakespy suggests keep the little cookies whole and use them to top it off, but crumbling worked better for me!

Please excuse the poor lighting and focus on the yumminess...

Happy New Year!

Snickers

Caramel. Peanuts. Nougat. Peanut Butter. Chocolate. It's the HOLIDAY season, guys! What's a holiday without a bit (or a bunch) of indulgence! We can all make a heartfelt New Years resolution in January to cut down on sugar, carbs, eat more veggies, blahblahblah. For now, I would suggest you indulge in a batch of homemade snickers. Ok, these will seriously test your self control, which is why I ended up giving most of them away... cause I apparently don't have such good self-control. Therefore, when I know something as DELISH as these bars is lurking in my freezer, I find every excuse possible to take a trip to the kitchen to partake in the candy goodness. I had them in the house for a total of two days and and probably ate a third of the batch myself. So I decided, in the interest of my health and impending sugar coma, I had better wrap these beauties up and bestow the goodness on some well deserving friends (I became quite popular by the way). I recommend making them in stages. They really aren't difficult, they just require freezing between each layer. You can dip each bar individually in chocolate, but in the interest of time and laziness, I skipped this step. The end result? Chewy, peanutty, carmelly, chocolaty.... fabulous.

My kitchen helper.... Too bad dogs can't eat chocolate...

Ok, now the recipe!

Homemade Snickers

From Instructables contributer Canida

Ingredients:

2 cups chocolate chips or coarsely chopped bar (I used a mix of milk chocolate Hershey's bar and chocolate chips), divided in half

1/2 cup butterscotch chips, divided in half

3/4 cup creamy peanut butter, divided into 3 parts (1/4 cup)

5.5 tablespoons butter (divided: 4 Tbsp and 1.5 Tbsp)

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup evaporated milk, divided in half

1.5 cups marshmallow fluff

1 teaspoon vanilla

1.5 cups salted peanuts, chopped (or substitute nuts of your choice)

1 pound chewy caramels

Optional: (if coating the sides of your bars)

1 cup chocolate chips or chopped bar

1/4 cup butterscotch chips

1/4 creamy peanut butter

Prep

Line your pan with waxed paper or plastic wrap making sure there's plenty of extra draped over the sides and ends of the pan.. I used plastic wrap but next time I'm using waxed paper as some of the caramel stuck to the plastic wrap.

Bottom chocolate layer

Combine 1 cup chocolate, 1/4 cup butterscotch, and 1/4 cup peanut butter in a microwave-safe bowl. Heat in 20-second increments, stirring each time, until all ingredients melt together smoothly. Pour into your pan, and spread in an even layer. Stick the pan in the fridge or freezer to set, at least one hour, I recommend overnight.

Nougat Layer

Combine 4 Tbsp butter, 1 cup sugar, and 1/4 cup evaporated milk in small heavy-bottomed pot. Heat on low until the mixture melts, mixes, and starts to bubble. Stir as necessary. Remove from heat, and add 1 teaspoon vanilla, 1/4 cup peanut butter, and 1.5 cups marshmallow fluff. Stir until all ingredients are melted and smoothly combined, then let it cool slightly. Pour into your pan on top of the chocolate, and spread in an even layer. Stick the pan back into the freezer to set.

Caramel and Peanut Layer

Combine 1/4 cup evaporated milk, 1.5 Tablespoons butter, and pound of caramels in the (cleaned) small pot, or melt in increments in the microwave. Stir frequently until the caramels melt into the milk and butter. Allow to cool until it's not going to burn you. Coarsely chop the 1.5 cup peanuts, and stir into the caramel. Pour caramel/peanut mixture into your pan, and spread in an even layer. Stick the pan back in the freezer to set.

Top chocolate layer

- Melt 1 cup chocolate, 1/4 cup butterscotch chips, and 1/4 cup peanut butter, just like you did for the bottom layer. Pour into your pan, and spread in an even layer on top of the caramel.

Stick the pan back in the freezer to set.

Chop

When completely set, remove pan from the freezer, and lift up the waxed paper or plastic to remove the frozen snickers. Allow to sit at room temperature for about 15 minutes. Use a sharp, heavy kitchen knife to cut the rough edges off your block, making the edges nice and square and tidy (You can eat the not so pretty ones). Cut into bars. This can be a bit tricky if the bars have not softened enough or have softened too much. Return the block to the freezer as needed to solidify, as it cuts much more tidily when firm.

Dip edges (optional)

Melt 1/2 cup chocolate, 1/4 cup butterscotch chips, and 1/4 cup peanut butter, as you did for the top and bottom layers. Take each individual bar and dip each edge in the melted chocolate mixture. Set on waxed paper and stick in freezer or fridge to dry and set.

Happy Holidays!!

Linking to This Week's Cravings.