Peanut Butter Pretzel Magic Cookie Bars

We are dessert people, if you did not know that already. Like one of the contestants on the most recent Great British Bake-Off said, I don't just have a sweet tooth. I have sweet TEETH. 

I had a can of sweetened condensed milk and a couple sleeves of graham crackers in the pantry and thought "let's make magic cookie bars!" But I did not have any coconut. I scoured Pinterest for a variation that included items I actually had on hand and then checked my Beale Officers' Spouses' Club cookbook. It's one I hardly ever use and so sometimes I open it up and look through to justify keeping it. I found a recipe for PMS Bars which had pretzels and peanut butter chips instead of coconut. I used that recipe as inspiration and went off-book a bit for this my creation. 

Introducing my Peanut Butter Pretzel Magic Cookie Bars! They are sweet, crunchy and delicious. If you love the sweet-salty combo, then these will be right up your alley. I have NO idea how many pretzels or how much peanut butter I used, so if you make these use your best judgement. In my opinion, you cannot really have too much of either ingredient. 

Chocolate Peanut Butter Baklava

We had a very non-traditional Thanksgiving this year. We ate zero turkey, no normal Thanksgiving sides and no pie. I actually did not mind it. I had some traditional Thanksgiving meals twice prior to Thanksgiving, so that was checked off for me and Charles did not seem to really care. Instead, we made reservations at a local "American" restaurant where I had a steak and Charles had salmon. It was very delicious and relaxing. No stress about cooking and no dishes to clean up afterward. Of course, it is a lot easier to eat out when not in the United States where everyone celebrates Thanksgiving. For Germans, it was just a normal Thursday. 

In lieu of pie, Charles requested one of his favorite desserts--chocolate peanut butter baklava. I found the recipe a few years ago on Pinterest. I do not make it very often. It's an easy recipe, but because of the phyllo dough it is a bit of a process to put together. But if you love baklava and the chocolate-peanut butter combination, then you will very much enjoy this one! 

As the recipe states, it is extremely helpful to have everything ready at your workstation before starting the phyllo dough process. I have made this recipe by myself, but it is 100% better if you have a buddy that helps out. The way we do it is I butter and layer the phyllo and Charles adds the peanut butter and chocolate chips. Plus it is just more fun to do it together. 

One piece of advice, do not make this while hungry. Because we had an old person dinner scheduled (our reservation was for 4:30pm) and I made this prior to that, I was pretty hungry while preparing this. I have a tendency to get a little grumpy when I am hungry and I snapped at Charles over who knows what when we were starting to make this. For the health of your relationship, avoid baking while hangry. 

Sorry no pictures. But trust me, it is yummy!

 

Peanut Butter Fudge Pie

We love anything chocolate with peanut butter! It is really the ultimate combination of sweet and salty. I had a recipe pinned for a Peanut Butter Fudge Pie with Peanut Butter Salted Caramel that sounded amazing. I adapted slightly out of laziness. I did not have any caramel topping and did not feel like making my own. 

The pie turned out really delicious even despite one little mishap with my ingredients. When buying roasted peanuts, I just grabbed a container that said "Golden Roast" on the label. AFTER making the pie, my husband told me that he noticed the back of the label included ingredients like paprika, garlic, onion powder... Ugh! We ate the pie for dessert and I honestly could not tell, but I would definitely double check next time I purchase peanuts for any purpose. 

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Muffins

A couple months ago we got some free peanut butter from the USDA food giveaway on our base. I was inspired to make a breakfast item using the free peanut butter. Since I very much enjoy the peanut butter and chocolate combination, I thought muffins would be a good vehicle for those two flavors. I found a recipe on Pinterest and really, really enjoyed the finished product. The recipe is from Chocolate, Chocolate and More. I found that I thought they tasted better after each day. They are best served warm so the chocolate chips are a little melted inside.

 Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Muffins

Ingredients
2 cups flour
1 1/2 t salt
1 T baking powder
1 cup milk
2 large eggs
2/3 cup sugar
1 cup peanut butter
1/3 cup vegetable oil (although I think we used coconut oil)
1 cup chocolate chips

Directions
Heat oven to 375 degrees. Prepare muffin pan (spray cups or insert cupcake liners)

Stir together flour, salt, baking powder and chocolate chips in large bowl.

Combine milk, eggs, sugar, peanut butter and oil in a separate bowl; combine ingredients until just moistened. Do not over beat.

Fill muffin tins. Top with a few chocolate chips (optional). Bake for 14 minutes.

Bread Machine: Peanut Butter Bread

I recently tried another new bread recipe from the good ol' Betty Crocker Bread Machine Cookbook. This time I made Peanut Butter Bread.

My loaf turned out kind of misshapen, but still tasted good. I  used it to make Chocolate French Toast. It was a good combination. But the bread is just as tasty toasted with a bit of Nutella on top. Mmmm!

This recipe is for either a 1 lb loaf or 1.5 lb loaf. I didn't realize that when I put the ingredients in and only put ingredients in for a 1 lb loaf at first. My bread machine does not have a 1 lb option. So I had to put more of each ingredient in to make a 1.5 lb loaf. This is probably why (or part of the reason why) my loaf turned out looking funny.

Ingredients
1 lb loaf
2/3 cup water
1/4 cup peanut butter
2 cups bread flour
1 T packed brown sugar
3/4 t salt
1 1/4 t yeast

1.5 lb loaf
1 cup plus 1 T water
1/2 cup peanut butter
3 cups bread flour
3 T packed brown sugar
1 t salt
2 t yeast

Measure carefully, placing all ingredients in bread machine pan in the order recommended by the manufacturer.

Select Sweet or Basic/White cycle. Use Light or Medium crust color.

Bake Off!

This afternoon I participated in a Bake-Off. It was hosted by the base community center. It ended up just being me against one other lady, but it was a lot of fun. It took me a few days to decide what to make. I decided on my Banana Chocolate Chip Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting.

I ended up winning Best Tasting! My competitor's cupcakes were salted caramel mocha and tasted very good, too. I am glad I was not a judge having to choose between the two.

PB Filled Cookies

I love anything chocolate and peanut butter. I saw a recipe on another blog (and I can't remember for the life of me what blog it was) for peanut butter filled cookies. They looked so delicious that I had to try them for myself. I also wanted to pass along the recipe.

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup peanut butter (we used crunchy, but creamy would work out great, too)
1 egg
1 Tablespoon milk (I ended up needing another splash of milk to make the dough stick together better)
2 teaspoons vanilla, divided
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup peanut butter (again, we used crunchy, but in this case creamy peanut butter probably would have worked out a little better)
sugar for coating (I didn't do this step)

With a mixer, combine flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, 1/2 cup sugar, brown sugar, 1/4 cup peanut butter, egg, milk and vanilla.

In a small bowl, using a fork, combine powdered sugar, 1/2 cup peanut butter and 1 teaspoon vanilla. I again needed a splash of milk to hold this mixture together better. I think it's because I used crunchy peanut butter.

Flatten a tablespoon of the chocolate dough in your hand*. Roll a teaspoon of the peanut butter mixture into a ball and place in the center of the dough. Wrap the dough around the filling and place onto a parchment lined cookie sheet (I skipped the parchment and it wasn't a problem). Flatten the cookies with the bottom of a glass and gently press one side of each cookie into a small bowl of sugar (I skipped this step). Bake, sugar side up, at 350 degrees F for 8 minutes.

* I ended up having to put the dough in the freezer for a few minutes half way through because it was getting too warm and my hands were too warm so it just wasn't working out great. It might be good to put the dough in the fridge or freezer for 10-15 minutes before you start.

* This post was shared on the following Link Parties:

This Chick Cooks
Lolly Jane 
C.R.A.F.T.
Someday Crafts 
Night Owl Crafting
Reasons to Skip the Housework