Make 'Em and Hide 'Em!: Peanut Butter Fingers

 

Before Christmas, I was lamenting the "death" of the snail mail Christmas card. Perhaps I should have taken a lesson from Mark Twain. You might recall his famous line: "Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated."

By the time Christmas arrived, we did get some cards. I appreciated every single one.

One card from a college friend offered an "assignment" of sorts. Along with a brief update of life, she included a recipe. Becky said this:

I'm pretty sure you have every recipe known, but I thought you might get a kick out of this one from my Mom's recipe box.

I've never been one to turn down a recipe - or a challenge. How could I resist the handwritten note by Becky's mom at the end of the recipe?

Cool; cut into bars and hide 'em!

That made me laugh. And surely it gave me a preview for the tastiness of the recipe. So I made Peanut Butter Fingers from Becky's mom and served them as one of the cookie selections for the Core meal I did this past week. 

I should have taken a photo earlier in the evening when I still had full containers, but it still shows the variety available.

 

I only had four of the bars left over at the end of the night.

 

In case you'd like to try them too, here's the recipe. 

Peanut Butter Fingers

From Becky Miller's mom 

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup peanut butter

1 egg

1/2 tsp. vanilla

1/2 tsp. salt

1 cup flour

1 cup quick oatmeal

**

1 cup chocolate chips

1/2 cup sifted powdered sugar

1/4 cup peanut butter

2-4 tbsp. evaporated milk 

 

Cream butter, 1/3 cup peanut butter and sugars. Add egg, vanilla and salt and blend until well incorporated. Add flour and oatmeal; mix. Spread in greased 13- by 9-inch pan. Bake at 350 for 20 to 25 minutes. (I baked it 20 minutes.)

 

Remove from oven and sprinkle with 1 cup chocolate chips. (I used mini chocolate chips.) Let stand for 5 minutes. 

 

In the meantime, combine sifted powdered sugar, 1/4 cup peanut butter and the evaporated milk. Mix well.

 

After the 5 minutes are up, spread the melted chocolate evenly over the cookie layer. Then drizzle peanut butter mixture over the chocolate. 

 

Cool; cut into bars and hide 'em!

 

Notes:

• I had chunky peanut butter in my cabinet. My attempts to use a decorator tube to actually drizzle the peanut butter mixture were not as attractive as I wanted for serving away from home. So after my drizzle, I lightly spread out the peanut butter drizzle on the bars. 
• While the topping was still wet, I also sprinkled with Peanut Butter Mini M&Ms - again, just making them pretty for serving. You can find the PB Mini M&Ms in the candy aisle at bigger grocery stores. 
• I only used 2 tablespoons of milk. This may depend on humidity, etc.  
• Becky's mom didn't indicate how many bars this recipe made. But, since she called them "fingers," I cut them into narrow bars.  

 

 

Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

I have made a lot of cookies in my life. Honestly, they're one of my favorite things to make. They have been, since I was a kid using my Mom's Sunbeam mixer to make chocolate chip treats. (We'd make oatmeal raisin - on occasion - for my Dad, but chocolate chip was the Moore girls' favorite.)

I've made hundreds of cookies for bridal showers and baby showers. I've made cookies and stuck them two-by-two like Noah's Ark in plastic bags and stashed them in the freezer until it was time to grab a few for meals in the field. I've made them for church dinners and PTO soup suppers and a jillion other reasons.

So cookies were the dessert of choice when we were talking about what to serve for Brent's and Susan's rehearsal dinner. With the venue some 5 hours away from home, we decided to have the meal itself catered. But a cookie table for dessert was a way I could still make it personal for them, their friends and family.

Last summer, I made a big assortment of cookies for a bridal shower at church. I used some of my favorites from that baking marathon. But I also tried to think of others in my vast repertoire.  

I used to make Peanut Butter Cup cookies using a cake mix for the cookie part. They were easy - and tasty - but I wanted a homemade dough for this special event. I found a recipe on a blog, Two Peas and Their Pod. 

And it didn't disappoint. Well, it didn't disappoint for anyone but Randy. I rarely make peanut butter "stuff" unless I'm taking it somewhere else, since it's not Randy's favorite.

If you don't have similar aversions, I highly recommend the recipe. If you try it, let me know what you think!

Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

From Two Peas and Their Pod blog

40 miniature chocolate covered peanut butter cups, unwrapped
1 3/4 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1 large egg (at room temperature)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon milk (at room temperature)

 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 24-cup mini muffin pan with nonstick cooking spray. This recipe makes about 40 cookies, so if you have two muffin pans, grease them both. This will speed up the process. (I didn't have 24-cup mini muffin pans, but I had multiple 12-cup pans. If you have them, prepare enough of them to make about 40 cookies.)

 

Place the unwrapped peanut butter cups in the freezer until you are ready to use them. 

 

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, salt and baking soda. Set aside. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the butter, sugars, and peanut butter together until fluffy and smooth, about 3 minutes. Beat in the egg, vanilla and milk until well mixed. Add the flour mixture; mix until just combined.

 

Roll the cookie dough into balls, 1 tablespoon of dough per cookie. (I used a cookie scoop.) The dough will be a little sticky; if it is too sticky, you can chill it in the fridge for 20 minutes. Place each ball into prepared muffin pans.

 

Bake for 8-10 minutes; don't overbake. Remove from oven. The centers will collapse a little. Remove the peanut butter cups from the oven and press a peanut butter cup into each cookie. Place the pan in the refrigerator for 15-20 minutes so the cookies can cool. This will keep the peanut butter cups from melting and it will make the easier to remove from the pan.

 

When the cookies are completely cool, remove them from the pan and place on a cooling rack.

The recipe author suggested using smooth peanut butter, so I did. (I usually prefer chunky). They said it makes it easier to remove the cookies from the pan. 

 

Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars: A Classic Combo

Love and marriage.
Fred and Ginger. (Brad and Angelina just doesn't have the same ring.)
Pumpkins and fall.
Chocolate and peanut butter.
Some things just go together.

Randy would probably disagree. Peanut butter isn't his favorite. He's never going to choose to eat a peanut butter sandwich or smear peanut butter on a banana. But he will tolerate it in a cookie or quick bread. That's why I usually save the recipes with peanut butter for those times when I'm making a recipe to take somewhere else.

Jill sent me this recipe from a potluck at her work quite awhile ago.  I stirred up the recipe and took a plateful (along with barbecue meatballs) to a family who had gathered to say goodbye to their wife, mom and grandma.

The recipe is definitely going in the save pile.  The creamy peanut butter/sweetened condensed layer provided a burst of extra flavor.

Surely the oatmeal gives it a few redeeming qualities. I can always hope, right? Even Randy thought they were pretty good ... for peanut butter.

If you want to dress them up for a party or make them prettier for a cookie tray assortment, you could substitute mini M & Ms for the chocolate chips. Enjoy!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars

2 cups quick-cooking oats
1 3/4 cups light brown sugar
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 cup butter
1/2 cup chopped peanuts
1 large egg, beaten
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
14-oz. can sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Combine oats, brown sugar, flour, baking powder and baking soda in large bowl. Cut in butter with pastry blender until mixture resembles fine crumbs. Stir in peanuts. Reserve 1 1/2 cups crumb mixture; set aside.

To the remaining crumbs, add beaten egg, mixing well. Press into bottom of a 13- by 9-inch baking pan. Bake 15 minutes.

Stir together sweetened condensed milk and peanut butter in small bowl until well combined. Pour evenly over partially-baked crust.

Stir together reserved crumb mixture and chocolate chips. Sprinkle evenly over peanut butter layer. Bake an additional 15 minutes. Cool. Cut into bars.

***

Today, I am linked to Wake Up Wednesday, a feature co-hosted by Wichita blogger and fellow K-Stater Ashley. Check out what's cooking by clicking on the link.