Peanut Butter Brownie Cookies

yes, they do look sort of like poo... but these are the most delicious poo-looking confections i've ever eaten, let alone made! i had been wanting to try them for a while after i first saw the recipe on the jif site. but wait, i hear you saying, isn't jif peanut butter? those look chocolatey delicious but i don't see any peanut butter...

or, for a clearer, professional picture:


haha, fooled you! the peanut butter is on the inside, my friends, in between the fudgey chocolate cookie and the fudgey chocolate frosting. i told you, delicious.

these are officially called "peanut butter brownie cookies," as they are made from a brownie mix. you can get the exact recipe and proportions from the linked recipe site. so then, let's get down to it:

for the cookie part, mix brownie mix, butter, cream cheese, and egg, then drop onto a cookie sheet. i HIGHLY recommend putting them on parchment, as they are very sticky little suckers.


or, on a cookie mat, like silpat. i recently bought a wilton silicone baking mat, pictured below (it's blue). but i'm not all that crazy about it. maybe i just haven't used it enough. in fact, i think i've only used it once.


next, mix the peanut butter (i prefer chunky, always) with powdered sugar and drop dollops onto the sticky brownie dough, like so:


bake 10 minutes at 350 degrees, and let cool thoroughly. this is what they'll look like post-baking:


they must be cool, because the next step is to cover them with canned fudge frosting (my frosting also had little chocolate chips in it)... i'm drooling just thinking about this.


the cookies were so tender and chewy... just like you'd imagine a brownie-cum-cookie would be.

now, i baked these and ate them over the course of a few days, so i didn't frost them all right away. i just put them in a container and frosted as needed. my roommate, however, did not know that you were supposed to frost them and ate them sans-frosting, and thought they were yummy as well.

but really, why would you ever skip frosting?

so these cookies were uber delicious. delectable. mouthwatering. tasty. you can read the thesaurus entries yourself.

however, because the dough was so sticky and a hassle to work with, and because you had to do three steps (cookie, peanut butter, frosting), i probably won't be making these again any time soon. but if you want to make them for me, i will gladly eat them.

Cookie Filled Cupcakes

they look like normal, unassuming cupcakes.
but they have a surprise inside them...

cookie dough!

these are so simple, and so decadent. just make your cupcakes as normal, but put a bit of frozen cookie dough in the batter before you bake them, like so:

you must freeze the cookie dough, at least 2 hours, or else the dough will bake and you'll have an odd crispy mess in the middle instead of a bit of cookie dough.

i'm not gonna lie, i used a chocolate cake mix for these and frozen break-n-bake cookie dough. i broke my own rule and used off-brand cake mix, and i paid the price for it. the cake part wasn't that great, sort of dry, but the cookie dough more than made up for it.

and i topped these with a ganache made with one part (1/2 cup) cream and two parts (1 cup) semisweet chocolate chips. at first, i was thinking i should have used milk chocolate, but the semisweet was perfect. the cupcakes were quite sweet, so the semisweet ganache added a good contrast in sweetness and texture.

i was inspired by recipes on allrecipes.com and cakemixdoctor.com. this is an easy recipe that is easily adaptable, and the possibilities are endless! i had some more break-n-bake dough so i made more cupcakes with yellow cake mix (name brand this time) and ganache topping... so good. just imagine the flavor combinations with this cake, cookie, and frosting/topping combination!

Lemon Cupcakes

mmm.... lemon cupcakes... cue the mouth-watering. i decided to make these as a thank you for somebody who let me swim in his pool while he was at work. i wanted something summery, a bit light, and not too decadent. these fit the bill! and boy, was it easy. how easy was it? well, i'll tell ya.

to make these cupcakes, you'll need:

• 1 box yellow (or white, i guess) cake mix, plus whatever it calls for on the box
• 1 box instant lemon pudding
• lemon buttercream frosting (more on that later)
  

that's it! just add the lemon pudding mix to the cake mix and then prepare the cake as directed. i guess you could just use a lemon cake mix, but i think this method makes a better cupcake. they're a bit dense and extremely moist. and, i think the lemon flavor would be too overwhelming with a lemon cake mix when you combine it with the lemon buttercream frosting (i promise, it's coming).

the batter will be quite thick, but don't worry. it's fine. here's the batter in the cups. see how it isn't settling down:

and when they come out, they fall a little bit, so this recipe probably isn't good for a full sized cake.


but it's great for cupcakes- more frosting! i sort of 'spackled' the dips with frosting to make a flat (ok, slightly rounded) surface to pipe on.

here they are all piped up.



so, what did i frost these puppies with? quite possibly the crown jewel of this whole project: lemon buttercream frosting.

i took this simple buttercream frosting (that i've used before) and added lemon juice. at first, i just added it after the sugar, substituting 2 tbsp lemon juice for the 2 tbsp milk, but the frosting was a little dry. so i added the 2 tbsp milk as well, and it was perfect!
but a word of caution: lemon will curdle milk if they're added together, so make sure you mix in the milk or lemon juice completely before you add the other one, otherwise you might get some nasty results.

you could just use canned buttercream or white frosting, but really, this lemon buttercream frosting really makes these cupcakes shine. my mom said these are her favorite cupcakes of mine so far, largely due to the frosting. so, make the darn frosting!

so, here's some of the cupcake carnage.


it's so good!

Gourmet (Looking) Blueberry Muffins

my parents go to a small church with only the main worship service (no sunday school or anything), and it gets out pretty early, at around 10am. so we usually go to breakfast afterwards. well, one sunday, we went to mimi's cafe, and i ordered a meal that had a blueberry muffin with it. i was so full from everything else that i couldn't eat the muffin, but it looked so good that i wanted to save it for later... but my parents wanted it right then! when i protested, my mom said, "why don't we just make some blueberry muffins today?" i acquiesced, and she ate part of my muffin.

so, after we left the restaurant, we went to the grocery store and bought a blueberry muffin mix. i wanted to get some additional fresh blueberries to put in there, but instead we just got a mix that boasted having a can of real blueberries (betty crocker, i think), which was enough for me.

when we got home, i made the muffins. i followed the directions on the box and everything. but, you know me, i can't leave well enough alone when it comes to cake mixes. so i made a crumble topping and put a generous amount of that on the muffins, and also topped them with sparkle sugar!


the muffins baked up so nice and golden brown, and a little crunchy with the sugar and the crumble. oh man, were they good!


they looked so gourmet and special, and they tasted delicious! i was so impressed with those muffins, even more than i usually am.

so, here's the "recipe:"

• make the muffin mix: this is pretty self-explanatory--get a mix and follow the directions. fill the muffin tin cups only about halfway, to leave room for the crumble, which is really the best part anyway.
• make the crumble topping: crumble topping is an inexact process, but here's a good starting point: 1/2 cup flour, 1/2 packed brown sugar, 1/2 stick cold butter (you want a crumble, not a dough), and a splash of cinnamon (optional) and a pinch of salt (also optional). pulse in a food processor. or if you don't have one, like me, use a fork or a pastry cutter to sort of mash the butter and the sugar together. if you think it needs more sugar or butter, add it. you can also add some oatmeal instead of some of the flour, or in addition. like i said, crumble topping is quite imprecise. just do it until it tastes good.
• spoon the crumble into the muffin cups. be liberal! like i said, the crumble topping is really the best part anyway.
• sprinkle each muffin with a pinch or two of sparkle sugar.
• bake as directed on the muffin mix, maybe a little longer to crisp up the crumble topping.
• voy-ola! gourmet muffins that nobody will ever know came from a mix!