Peanut Butter Apple Spice Cookies

My latest concoction was actually inspired by none other than this:

Yes, a Vanilla Coke.

I was in my local pharmacy the other day and noticed they had vanilla Coke in the fridge section. It got me thinking about fluffernutter sandwiches. Go ahead and look it up; I'll wait.

With memories of the deliciousness swirling in my head, I decided to go ahead and purchase one, you know, for nostalgic reasons.

I didn't have bread or marshmallow fluff at home and I was too lazy to go to the grocery store so I decided the Vanilla Coke would probably go equally well with apples and peanut butter, which I did have.

While chomping on my snack, the wheels in my head started turning and I started scheming as to how I could combine the apples and peanut butter into some sort of delicious treat. I'd made Peanut Butter Cookies and Apple Spice Cookies, now I just needed to figure out how to combine the two.

And I did.

And the results were awesome.

And may or may not have caused a family rift because nobody wanted to share.

Apple Peanut Butter Cookies

1 1/4 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon 
8 tablespoons butter
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar, packed
1 egg, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup chunky peanut butter
1 cup peeled and chopped apple

Preheat oven to 375.

In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking soda and salt. In a mixer, blend together butter and sugars until smooth. Mix in egg, vanilla and peanut butter. Slowly mix in the flour mixture a little at a time until everything is completely blended. Stir in apples. Drop cookies, about an inch around, onto an ungreased cookie sheet about an inch apart. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Remove cookies from the cookie sheet immediately and place on a cooling rack or wax paper.

S'more Brownies

The weather is getting warmer, which means lots of cook-outs and outdoor get-togethers, and more importantly, delicious, delicious s'mores. I love s'mores, but I think we can all agree they can get more than a little messy. I decided I wanted to bring something to a girls' night (Magic Mike Night ;)) and thought maybe S'more Brownies would be something cool to try.

I did some research online and found quite a few recipes for them, but they all had graham cracker crusts and frankly,

Instead, I decided to mix the graham crackers into the brownie mix. And, in case you were wondering, graham cracker crushing is a seriously awesome way to relieve some stress.

While making these, I was in the middle of doing half a billion other things at the same time, so when I took these out of the oven I just assumed they were cooked and didn't test them as I should have. Turns out that was NOT a good idea. I didn't get back to them until they had cooled and it was time to cook them...and what a mess. BUT the good news is that all was not lost and the edges were thoroughly cooked and tasted ah-mazing (seriously, they were goddamn amazing).

I made them again and played around with the temperature (I didn't drop it down to 325 degrees like for the Bacon Chocolate Chip Brownies and the Cadbury Creme Egg Brownies).

S'more Brownies

4 1-ounce squares unsweetened chocolate
3/4 cups vegetable shortening  
2 1/4 cups sugar  
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/4 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt   
2 tablespoons 2% milk
6 graham crackers
Small marshmallows 
 
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Melt chocolate with shortening in a large bowl in the microwave on high for 2 minutes. Stir until chocolate is completely melted. 
Add sugar into the mix and stir until completely mixed. Add in eggs and vanilla until those are completely mixed. Mix in flour, baking powder, salt and milk until all is thoroughly blended.

Break up the graham crackers and add to the mix. Spread in a greased and floured 9x13 inch pan (glass works best). Top with small marshmallows to preference (I like the brownies to be completely covered).

Bake for 40 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. If not cooked completely, return to oven in 5-10 minute increments until completely cooked.

Cool completely before cutting.