Chocolate Peanut Butter Brownies

My husband recently went off to the middle of nowhere to stay in a cabin with a bunch of dudes for a
bachelor party. I figured they might get hungry at some point and decided to make a few treats for them. I asked hubs to ask the bachelor what kind of cookies he wanted, but it turned out he preferred brownies, which is awesome, cause they require a lot less effort than cookies. He mentioned he really like chocolate and peanut butter (and honestly, who doesn't) so I thought I'd finally make my Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies (you know, the ones I was supposed to make when I actually made the Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies) but decided not to cause I figured a bunch of dudes in a
cabin in the middle of nowhere would probably need more than just one batch of something and I wanted to accommodate the bachelor's request.

So the bunch of dudes in a cabin in the middle of nowhere got Bacon Chocolate Chip Brownies, Chocolate Chip Cookies and these, Chocolate Peanut Butter Brownies.

I have a confession to make. Oftentimes when I bake, I don't actually ever taste what I make. I'll give you a second to let that sink in.

Yes, I rarely taste my own baking. But, per usual, hubs asked if he could have some and insisted I split a brownie with him. I did, and the first words out of my mouth were "holy shit!"

Chocolate Peanut Butter 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
10 ounces peanut butter chips

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.

Stir the peanut butter chips into the mix. Spread in a greased and floured 9x13 inch pan (glass works best).

Reduce oven temperature to 325 degrees. Bake for 40 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Cool completely before cutting.

 

Canteloupe Strawberry Blueberry Smoothie

I was visiting my parents for a few days (at sea level) and my mom made mention to my brother about that "crazy thing" he does. Turns out, that "crazy thing" is making smoothies. Apparently blending fruit together is pretty wild to my mom. My mom had stocked up on fruit (per my request) so I decided to whip up my own crazy thing. They didn't have any white grape juice, which has been my staple, and I won't use orange or apple juice so I was left with the cranberry pomegranate, which, much to my surprise, turned out awesome. I was afraid the cranberry would be overwhelming, but it blended quite nicely with the other fruit. This may be my favorite concoction to date.

I also made a poor joke when my mom mentioned cantaloupe by saying "I already did."

Cantaloupe Strawberry Blueberry Smoothie

1 cup cantaloupe, sliced, no rind
1 cup strawberries, quartered
1/2 cup blueberries
 1 1/4 cups cranberry pomegranate juice

Clean fruit. Cut cantaloupe and strawberries. Place into blender with juice. Blend until smooth.

Blueberry Watermelon Strawberry Smoothie

I learned this morning that it is National Blueberry Muffin Day. I actually don't have a blueberry muffin recipe nor do I have the time to make any today, so instead, I will give you this picture of a blueberry muffin

and then will proceed with posting another smoothie recipe (that contains blueberries!) even though I just posted one a few days ago.

I originally intended to make another Watermelon Strawberry Smoothie, but I didn't have much watermelon left. But I did have plenty of leftover strawberries and blueberries from the American Flag Cake from July 4th. I substituted blueberries to cover the amount of watermelon I was missing.

I really enjoyed the end result, especially with the addition of some leftover whipped topping, also because of the American Flag Cake.

This is what a "quartered" strawberry looks like.

Blueberry Watermelon Strawberry Smoothie

1/4 cup watermelon, sliced, no rind
1 1/2 cups blueberries
3/4 cup strawberries, quartered
1 1/4 cups white grape juice
whipped topping, if desired

Clean and cut watermelon and strawberries. Rinse blueberries. Place into blender with white grape juice. Blend until smooth. Pour into a glass and top with whipped topping and blueberries (but only if you want to - I don't want to seem bossy or anything).

Watermelon and Strawberry Smoothie

When the weather gets hot there is nothing better than a cold smoothie. The problem for me though, is that I am super picky when it comes to fruit juices (and to an extent, fruit). I do not like orange or apple juice, which are the two most common types of juice (from my extensive research). I also cannot stand bananas, which seems to make regular appearances in smoothies (again, from my own extensive research). I was delighted when I found this recipe which doesn't contain any of the aforementioned atrocities. I decided to give it a go and was delighted with the results.

Watermelon and Strawberry Smoothie

1 3/4 cups watermelon, sliced, no rind
3/4 cup strawberries, quartered
1 1/4 cups white grape juice

Clean and cut watermelon and strawberries. Place into blender with white grape juice. Blend until smooth.

1 3/4 cups watermelon, sliced and rind removed

3/4 cup strawberries, cleaned and quartered

1 1/4 cups white grape juice

- See more at: http://www.foodfanatic.com/recipes/watermelon-strawberry-smoothie-recipe/#sthash.n6Ck1gIK.dpuf

1 3/4 cups watermelon, sliced and rind removed

3/4 cup strawberries, cleaned and quartered

1 1/4 cups white grape juice

- See more at: http://www.foodfanatic.com/recipes/watermelon-strawberry-smoothie-recipe/#sthash.n6Ck1gIK.dpuf

1 3/4 cups watermelon, sliced and rind removed

3/4 cup strawberries, cleaned and quartered

1 1/4 cups white grape juice

- See more at: http://www.foodfanatic.com/recipes/watermelon-strawberry-smoothie-recipe/#sthash.n6Ck1gIK.dpuf

Honey Spice Cookies

I'd actually set out to make chocolate chip cookies (I swear I was actually planning on making something normal) but as I started getting the ingredients together I realized I was out of brown sugar. I thought about trekking down to the grocery store to get some more, but then I got lazy and instead started to look for something else to make with what I had.

I came upon the Honey Spice Cookies in my High Altitude Baking cookbook and was happy to see that I had everything needed for them. I resumed mixing in the ingredients when I realized that although I did have clove, I had whole clove and not ground clove. I decided to improvise and ground it on my own. I don't have a mortar and pestle (cause really, when does someone ever actually need that?), so I had to use the method I used to crush pills before I learned to swallow them like a normal person (which wasn't until I was in high school). Yup, the tried and true "two spoons" method.

It took a bit of time and effort but I think I got it fairly well crushed.

The dough will be really sticky so you may want to cover your hands with flour before handling it. Also, the cookies spread quite a but, so make sure to place them pretty well apart on the cookie sheet or else they will run into each other (which happens to be a huge pet peeve of mine).

Honey Spice Cookies

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon ground allspice

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

1/2 cup sugar

2/3 cup butter

2 eggs

1/3 cup honey

Preheat oven to 350.

In a medium bowl, combine flour, salt and baking powder. In a large bowl, cream sugar and butter. Add eggs and honey and beat until smooth. Add flour mixture slowly and thoroughly, a little at a time. Drop cookies, about an inch around, onto an ungreased cookie sheet about 1 1/2 or 2 inches apart. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Remove cookies from the cookie sheet immediately (they will stick to the cookie sheet if you wait) and place on a cooling rack or wax paper.

Chocolate Chip Potato Chip Cookies

There was a gathering at my husband's workplace last night and I wanted to bring something to the event. I asked my husband for some inspiration and without skipping a beat he tells me a story about how one day he and his former roommate ate raw cookie dough and potato chips and how amazing the combination was. At first I thought he was suggesting I serve raw cookie dough and I was like, "Yeah...no, I'm not comfortable with that" but then I realized he just thought I should put potato chips into chocolate chip cookies. And this I could totally get behind because I love salty and sweet combinations.

I did a quick search on the Googles and realized that this was actually a thing and there were quite a few recipes out there (none for high altitude, of course). Many of the recipes called for potato chips and pretzels, but I decided to just add potato chips.

Rather than mess with a good thing, I used the standard drop cookie recipe from my High Altitude Baking book that I've used for my Caramel Bacon White Chocolate Chip Cookies and my Maple Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookies.

Per my usual, there was no way that my baking experience was going to be flawless. This time, when I grabbed the brown sugar, I realized it had gotten hard.

Luckily, this was an easy fix. I put the brown sugar in a bowl and popped it into the microwave for 10 seconds and it softened enough for me to measure it. Once it was creamed with the sugar and shortening it was like there was never even an issue in the first place.

There was one more moment of panic when my guinea pig/husband did the taste test. He stood there for a few moments with the strangest and (and from what I perceived) non-positive expression on his face. I thought, "Oh no! They are terrible!" but it turns out they weren't and then he proceeded to eat 10 more.

Chocolate Chip Potato Chip Cookies

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar

2/3 cup shortening

2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 cups crushed potato chips

Preheat oven to 375.

In a medium bowl, combine flour, salt and baking powder. In a large bowl, cream sugars and shortening. Add eggs and vanilla and beat until smooth. Add flour mixture slowly and thoroughly, a little at a time. Stir in chocolate chips and potato chips. 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.

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies

Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip Cookies used to be my go-to back in day, so I figured I should go back to my roots and whip up a batch. I found an awesome recipe online that had conversions for high altitude (side note: did you see how many changes had to be made?!?!) and decided to try it. I was pumped, until this happened:

Yup, the peanut butter chips melted. I'd left them on a side counter and in the afternoon that part of the kitchen gets quite a bit of sun. I panicked for a minute, because I was making these at the last minute and didn't have time to head back to the store. But then I remembered I had some leftover semi-sweet chocolate chips and realized all was not lost (yay!).

Another side note, when I bake, I tend to make a mess. Like, a huge mess. I don't know how others are able to keep their kitchens clean when baking. I spilled a lot of flour onto the stove this time, and when I turned my back for a second, my husband, who is apparently 12 years old, had done this:

Isn't he sweet?

 Everything else went off without a hitch and the cookies ended up tasting awesome. I mean, seriously, who doesn't love chocolate?!?!

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies

 2 cups + 2 tablespoons flour
3/4 cup cocoa
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons water
1 1/4 cups butter, softened
1 2/3 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350. In a medium sized bowl, mix together flour, cocoa, baking soda, salt and water.

Beat butter and sugar in a large bowl with a mixer until fluffy. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Slowly add flour mixture, a little at a time until it's all well mixed. Stir in chocolate chips.

Drop cookies, about an inch around, onto an ungreased cookie sheet about an inch apart. Bake 7-8 minutes. Cookies will be soft and puffy when you take them out of the oven.

They will flatten while cooling.

Once flattened, remove from cookie sheet and place on cooling rack or wax paper to cool.

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.