Peanut Butter Oatmeal Monster Cookies

There are a ton of monster cookie recipes out there, but I was looking for one that didn't use flour so I could make them gluten free. You just need to make sure that you use oats that specifically say they are gluten free, like Bob's Red Mill, otherwise they may contain traces of gluten.

You can add anything you want to these cookies, like chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, coconut, nuts, potato chips, etc. I just stuck with M&M's. Kind of boring, but delicious.

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Monster Cookies

recipe from the Kitchn

1/2 cup butter (1 stick), softened

1 1/2 cups creamy peanut butter

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

3 eggs

1 tablespoon vanilla

2 tsp baking soda

4 1/2 cups old fashioned oats (gluten free if that's important to you)

1 cup M&M's

Additional add-ins (optional)

Preheat oven to 350ºF and line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the butter, peanut butter, and sugars. Beat in the eggs and vanilla, and beat until just combined. Add the baking soda, then the oatmeal. Finally stir in the M&M's and the other add-ins (if using). Chill dough for at least an hour.

Drop balls (slightly smaller than a golf ball) onto the cookie sheet, leaving a couple inches between each cookie. Flatten each cookie slightly. Bake at 350ºF for 8-10 minutes, do not overbake. Cool on a wire rack. Makes about 3 dozen cookies.

Mississippi Mud Brownies

Oh Mississippi Mud Brownies, how I love you... Let's break you down.

First there's a brownie base.

Then you add a layer of chocolate chips.

Spread some slightly melted peanut butter on top....

Sprinkle some marshmallows on top and toast them up in the oven...

Might as well sprinkle some crushed up pecans on top, just for the hell of it.

And then cover it all in chocolate frosting to bring it full circle.

And here you go...

Mississippi Mud Brownies

recipe found on Tasty Kitchen

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup sugar

3/4 tsp vanilla extract

2 eggs

3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup crunchy peanut butter (I used creamy, it works too)

1 1/2 tsp canola oil

2 cups mini marshmallows

1/2 cup chopped and toasted pecans

2 cups confectioners' sugar

1/8 tsp salt

4 tablespoons unsalted butter

2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

1/4 cups plus 2 tablespoons milk

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Line a 8x8" square pan with parchment paper or foil. If using foil, spray with cooking spray.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, 2 tablespoons cocoa powder, and 1/2 tsp salt. Set aside. In the bowl of stand mixer, beat together 1/2 cup butter, sugar, and 3/4 tsp vanilla, until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time. Slow the mixer down to low and add the flour mixture. Mix just until combined.

Pour the batter into your prepared pan and spread evenly. Sprinkle the chocolate chips on top in an even layer. Bake for 22-25 minutes or until set.

While the brownie layer is cooking, combine the peanut butter and oil in a small bowl, and microwave on high for 20 seconds to soften. If you don't have a microwave like me, then you can set your bowl on top of a small saucepan of boiling water until the peanut butter is slightly melted.

Once the brownies are done baking, pour this mixture on top of the hot brownies and spread evenly. Sprinkle with mini marshmallows, and then bake for 3 minutes, or until the marshmallows puff up. Sprinkle with the chopped pecans.

Now make the frosting. Whisk together the confectioners' sugar and salt in the bowl of your stand mixer. In a small saucepan, melt the 4 tablespoons of butter. Then add the cocoa powder and 1/4 cup of the milk, and bring to a boil. Pour this mixture on top of the confectioners' sugar and salt and then beat on high until smooth and glossy. If it's took thick to pour, you can add the remaining 2 tablespoons milk, but it may already be thin enough. Add the vanilla extract.

Pour this frosting evenly on top of your brownies, making sure it completely covers the top. Let cool completely in the fridge for 1-2 hours, then slice into small pieces.

Meyer Lemon Bars

Every year when it's Meyer lemon season, I see them at my coop and buy a bag of them. They always just look so pretty and yellow. Last year I made lemon curd, and I've still have a couple jars left from that on the shelf. So this year I needed something different. And even though I usually think of lemon bars as a summer dessert, these were really perfect (plus it's been about 60 degrees this week in NY so it's almost like summer).

They are amazing.

Find some meyer lemons and make them. You won't regret it. Unless you're still trying to do that new year eating healthy thing, and then you eat four of these right out of the pan while they're cooling because they taste so good. Then you might feel a little bad about your lack of self-control. But you won't regret making these, just try to get them to your friends and co-workers before you can eat them all.

Meyer Lemon Bars

Ina Garten recipe adapted a couple times (not by me) - found here on The Cooking Photographer.

Crust:

1/2 lb butter (2 sticks), room temperature

1/2 cup sugar

2 cups flour

1/8 tsp kosher salt

Filling:

6 large eggs at room temperature

2 1/2 cups sugar

2 tablespoons Meyer lemon zest

1 cup freshly squeezed Meyer lemon juice (I used about 6 lemons)

1 cup flour

Preheat your oven to 350ºF and grease a 13x9 pan.

To make the crust, cream together the butter and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer until light and fluffy. Reduce the speed to low and add the flour and salt. Beat until just mixed. Dump the dough onto a well-floured board and form into a ball. With floured hands, press the dough into the baking pan forming an even layer. Chill in the freezer for 10 minutes. Then bake for 15-20 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool on a wire rack.

To make the filling, whisk together the eggs, sugar, lemon zest, lemon juice, and flour. Pour over the cooled crust, and then bake for 30-35 minutes or until the lemon layer is set. Cool to room temperature.

Cut into squares or triangles and then sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Makes 24 larger bars or 32 smaller bars.

Buttermilk Biscuits

I made some biscuits this morning. It's the same recipe that I've posted before, the same one I always use. But this time, I used a technique I saw on Serious Eats in an Andrew Carmellini biscuit recipe for folding the dough multiple times before cutting out your biscuits. Sorta like when you make puff pastry and have to keep rolling and folding the dough.


I also brushed the tops of the biscuits with a little extra buttermilk and then sprinkled some sea salt on top. These definitely rose up and had more layers than usual, so I think I'll stick with that little trick.


As expected, this biscuits are really best when they are still hot. But I don't think I'll have any problems finishing them up this week.




Buttermilk Biscuits
recipe from Baking Illustrated with help from Andrew Carmellini via Serious Eats

1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup cake flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, chilled and cut into small pieces
3/4 cold buttermilk

Preheat the oven to 450ºF and place rack in the center of the oven.

Whisk together the flours, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, and salt. Using a pastry blender (or two knives), cut the butter into the flour mixture until it forms a coarse meal with some slightly larger pieces of butter. Add the buttermilk and mix it in with a spatula until it forms a soft sticky ball of dough. Add a little extra buttermilk if a ball does not form.

Dump the dough onto a lightly floured surface and form into a ball. Roll the dough out to about 1/2 inch thick and then fold into thirds (like you're folding a business letter). Repeat this step 7 times, but don't fold the 7th time you roll out. Cut the dough into circles with a round biscuit cutter. Use the scraps to form additional biscuits. Place on a ungreased cookie sheet. Brush the tops with buttermilk and then sprinkle with sea salt (if desired).

Bake until tops are light brown, 10 to 12 minutes. Serve immediately.

Christmas Cookies

Happy New Year! Soooo I'm a little late, but I wanted to a run-down of some of the cookies I made for Christmas this year.


New cookies this year: Nutmeg Maple Butter Cookies from Smitten Kitchen. Salty, buttery, sweet - yum! Seriously addictive.


Vanilla Bean Spritz. One of my favorites from childhood.


Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies with Cherries and Pecans from the Kitchn. One of my new favorites. I'm not usually a big fan of chocolate chips in my oatmeal cookies, but somehow when you add the cherries and the pecans and the chocolate chips it just works.


Italian Rainbow Cookies - my favorite cookie ever (they're actually more like cake, but they're cookie sized so they count in my opinion).


And not cookies or baking, but still filled with sugar and butter - Salted Caramels from eat make read. I think this is my first successful attempt at caramels.

Also made this year, but all gone now:
My Mom's Sugar Cookies (in the shape of NJ and unicorns)
Carrot Cake Sandwich Cookies
Marlow and Sons Brown Sugar Walnut Shortbread - (awesome, try sprinkling some salt on top with the sugar)

Holiday Breakfast Wreath

Every year for Christmas, my gramma makes a Swedish Tea Ring. It's basically cinnamon bun dough, filled with maraschino cherries, walnuts, butter, cinnamon sugar, shaped into a ring and covered with icing. It's amazing.


Since I knew I'd be having the Swedish Tea Ring at her house on Christmas Eve, I tried out this similar recipe for our office holiday party. It's a Holiday Breakfast Wreath, and it pretty much the same as the tea ring except that it's filled with dried cranberries and almonds instead of maraschino cherries and walnuts. It looks pretty impressive, and really isn't that hard. Plus it makes your kitchen (or your tiny apartment) smell amazing.


Holiday Breakfast Wreath
recipe from The Kitchn, adapted from Sunset Magazine recipe

Dough:
1 packet (2 1/4 tsp) active dry yeast (I used instant yeast)
1/4 cup warm water (about 110ºF)
1/2 cup warm milk (about 110ºF)
3 tablespoons sugar
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cardamom powder
2 large eggs
2 tsp grated lemon zest
3 1/2 cups flour

Filling:
3/4 cup dried cranberries or cherries, soaked in 1/2 cup brandy or other liqueur
6 tablespoons butter, softened
1/3 cup flour
3/4 cup finely chopped blanched almonds
3 tablespoons sugar
1 tsp freshly grated lemon zest
1 tsp almond extract

Glaze:
1 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1/4 tsp cardamom powder

In a large mixing bowl, dissolve the yeast in the warm water and let sit for a few minutes until it's foamy. Add the milk, sugar, butter, salt, cardamom, eggs and lemon peel in your mixer. One cup at a time, stir in 2 cups of the flour. Add the remaining flour 1/2 cup at a time until you have a soft, workable dough. (You may not need to use all the flour, I only used about 3 cups)

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth, about 5 to 10 minutes. Place in a lightly oiled large bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise in a warm place for about 1 1/2 hours, or until doubled in size.

While the dough is rising, drain the dried fruit from the liquer and combine the fruit with the rest of the filling ingredients. Cover and refrigerate.

When the dough has doubled in size, punch down and turn out until a lightly floured surface, kneading just enough to release any air bubbles. Your will need a large surface for this part (I just used my kitchen table). Roll the dough into a 9x30 inch rectangle. Crumble the filling over the dough to within 1 inch of the edges. Starting at one of the long edges, tightly roll up the dough, pinching the edge against the loaf to seal. Using a sharp knife, cut the roll in half lengthwise and turn the cut sides up. Loosely twist the two pieces together into, keeping the cut sides up, and shape into a wreath. See the pictures on the Kitchn for better instructions.

Carefully transfer the wreath to a greased and floured baking sheet, and let rise uncovered for about 45 minutes to an hour.

Preheat oven to 350ºF and bake wreath for about 25 minutes, or until golden. While the wreath is baking, combine all the ingredients for the glaze. When wreath is done baking, transfer to a cooling rack to cool. After a few minutes, drizzle the glaze over the wreath.

You can prepare the wreath up to 2 days ahead of time, cooled completely and wrapped tightly in foil (save the glaze until your serve). Store at room temperature then re-heat at 350ºF for 10-15 minutes, drizzling the glaze right before serving.

Halloween Cupcakes

We had a Halloween party at work and I brought two types of cupcakes - Gluten-Free Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Cream Cheese Frosting and Vanilla Candy Corn Cupcakes.


For the gluten-free chocolate cupcakes, I used a Serious Eats recipe for one-bowl chocolate cake and a peanut butter cream cheese frosting recipe from Sky High: Irresistible Triple-Layer Cakes. For the vanilla cupcakes, I used a Dorie Greenspan recipe that I used for my Valentine cupcakes and the best frosting ever, which I found on Tasty Kitchen.


Seriously, that vanilla frosting is amazing. Not too sweet, very light, kinda like whipped cream. Make it.


Gluten-Free Chocolate Cupcakes
recipe adapted from Serious Eats

2 cups granulated sugar
1 cup white rice flour
1/4 cup sweet rice flour
1/2 cup cornstarch
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp xanthan gum
2 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup hot coffee
1/2 cup warm water

Preheat oven to 350ºF and line about 2 cupcake tins with cupcake liners. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the sugar, flours, cornstarch, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and xanthan gum. Add the wet ingredients and stir until completely combined, no flour or dry ingredients are visible.

Fill cupcake liners about 2/3 full. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in the cupcake tins for about 5 minutes, then remove to a wire rack to finish cooling.

Makes about 18 cupcakes


Peanut Butter Cream Cheese Frosting
recipe from Sky High: Irresistible Triple-Layer Cakes

8 oz cream cheese, room temperature
1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
4 cups confectioners' sugar
1/2 cup smooth peanut butter (commercial brands work better than natural because they don't separate)

In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat together the cream cheese and the butter. When fully combined, gradually add the sugar, scraping down the sides of the bowl often. Beat for about 3-4 minutes or until light and fluffy. Add the peanut butter and beat until fully combined.





Vanilla Cupcakes
recipe from Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home to Yours via Cheese and Chocolate

Makes 18-21 cupcakes

2 1/4 cups cake flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/4 cups whole milk or buttermilk
4 large egg whites
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 tsp grated lemon zest (optional)
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 tsp lemon extract (optional)
Yellow and red food coloring

Make the cupcakes:
Preheat the oven to 350ºF and place the rack in the center of the oven. Line muffin tins with cupcake liners.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the milk and egg whites. Set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the sugar and lemon zest and rub the zest into the sugar until the sugar is moist and fragrant (if using). Add the butter, and beat on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.

Beat in the lemon extract if using. Add one third of the flour mixture and beat until combined. Then add half the milk mixture. Repeat with another third of the flour mixture, the remaining half of the milk mixture, and then the remaining third of the flour mixture. Beat for about 2 minutes until the batter is fully combined and smooth. Be sure not to over-mix here since you will be mixing more when you add the food coloring.

Divide the cupcake evenly into 2 bowls. In one bowl, add yellow food coloring until it's the desired color. In the second bowl, use a combination of yellow and red (about 2 drops of yellow for every red) until it is the desired color. Fill each cupcake liner about a 1/3 full with the yellow batter. Then fill to about 2/3 full with the orange batter.

Bake for 20-25 minute or until golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool the muffin tins on a cooling rack for 5 minutes, then remove the cupcakes from the tin and cool them completely before frosting on the rack.


Whipped Vanilla Frosting aka Best Frosting Ever
recipe from Tasty Kitchen

5 tablespoons flour
1 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup butter
1 cup granulated sugar

In a small saucepan, whisk the flour into the milk over medium heat. Stir constantly until it thickens to the consistency of brownie mix. Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature. Stir in the vanilla.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy and completely combined. Add the cooled milk and flour mixture and beat on high until it looks liked whipped cream. It will probably look separated before it gets there, but that's ok, just keep beating it.

Makes about 18 cupcakes