25 Days of Baking: Day 15

Another day for peanut butter and chocolate, I told you I liked these two! Today's recipe I cheated on. But with the craziness of the holidays and not enough hours in a day (well that's any time of the year), sometimes you need an easy alternative. 

I made Peanut Butter Blossoms. I cheated because I used the Betty Crocker Peanut Butter cookie mix pouch to make these. In my opinion they taste just as good, and take so much less effort to make!

Peanut Butter Blossoms

~ 1 package Betty Crocker Peanut Butter mix

~ 3 Tbls. vegetable oil

~ 2 tsp. water

~ 1 egg

~ Hershey's Kisses, enough for 1 for each cookie

~ green frosting

Directions

Follow the package directions to make the cookies. Once you take them out of the oven, immediately press 1 Hershey's Kiss candy in the center of each cookie. 

To make these more festive and to add more to them I made some green frosting and swirled it around the Kiss to make it look like a tree (sort of). They kind of remind me of something from Whoville.

25 Days of Baking: Day 11

Today is another favorite. Chocolate dipped peanut butter crackers. Can you tell I have a thing for chocolate and peanut butter?!? These are extremely easy to make and oh so wonderful!

All you need is chocolate bark, peanut butter (I prefer JIF, because choosy Moms choose JIF, that marketing clearly didn't work!), and Ritz crackers. I prefer the holiday snowflake ones. I know you can't even see the cracker once dipped, but I know they are festive underneath!

I start by putting peanut butter between two Ritz crackers. I get as many as I want to make ready. Lets face it I use the whole box of crackers! This way it is a lot easier to just dip away. Next I just heat about half the chocolate at a time. I start with it in the microwave for about a minute, stir and then back in for 30 sec. If it isn't quite melted you can stick it in for another 30 seconds. Then dip! 

Easy peasy and oh so good!

25 Days of Baking: Day 10

Whew, 10 days of goodies (I'm not even half done), but my counter is filling up with sweets like nobody's business. Seriously if you are in the neighborhood stop by for a sugar rush! Today I made Monster Cookies, per my husbands request. I fancied them up by using holiday m&m's!

This recipe is from a family friend and it is wonderful. It also makes a TON of cookies, so I suggest halving it, unless you want a bunch. That is what I intended to do today, as we have enough other things currently in the house. Alas I started halving the ingredients, but then dumped in a full amount of the brown sugar and it wasn't until I started mixing that I realized what I had done. SO...I was now making a full batch of Monster Cookies! Seriously people please stop by!

Monster Cookies

~ 6 eggs

~ 1lb. brown sugar

~ 2 cups white sugar

~ 3 cups peanut butter

~ 1 cup butter

~ 1/2 Tbls. karo syrup

~ 9 cups oatmeal

~ 1/2 tsp. vanilla

~ 4 tsp. baking soda

~ 12 oz. chocolate chips

~ 16 oz. m&m's

Directions

Mix all in order given. 1 quater cup per cookie. Bake at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes. *Don't overbake*

These are very easy to make and have realistic ingredients! A win for any recipe. Plus with the peanut butter and oatmeal in them, I don't feel so bad when that's what my kids eat for breakfast.

25 Days of Baking: Day 5

Today is a tried and true wonderful snack! Puppy Chow!! This is my easy go to chocolate fix. My kids love it (who doesn't) but I'm pretty sure that I find a way to eat the majority of it.

Puppy Chow

* 1 box Crispix

* 12 oz. bag of Chocolate Chips

* 1 stick of Margarine

* 1 cup Peanut Butter

*3 1/2 to 4 cups Powdered Sugar

1. Melt Chocolate Chips, Margarine and Peanut Butter in microwave.

2. Pour over Crispix in large bowl

3. Put powdered sugar in a large brown bag. (I find it's best to double bag, so the powdered sugar doesn't go all over!)

4. Add Crispix and shake, shake, shake.

That's all there is to it. Now go make some puppy chow and if you live anywhere near me please bring me some. As ours is already gone.

25 Days of Baking: Day 2

Day 2 and I set about making Chocolate Peanut Butter Balls. Chocolate...no brainer! Peanut Butter...yes please! I'm pretty sure if they found a way to combine these to flavor sensations with Cheez Its, I would be as big as a house!

I originally found this recipe on Pinterest. My greatest frenemy. I have so many things pinned that I have now started trying to repin the same things! I can't be the only one with this problem considering little red words pop up reminding me that I already have this pinned. I have been trying to actually complete some of these projects, some with success and others being total flops. That could be a whole other series of "Crap I actually tried on Pinterest".

Back to the chocolate. The original recipe is here. I'm so glad I found this one! These do tend to be a little bit labor intensive and as they make close to 70 balls, by the end you just want to get a spoon and eat it instead of thinking about making 30 more. But because they make so many you can easily freeze them and have an awesome treat the next time you need something.

Recipe
Mix together:
2 cup creamy peanut butter
3 cup rice krispies
1lb (3cup) powdered sugar 

1/4 cup melted butter

Make balls and dip in melted:
 2 package milk chocolate chips

Put on cookie sheets in fridge to harden. Makes about 70 balls.

I have made these twice now and found the first time they just wanted to fall apart when trying to form them into a ball, so I needed to add more peanut butter. This time they came out perfect. If they are too gooey, add more powdered sugar. In the original post she says she mixes these by hand, but I found my Kitchen Aid mixer worked fantastic. I just mixed by hand right at the end, when it wasn't such a mess to do. All of my kiddos love these and I catch my oldest sneaking them when I have them out. (He's not very good at it yet, he's only 6, so he still gets a look on his face that says I'm doing something I shouldn't).

 

Hope you enjoy making and eating these! As I mentioned yesterday you could easily dress these up for the holidays by adding sprinkles or a small design in frosting if so inclined.