Friday, July 10, 2009

Peanut Butter Cookies With a Tiny New Twist

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My mom has been making this recipe for at least 20 years and it was one of my favorites growing up. She usually sticks a Hershey's kiss in the middle for peanut blossoms, which are great but I think sometimes the amount of milk chocolate overwhelms the peanut butter cookie and it's just too sweet for me. Soooo, I got to thinking about a different way to make these. Instead of the kiss in the middle and I melted some semi-sweet chocolate and dipped the bottom of the cookies in it. I really loved the combination and so did my roommates & neighbors. The cookies are soft and have just the right amount of sweetness with a hard chocolate bottom.

Mom's Easy Peanut Butter Cookies

For the cookie dough:
1 14oz can of sweetened condensed milk
3/4 c peanut butter
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 c bisquick
sugar for rolling
semi-sweet chocolate chips

*Combine sweetened condensed milk and peanut butter in a large bowl
*Beat in the egg and vanilla
*Beat in Bisquick in 1/2 cup amounts
*Chill in refrigerator for 1 hour or overnight. (I made the dough in the morning before work and baked them when I came home)
* Roll dough into balls and cover in sugar. Place on cookie sheet and flatten with a fork.
* Bake cookies 8-10 min and cool on cookie sheets for 2-3 min then transfer to cooling racks.
*Once cookies have cooled melt chocolate chips in a double boiler ( I used a shallow bowl) and dip bottoms into chocolate or use a spoon to spread chocolate onto bottoms of cookies.
*Place on wax paper and put into refrigerator to allow chocolate to set. ( I kept the cookies in there because I like the way the chocolate makes a shell when refrigerated.)


Monday, July 6, 2009

Vanilla & Red Velvet Vegan Cupakes

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My first real post. To introduce myself, I'm 20years of age and I consider myself a beginning baker. It's something I've recently picked up and am attempting to run with? This blog is to share recipes, photographs, and tips I've picked up along the way. I think I will be making a list soon of things that I hope to be tackling.
Moving on...
It was my roomates 21st birthday on the 4th and I whipped up ( if you can describe it as that it took me a good couple hours ) two types of vegan cupcakes: vanilla cupcakes with a chocolate ganache & red velvet cupcakes with a cream cheese frosting. I also made peanut butter cookies but those are just a standard recipe. I thought I would just share the recipe for the red velvet cupcakes since those seemed to be the favorite of the day.
I found both recipes out of Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, which is a great cookbook! There are a lot of staple recipes that you can build off of or there are also the author's concoctions like apricot almond glazed cupcakes ( gotta remind myself to add those to my list they sound AMAZING!!) plus beautiful photographs for only $15! I was really pleased with both cupcakes they were moist ( I've found that vegan cupcakes tend to be more moist and soft than ones baked with eggs and butter) and full of flavor. The red velvets went so fast that I caught someone hiding the last one.

Crimson Velveteen Cupcakes :
1 c soy milk
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 1/4 c all purpose flour
1 c granulated sugar
2 tbs cocoa powder -dutch processed or regular
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 c canola oil
2 tbs red food coloring
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp almond extract
1 tsp chocolate extract

For the frosting:
1/4 c earth balance - softened
1/4 c tofutti - softened
2 c confectioner's sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract


* Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and line muffin pans with liners.
* Wisk together the soy milk and vinegar and set aside to curdle.
* Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl and mix.
* Add the oil, food coloring, chocolate, vanilla and almond extracts to the soy milk mixture. Whisk well to combine. Gently fold wet ingredients into dry mixing until large lumps disappear.
*Fill cupcake liners about two-thirds of the way full. Bake 18-20 min.

To make the frosting:
*Cream together the cream cheese and earth balance.
*Add the sugar in 1/2 cup batches and mix until smooth and creamy.
* Add the vanilla
* Keep covered and refrigerated until ready to use.

Tip: Frost cupcakes in fairly thick amounts so the cupcakes don't crumble when frosting with a knife or spatula.