Peanut Butter Cookies with Chocolate Chips

Last night, after a very  nice dinner with my fiance, I decided to make some cookies.  I took a look in my copy of The Naturally Good Cook and found a peanut butter cookie recipe with a twist; chocolate chunks.  It should have been very clear to me earlier in my baking career that chocolate chips would make a fine addition to peanut butter cookies, but alas, I realized too late.  Not late enough to give it a go, however.

First I mixed up 2 cups of flour with

2 tsp baking soda

and 1 tsp of salt.  I set this aside for later.

Next I beat together 1 1/2 sticks (3/4 Cup) of room temperature butter with

3/4 Cup white sugar

and 3/4 Cup brown sugar.

I added 2 eggs, one at a time and beat until combined.

Finally, I beat in 1 Cup of smooth peanut butter.

After the wet was all together, all that was left was to mix in the dry

and the chocolate.

I scooped the dough onto the cookie sheets, and added the traditional design of peanut butter cookies, the square pattern.  I used a fork to accomplish this.

They baked in a 350 degree oven for 12 minutes.

I can honestly say that this was an excellent idea.  The cookie itself is chewy, and the chocolate was just melted enough to coat each bite.  A very tasty treat indeed!

Enjoy!

Late Night Eating Adventures: The Brown Bag

So, it has been a while since I've had a Dining Adventure, and last night, or rather this morning I went on an impromptu adventure.  I was in Wynantskill NY playing Pathfinder, and after the game we were all hanging out into the wee hours of the morning.  One of the players, Zach asked if I had ever been to The Brown Bag.  When I asked him what it was he told me that it was "Wonderful Burger Sex."  I decided that was a good enough description to try it out.  Another player, Nate wanted to go as well, so we piled into Zach's car and drove to downtown Troy NY.

There are a few things that are interesting about The Brown Bag: the place is open from 11:30am-6 am, It was super crowded at 1 am, and they have a very special burger that came highly recommended: The South Troy Burger.

This was no mere bacon burger, this was a burger cloaked in myth and legend.  The burger had bacon of course, but rather than mere ketchup, peanut butter was used as the condiment of choice.  And the bun?  No simple bun would do for this legendary comestible!  Instead, the burger and all its toppings sits between the two halves of a grilled glazed doughnut.  It sounds absolutely awful, and a player who did not come along, warned me against it.  I decided to ignore his advice and order one anyway.

I also ordered the Cajun American Fries.  These fries are coated in butter, and then tossed with the spicy mixture.

The actual restaurant was so packed, we had to eat in Zach's car.  We are very classy.

And the burger?

Dear God, look at the glory of this food item!

I was very excited to eat it.

And it was good, clearly not something I would eat every time I went, but despite the strange ingredients, they all worked very well together.  After consumption, my fingers were sticky, my face was greasy, my apetite was satisfied.

Zach got a Bacon Cheese Burger, and it also looked grand.

As for my fries, they came in a plain brown paper bag, like the rest of the food we purchased.  You can tell from the grease stains on the side of the bag what type of situation I was getting myself into.

And they were awesome!  Definitely not healthy, AT ALL.  It was a great experience, and I would highly recommend The Brown Bag to everyone.  If you are ever in Troy between the hours of 11:30 am-6 am, I would strongly suggest you come here.

Chai Cupcakes

So, my friend Jen from the Elka Almanac sent me a link to a chai cupcake that required 3 sticks of butter for the recipe, as well as an additional 2 sticks for the icing, and of course it turned into a thread about Paula Deen.

(picture from guardian.co.uk)

Now, I like butter like any other hot blooded American, but I figure if you have to open a second box to finish a recipe there might be something wrong.  Naturally, I thought I'd look through my Vegan cupcake book, and lo and behold there is a recipe for Chai cupcakes, with hardly any fat in the recipe at all!  Just a 1/2 cup of yogurt and 1/4 cup of oil.  There's also 1 cup of milk which is the wet for this recipe.

These seemed like a nice alternative to the butterlicious version Jen had shown me, so I thought, why not?  I used non-vegan ingredients, since that was what I had on hand.

First, heat up 1 cup of milk (soy, rice, dairy) in a small sauce pan until just under boiling.

Remove from heat, and add 4 bags of black tea.  I chose Irish Breakfast.

Cover and let it steep for 10 minutes.

In a separate bowl, combine 1 1/3 cup flour

with 1/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp of salt

2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp ground cardamom

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/4 tsp ground cloves

and a pinch of black pepper.

Once 10 minutes are up, remove the tea bags and squeeze any excess liquid out of them and discard.

Remeasure the milk just in case a little bit more needs to be added to make 1 cup.

Whisk the milk tea together with 1/2 plain or vanilla yogurt (dairy/soy) and 1/4 cup oil

3/4 cup of sugar

and 1 tsp vanilla.

Whisk until most of the lumps from the yogurt are gone.

Add the dry to the wet and mix to combine, again, so there aren't many lumps.

Bake in a 350 degree oven for 20-22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean.

Now for the topping, the book suggested I dust them with a spice mix, but I decided to add a bit more fat.  I made cream cheese frosting.

Once that was made and the were cakes frosted, I dusted them with the spice mix.

2 Tbsp cocoa powder

1 tsp cinnamon

and 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg.

Mix, and using a sieve sprinkle on top of your cakes.

Oh God, this was so tasty, and slightly chewy for some reason.  The spice, and the tea really make it taste like chai, and the cream cheese frosting it like the foam on a latte.  So awesome!

I hope you enjoyed this post.  I certainly enjoyed making (and eating) these little cakes, even without 5 sticks of butter.

Enjoy!