December 1, 2010

Day 1-Let the Reindeer Games Begin *

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*NOTE: I know this is NOT a reindeer but it IS a cute little Whitetail scrounging for food at the bird-feeders right out the living room window today.*

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas…. (insert melody with lyrics)…

Christmas tree is up, presents are wrapped…OK OK I confess I have not yet begun my holiday shopping but since we are scaling Christmas WAY back this year and focusing just on the kids (after all it’s all about them anyways), I feel like I can get the majority done this Friday while I am in Duluth. 

Today kicks off my 12 days of Christmas cookies with Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Cookies from a cookbook my mom got at one of my little cousin’s school fundraisers.  I decided that I had to develop a system to rate the recipe.  I decided that I would rate on a scale of 1-10 (1 being NO ONE SHOULD ATTEMPT this on any level- 10 being Martha Stewart should feature this recipe).  I will rate it’s ease, taste, appearance and overall rating.  Here we go…

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Cookies- but I have renamed them Chocolate Reese’s Smush cookies (Not Jersey Shore “Smushin” for all you Guido fans but smush as in- “smush the reese’s cup into the hot cookie”)

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RECIPE:

Cookies:

1 C semi sweet choc chips

2 Squares (1 oz each) unsweetened baking chocolate

1 C sugar

1/2 C Butter flavored CRISCO

2 Eggs

1 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 C plus 2 Tbsp Flour

1/2/tsp baking soda

3/4 C finely chopped peanuts

36 Reese’s mini peanut butter cups

Drizzle:

1 cup peanut butter chips OR I used 1/2 C semi sweet choc chips and 1/2 c peanut butter

1.Heat Oven to 350 degrees, and lay out paper bags, foil or parchment paper for cooling cookies

2.For cookies, combine chocolate chips and chocolate squares in a microwave safe measuring cup/bowl and melt (stir frequently and do NOT over heat or you will have a stinky chocolate mess) Set aside to allow slight cooling

3. Combine sugar and CRISCO in a large bowl.  Beat on Medium until blended and crumbly.  Beat in eggs-one at a time, then salt, and vanilla.  Reduce mixer speed and add chocolate slowly.  Mix until well blended.  Stir in flour and baking soda with a spoon until well blended.  Cool dough slightly then Shape into 1 1/4 inch balls.  Roll in chopped peanuts.  Place 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheet.

4. Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes.  DO NOT OVER BAKE Remove from oven and press Reese’s cup into the center of each cookies.  Cool 2 minutes on baking sheet before removing to foil or paper cooling area.  Cool completely.

5.  For drizzle melt peanut butter chips or chocolate chip/peanut butter combo and put in a plastic bag.  Cut tiny tip off corner of the bag.  Squeeze out and drizzle over cookies.

Makes 3 dozen cookies (Note: I made EXACTLY 3 dozen which NEVER happens with a recipe)

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Rating:

EASE- 6   (if you want to make it easier just skip the drizzle.  I sampled a cookie before the drizzle and it was still chocolaty, peanut buttery goodness)

TASTE: 9 These were a soft gooey cookie of guilty pleasure goodness.  I am a firm believer that Chocolate and Jelly are in an epic battle to become Peanut Butter’s BFF… After this recipe-I think chocolate might be winning.

APPEARANCE: 10  I surprised myself with this one and how cute and fancy these little cookies look and uniformly sized to boot!!!!

OVERALL: 8  I would definitely make these tasty little treats again.  Or at least make a double batch! (My errand boy only picked up one bag of Reese’s…Next time I’ll be more specific..hehe)

See you tomorrow for: Crispy Oat Drops

2 comments:

  1. After seeing these here I had to make them and they are soooo good!!! I made them tonight when I was home alone with both of my kids so it was interesting. You gave them a 6 for level of difficulty and I have to say, they really would be super easy to make if you had a second set of hands. What I found the trickiest was that I only had 10 mins to put the Reese cups in the ones that just came out, let them cool 2 mins while rolling the next batch like a bad woman, getting them peanut covered, and back on the pan before my 10 mins was up for the next batch coming out. I doubled the batch and I think next time I will roll them all out before ever turning the oven on. That would make this recipe pretty easy for how great they look and how tasty they are. Thanks for posting!!!!

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