Face it!

Lately, I’ve been trying to learn my place in the kitchen by expanding my cooking repertoire. Out of the blue, I had an itch to bake chocolate chip cookies today. I don’t think I ever made my own batch from scratch. Who would’ve thought that cooking and baking could be so therapeutic?

I didn’t realize the recipe would make 5 dozen cookies but I guess I should’ve known better when the ingredients called for 4 1/2 cups of flour! The bad thing about making anything from scratch is that you end up finding out how unhealthy certain foods are. In this case, chocolate chip cookies aren’t the best things to eat. Two cups of butter? Tons of sugar? Yikes!

I love chocolate cookies that are soft. Luckily I was able to find a recipe online with great reviews. (The internet is awesome!) I always thought that soft cookies required cake mix, but in this case, the vanilla pudding was the game changing ingredient. I made a couple alterations to the ingredients and I was worried it would sabotage the award winning recipe, but it turned out to be just fine. Milk was replaced with vanilla almond milk, and instead of butter, I used Brummel & Brown spread. I also mixed semi sweet chocolate & milk chocolate chips. Not bad.

Baking soft chocolate chip cookies from scratch was a success! I probably made more than what 2 people could consume within a couple days, so I’m hoping to give some away to friends. I’d hate for these delicious cookies to go to waste.

Ahhhh! I feel accomplished. Cookies were delicious. Therapy was acquired. Another item to add to my “I can make” list. And I got a blog post out of it. Woo hoo.

[original recipe]

I recently picked up baking here and there a couple months ago.  Since then, I’ve only tried one baking recipe, and yesterday I decided I should try out another.  My first baking project was banana cupcakes with cinnamon honey frosting.  I didn’t perfect it until the 3rd time, and the first 2 times, I made the SAME mistake.  I need to read more carefully, because the only reason my cupcakes turned into rubber was because I forgot to add butter.  Ooops.  They were still good, I thought.  My roommates still ate them.

I knew I didn’t have much time to bake since I had to run, do laundry, and cook dinner, so I picked a simple recipe that I found online.  My goal for these baking projects isn’t to attempt try out complex recipes, but just to try new things out.  I feel that as long as I’m putting in some time and effort into making something, it doesn’t matter if it I’m going to make something from a box.

I found a recipe online for Peanut Butter Brownies.  Mmmmm!  A lot of the recipes for PBB’s required me to bake brownies from scratch.  But luckily I was able to find one that let me use boxed brownies instead.  Whew!  I wasn’t too thrilled about spending 2 hours on baking brownies from scratch.  But, I’ll definitely try that later when I have more time on my hands.

The one thing I did not understand about the recipe was that it required me to bake the brownies on top of foil.  Well, I did it anyway, but it took almost an hour to make sure the brownies were fully baked.  I wonder if it’s because of the foil.  Hmmmm….

Overall, they turned out great!  Yvette said I made them well because they stuck  to the roof of her mouth.  I guess that’s what good brownies are supposed to do?  Michael said he could eat them for dinner if he could.

Well, I’m glad they were a success.  I LOVE peanut butter, and they go so well with brownies and almond milk.  Mmmmm!

The one thing I didn’t like was that they crumbled so easily.  Is that supposed to happen?

Well, here’s another recipe to add to my repertoire. 

Peanut Butter Swirl Brownies
adapted from Martha Stewart

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line a buttered 8-inch square baking pan with foil or parchment paper, allowing 2 inches to hang over sides. Butter lining (excluding overhang); set pan aside.

Make brownie batter according to recipe or mix directions.

Make filling: Stir together butter, confectioners’ sugar, peanut butter, salt, and vanilla in a bowl until smooth.

Pour one-third of brownie batter into prepared pan, and spread evenly with a rubber spatula. Place dollops of filling (about 1 tablespoon each) about 1 inch apart on top of batter. Drizzle remaining brownie batter on top, and gently spread to fill pan. Place dollops of remaining filling on top.

With a butter knife, gently swirl filling into batter, running knife lengthwise and crosswise through layers. Bake until a cake tester inserted into brownies (avoid center and edges) comes out with a few crumbs but is not wet, about 45 minutes (the peanut butter may still be wet). Let cool slightly in pan, about 15minutes. Lift out brownies; let cool completely on a wire rack before cutting into squares.