Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip Cookies

As I have mentioned previously, my husband often complains that I don’t make him chocolate chip cookies nearly enough. He does understand that when I bake I post to my blog, and while there are chocolate chip cookie variations, there aren’t a million of them. My husband had been working and having trouble with a vendor, so I decided I would find something similar to a chocolate chip cookie to bake. I figured it would be a nice surprise.

I found these cookies, with dark chocolate chunks and peanut butter chips, and I hadn’t made this combination before. I had dark chocolate chunks and peanut butter chips on hand, but I think these cookies would be equally interesting using two different types of chips that you have on hand. I could come up with many variations, but don’t feel compelled to go to the store for specific chips to use.

The original recipe, which was double what I had here, made about 18 cookies. Those cookies must have been huge! I made a half recipe, still mage big cookies, and I made 22 cookies. I can’t imagine having cookies twice as large, as the ones I made were large enough. The original blog said to bake the cookies 9 minutes, but mine weren’t anywhere close to done after that short time, so I ended up adding minutes until the cookies baked about 14 minutes. This will vary depending on your oven and the size of the cookies. These taste like a traditional chocolate chip cookie, but the peanut butter flavor comes through here and there, making a lovely cookie.

Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip Cookies
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
1-1/2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup dark chocolate chunks
1 cup peanut butter chips

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

Place the butter in a microwave safe bowl and microwave for about 45 seconds, until the butter is nearly melted. Transfer the butter to a large mixer bowl and add the sugar and brown sugar. Mix on medium until light. Add the egg and vanilla and stir on medium to combine. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the flour, baking soda, and salt. Fold in the dark chocolate chunks and peanut butter chips with a spatula.

Drop the dough onto the prepared baking sheets, using about 2-1/2 tablespoons of dough per cookie. As these cookies are larger, 6 cookies per baking sheet works well.

Bake for 10-14 minutes, until the cookies begin to brown along the edges. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack.

Recipe from A Sparkle of Genius

Snickerdoodle Bars with White Chocolate Ganache

Snickerdoodles are the first cookie I remember making, and they are my favorite. I have baked a number of different snickerdoodle items, and sometimes they are more “snickerdoodle” but at other times it seems like other call any item with cinnamon a snickerdoodle. This recipe does fall more in the latter category, but they are excellent any way you look at them.

This recipe is assembled in an unusual way! I picked up a new jelly roll pan, 10” x 15” x 1”. Many pans are about that size, but so few of them have the full 1” sides. You need some depth when you’re making a bar cookie or a jelly roll. You bake the cookie in the pan, and once cooled, cut the rectangle into smaller rectangles, which become the bottom and the top of the cookies. And you sandwich the two rectangles together with white chocolate ganache.

I have made ganache, but I also know that white chocolate can be fussy. I used my regular method, of putting hot cream on white chocolate chips and letting it sit, then whisking until it’s a proper ganache. It’s too thin at this point, so you have to let it cool for about an hour before it works as a filling. I really wasn’t sure, but I assembled the bars and then chilled them before cutting. They turned out perfectly, just like the photos in the original blog post! I was thrilled! These bars are very rich, but very much worth making.

Snickerdoodle Bars with White Chocolate Ganache
1 3/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla

2 cups white chocolate chips
1/2 cup heavy cream

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a 10” x 15” jelly roll pan with foil and spray the foil with nonstick cooking spray. (Use baking spray with flour if you have it.)

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cinnamon, and salt; set aside. In a large mixer bowl, combine the butter and brown sugar and beat on medium until light, about three minutes. Add the eggs and vanilla and stir on medium until combined. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the flour mixture, stirring until the mixture forms a dough. Spread the mixture in the prepared pan. It will be sticky, so do the best that you can. Try to ensure the dough is spread as evenly as possible.

Bake for 12-15 minutes, until the bars are golden. Allow the bars to cool completely before proceeding.

While the cookies cool (or later), make the ganache: place the white chocolate chips in a medium bowl. Heat the heavy cream until almost boiling. Pour the heated heavy cream over the white chocolate chips and allow to sit for five minutes. Using a small whisk, whisk the mixture until the chips and cream becomes a smooth and consistent ganache.

Before you can use the ganache for the filling, it needs to cool until it is a spreading consistency. If the mixture is too thin it won’t work for filling the cookies. Whisk the mixture every 15 minutes, and the ganache will reach a spreadable consistency after 50 minutes to an hour.

To assemble the cookies: remove the bars from the pan, and cut into two rectangles, about 7”x 10”. One rectangle will become the base of the bars, and the other will become the top. Spread the cooled white chocolate ganache on one of the bar cookie rectangles. Spread the ganache evenly, almost to the edges of the rectangle. Top with the remaining bar cookie rectangle. Refrigerate the bars for at least an hour to set.

Once thoroughly chilled, remove the cookie rectangle from the refrigerator and cut into bars.

Recipe from Cookies and Cups

Strawberry Lemon Bars

My husband and I have too many weekends that are interrupted by work or something like that, and it turned out that we had a weekend with no activities planned. We decided that we would try and do as much as we could that wasn’t work related. One of the things we came up with is going to a local farmers market. We decided to go to the farmer’s market in a nearby town, as they had changed locations a while ago and we hadn’t gone since they had moved.

Farmer’s markets can be challenging. There is so much good produce and berries, but my house is usually too warm. I’ve found that I have to know what I am going to make and get the needed ingredients, otherwise I just wander aimlessly. As we were wrapping up, I knew I had this recipe that needed strawberries, so I checked the quantity and got what I needed. I ended up getting strawberries that were quite ripe, so I made the bars right away.

The dough/batter for these bars is quite cake-like, and it looks really strange after you have added the lemon juice. The dough did come together, which was a relief! My strawberries were very ripe, so when I added them to the dough and the glaze, strawberry juice mixed in giving a slight pink tinge. It wasn’t too noticeable after baking and cutting, so it was fine. These are quite cakey, thick, but have a lovely combination of sweet strawberries and tart lemon.

Strawberry Lemon Bars
1 cup butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 egg
¼ cup lemon juice
Zest of 1 lemon
2-1/3 cups flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
1-1/4 cups diced strawberries

1-1/4 cups powdered sugar
2-3 tablespoons lemon juice
¼ cup diced strawberries
Additional lemon juice/milk

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9” square pan with foil and spray the foil with nonstick cooking spray.

In a large mixer bowl, combine the butter and sugar. Beat on medium until light. Add the egg and mix again on medium to combine. Stir in the lemon juice and zest. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the flour, baking soda, and salt. Fold in the diced strawberries with a spatula.

Spread the mixture evenly into the prepared pan.

Bake for 40-45 minutes, until golden. Test the bars with a thin knife inserted into the center of the bars, which will come out clean if the bars are baked. Allow the bars to cool before glazing.

Make the glaze: in a medium bowl, whisk the powdered sugar and 2 tablespoons lemon juice until smooth. If the glaze is too thick, add additional lemon juice or milk. Carefully stir in the diced strawberries. Spread the glaze on the bars and allow the glaze to set before cutting into bars.  

Recipe from Kitchen Fun with my Three Sons

Frosted Graham Cracker Bars

Each summer I try and identify a couple of no-bake recipes that can be made without turning on the oven. I’m never quite sure what to think of no-bake recipes because you typically have to heat or melt ingredients on the stove and that can be worse than the oven. Thankfully I made these when the house wasn’t too warm, so I didn’t mind working with the stove. This recipe did come together very fast, so that was another bonus.

I did halve this recipe, making it in an 8” square pan. That slightly changes the quantity of graham crackers you need, but I found that 9 graham cracker squares fit the pan with little extra room or space between the crackers. The filling comes together fast, as the butter is quite warm and the mixture comes to a boil quickly when you add other ingredients. You technically should use ½ egg so I used the egg yolk. Using a full egg wouldn’t be the end of the world.

I topped the crackers with the filling and added more crackers. The dish is warm at this point so I put it in the refrigerator to cool about 30 minutes before I added the frosting. The frosting is simple but I needed more milk that expected to get it to a spreading consistency. I topped it and let it refrigerate for just over 24 hours. The time softens the crackers and I was worried they would be soggy, but that wasn’t the case at all! You get a sweet cookie with a crunchy filling that people
would never guess were a no-bake cookie.

Frosted Graham Cracker Bars
18 square graham crackers, divided
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup milk
1 egg, beaten
3/4 cup coconut
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup graham cracker crumbs  

1/4 cup butter, room temperature
About 1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
⅛ teaspoon almond extract
About 2 tablespoons milk

Line an 8” pan with foil. Layer the bottom of the pan with graham crackers. You may need to break them apart to make an even layer.

Make the filling: in a medium saucepan, melt the butter. Once the butter is melted, add the sugar, milk, and beaten egg. Cook, stirring constantly, over medium high heat until the mixture boils. Remove the mixture from the heat and stir in the coconut, pecans, and graham cracker crumbs. Spread the mixture over the graham crackers in the pan. Top the bars with eight additional graham crackers, making another even layer.

Allow the bars to cool for an hour before topping with the frosting.

Make the frosting: in a large mixer bowl, beat the butter, milk, powdered sugar, vanilla, and almond extract on medium until combined. If required, you can add additional powdered sugar to thicken the frosting. Spread the frosting over the bars.

Refrigerate for at least 24 hours, which softens the graham crackers. Once fully refrigerated, cut into bars.

Recipe from Six Sisters’ Stuff

Lemon Curd Blondies

Most folks that I know have a classic lemon bar recipe that they love and works for them. Lemon bar recipes do vary a lot, but I have yet to find one that I didn’t like. My friend gave me some lemon curd, and my immediate thought was I wanted to use it in a recipe. I did some searching online and I came across a couple of different recipes to try. I started with this version of a lemon bar, flavored with lemon curd and lemon zest.

Lemon bar recipes vary- some have many layers and others are much more basic. This recipe is quite simple, and as it bakes in an 8” square pan, it doesn’t require too many ingredients. It’s just one layer, so once you make the dough/batter, you are good to go. The mixture is very sticky, so spreading it evenly in the pan is tricky, but it does even out as it bakes. I wanted to make sure that these bars were very chilled before cutting, so I refrigerated them overnight.

These cut very easily once they are cold, and not as messy as some lemon bars can be. I will say that these bars have a good lemon flavor, but the lemon isn’t as strong as other bars I have made. I’m ok with that since they are easy to make and cut and they travel well. I like these lemon curd blondies a lot and can’t wait to use the rest of the lemon curd for other recipes!

Lemon Curd Blondies
¾ cup butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
¼ cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon baking powder
Zest of 1 lemon
¼ cup lemon curd
1-1/4 cups flour
Powdered sugar

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line an 8” square pan with foil and spray the foil with nonstick cooking spray.

In a large mixer bowl, beat the butter, sugar, and brown sugar on medium until light. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the salt, baking powder, and lemon zest. Stir to combine. Add the lemon curd, one tablespoon at a time, until combined. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the flour and mix just until combined.

Spoon the batter into the prepared pan, smoothing the top as best you can. The mixture will be sticky.

Bake for about 30 minutes, until golden. Cool in the pan and then refrigerate until the bars are thoroughly chilled.

Once the bars are chilled, remove them from the pan and cut into bars. If desired, sprinkle with powdered sugar before serving.

Recipe from Baked by Rachel

Goji Berry, White Chocolate, and Pistachio Cookies

I still have a quantity of goji berries, so I keep looking for different recipes that use these berries. When the weather starts getting warmer here, refrigerator cookies are ideal for me to make. I can make the dough, which takes about 10 minutes, and then keep the dough into the refrigerator for a day or two and then bake them up when it is convenient. This recipe, which combines goji berries, white chocolate chips, and pistachios, sounded great.

When I made these cookies, I had little issue. The dough was dry so I added an egg yolk to help it come together. It makes just under two dozen cookies, so I made the dough and shaped it into a log, ready to bake at a later point. Now, I guess I have gotten less discerning in choosing cookies, as the rule for refrigerator cookies, which need to be sliced, is to make sure none of the elements are too large. That proved to be tricky for these cookies!

When I tried slicing these cookies, they were very crumbly. Every cookie I had to press together and reshape, but in the end, they looked fine. I think I would chop the goji berries, but I think the pistachios were fairly hard and the white chips were large, so I am not sure what I could do there. Do they make mini white chips? That would be handy. These cookies have a good crunch, and if you don’t have goji berries, almost any dried fruit will work. These cookies aren’t overly sweet, which makes it perfect to pair with your morning tea.

Goji Berry, White Chocolate, and Pistachio Cookies
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 1/4 cups flour
1/3 cup goji berries
1/3 cup white chocolate chips
1/4 cup pistachios
Egg yolk, if needed

In a larger mixer bowl, combine the butter, sugar, and brown sugar. Beat on medium until light. Add the flour, goji berries, white chocolate chips, and pistachios and stir on low until the dough comes together. If needed, add an egg yolk to help the dough come together.

Shape the dough into a log, about 1-1/2” in diameter. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour or longer.

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

Remove the dough from the refrigerator and remove the plastic wrap. Cut the dough into ¼” slices and place on the prepared baking sheets. Reshape the cookies as needed, if crumbly.

Bake for 10-15 minutes, until lightly golden. Allow to cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe from Paint, Pencil, Pastries

Strawberry Cake Mix Cookies

Once in a while, you come across a recipe that looks great, and when you read the recipe you realize that it uses a cake, cookie, or scone mix as the base. I think that everyone needs to have some really simple recipes available that you know will taste great. This is one of those recipes. It requires just a cake mix, eggs, and oil, and then a fairly simple strawberry glaze. I’m sure you could also use a powdered sugar glaze if you wanted to save even more time.

This is the simplest recipe, and I made the cookies in the five minutes before preparing dinner! They are that quick. The dough is very thick, but I didn’t have any trouble scooping it out. This recipe made about 30 cookies, so they aren’t huge, but that’s a better number of cookies for sharing. They are quite brightly pink, but they look great once they are glazed.

The glaze for these is a little different, with the strawberry jam providing the strawberry flavor and subtle pink color. I recommend whisking the jam a bit to break it up, and then it’s easier to incorporate into the glaze. That being said, I guess the bowl I used to make the icing was too small as I seemed to get powdered sugar everywhere! You can either ice the cookies with a spatula or dunk them in the glaze. I dipped the cookies in the glaze and that was easy. These cookies have a lovely strawberry flavor, are soft and chewy, and are perfectly pink for summer.

Strawberry Cake Mix Cookies
1 strawberry cake mix
2 eggs
1/3 cup vegetable oil

2 cups powdered sugar
3 tablespoons strawberry jam
2-3 tablespoons milk

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the strawberry cake mix, eggs, and vegetable oil, stirring to combine. The dough will be thick. Scoop the dough onto the prepared baking sheets using a tablespoon-sized cookie scoop.

Bake for 9-11 minutes, until the cookies are set. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Once the cookies are cool, make the glaze. In a medium bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar, strawberry jam, and a small amount of milk. Whisk, continuing to add milk, until the glaze is thick but spreadable. Spread about 1 teaspoon of glaze on top of each of the cooled cookies. Allow the glaze to set before serving.

Recipe from Practically Homemade