That's a weird title to a post about one of my all-time favorite cookies, isn't it? Allow me to explain...
As you know by now, I love to bake and usually do so once a week. For awhile I was on a Banana Bread kick. I'd bake bunches of it and give them away. I have a top secret for now banana bread recipe that is so good, but I don't eat the stuff myself. I'm a pusher, not a user except when it comes to cookies and those Dangerously Delicious Peaches and Cream Cheese Cookie Bars. Then I'm a user, too.
Which brings us back around to today's topic. A couple of years ago I was making a different cookie each week or so. Chocolate Chip, Snickerdoodle, Peanut Butter, and today's recipe Steffie's Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip cookie.
After weeks of baking every cookie recipe known to mankind, I ask my dear husband, "What's your favorite cookie?" I am fully expecting him to name something I've baked. Wouldn't you be, too? Well...
He replies, "Oreos."
WHAT!?!?! Did he just say OREOS??? OREOS?? Really?
I allowed my heart to resume to it's normal heartbeat before responding.
"So, YOU are a store bought cookie eater cheater, huh?", I say in the most accusatory tone that I can muster.
Had he been eating an Oreo at that moment, I think he would have choked on it from laughing. From there on, when it comes to cookies he has been known as The Store Bought Cookie Eater Cheater.*
Today's recipe isn't for a homemade version of Oreos, though I've seen them out there on the big World Wide Web. Rather, it is for Steffie's Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip cookies. These are D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S. Easy, too. Ready? Let's get baking...
I'm not going to bore you with pictures of the ingredients. There is nothing you don't already have in your cupboards in this recipe. Nor, am I going to insult your intelligence by posting step by step photos. There is nothing difficult about making these cookies. Plus, since Mother Robin tried to kill me last year by dive bombing me when I snapped a photo of the babies in her nest on MY FRONT PORCH, causing me to jump, scream, run and drop my camera resulting in its demise, well, the photos I get with my cell phone just aren't worth the time it takes to edit them enough to look decent. Plus, like I mentioned two sentences prior to my extremely long run on sentence, you are a smart person. You have probably made cookies successfully at some time in your life.
Steffie's Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
The Hardscrabble Home
Ingredients
1/2 Cup Butter, Softened
1/2 Cup Peanut Butter, Chunky OR Smooth (It's your choice)
1/2 Cup Sugar
1/2 Cup Brown Sugar, Firmly Packed
1 Egg
1 1/4 Cup All Purpose Flour
1/2 tsp. Baking Powder
1/2 tsp. Baking Soda
1/4 tsp. Salt
1 Cup Semi-Sweet or Dark Chocolate Chips
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cream the butter, peanut butter and sugars together. Add the egg and mix until light & fluffy. Blend the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt together well. Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture, mixing well. Stir in chocolate chips. Drop cookies by tsp. onto non stick baking sheet. Bake for approximately 10 minutes. Allow to cool before removing.
Devour them with a glass of milk. Preferably in the middle of the night because between midnight and 6am, calories don't count. (Don't quote me on that.)
*Back to the * I placed earlier in a sentence about the Store Bought Cookie Eater Cheater. The way you break your husband from carrying on with a store bought cookie is to buy him his Oreos. Make them the Double Stuffed ones, too. Always repackage them into a plastic lidded container "to keep them fresh". After awhile of supporting his habit with the real stuff, the NAME BRAND stuff, switch it out with the generic ones. They are NOT AS GOOD. He won't notice they aren't real Oreos. Before you know it, the day will come when you are preparing the grocery list. You'll say, "Honey, do you want me to pick up some Oreos?" He'll reply no, because he has lost his taste for them. hehehe. You have just won your battle and now YOUR homemade cookies reign supreme once again.
Enjoy your cookies! I always double the recipe above when I make them. I could have listed those measurements but I didn't want to seem like the gluttonous pig we revealed ourselves to be last week with the cookie bar recipe.
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Oh, YUM!! You are going to LOVE this recipe. It's not a quick fix it in twenty minutes recipe, there are some steps involved, but trust me, IT'S WORTH IT!
Triple Chocolate Cheesecake Bars
By The Hardscrabble Home
Your Ingredients
For the Crust:
20 chocolate wafer cookies (I used Keebler Dark Chocolate Fudge Stripe Cookies)
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground coffee beans
1/4 teaspoon fine salt
For the Filling:
8 ounces semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup sour cream
2 large eggs, room temperature
For the Glaze:
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 teaspoon light or dark corn syrup
2 tablespoons sour cream, room temperature
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line an 8-inch square baking dish with foil.
Let's start with the crust: If you are lucky enough to have a food processor, which I am not, you can process the chocolate cookies in it. I used my blender, it's good for more than making frozen margaritas! Anyway, make crumbs of your cookies and add in there the butter, sugar, coffee and salt. You want this to be pulsed to a fine consistency. Once you have accomplished that, evenly press the crust into your pan making sure to cover the bottom completely. Now, bake it for about 15 minutes or until it sets. Set it aside to cool.
Let's move onto the filling. In a large mixing bowl, use your mixer to blend the cream cheese, sugar, and sour cream
together until smooth. Scrape down the sides, as
needed. Add the eggs and mix until just incorporated.
On your stovetop, (you can use a double boiler) melt the chocolate. Once melted, fold the chocolate thoroughly into the cream cheese filling, mixing until it is smooth. Pour the filling evenly over the crust. Bake until filling puffs slightly around the edges, but is still a teeny bit wobbly in
the center, about 25 to 30 minutes. Remove from oven and cool.
Now, it's time to make the glaze. (I told you there were some steps involved but when you taste these you will thank me.)
Melt the bittersweet chocolate with the butter and corn syrup on stove top. You can also use your microwave, but I'm not a big microwave girl unless it involves popcorn. Stir the ingredients together until smooth; lastly add the sour cream.
Spread glaze evenly over baked filling. Cool completely, then refrigerate.
Cut into small bars or squares. Serve chilled or room temperature.
These freeze well. Hahaha. As if you are going to have any leftover TO FREEZE.
There you have it! A worth the time it took you to make it triple chocolate cheesecake bar that will make you the envy of the neighborhood. If you share it, that is.
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September 22nd marks the official start of my favorite season...FALL! While I promise to have many yummy recipes featuring all kinds of Fall like ingredients, let's give Summer a proper send-off.
I've got the perfect recipe to do just that.
Oreo Ice Cream Cake
This was the cake of choice for my youngest son's 11th birthday this year.
Here's how you do it.
Oreo Ice Cream Cake
By The Hardscrabble Home
Your Ingredients
1 Chocolate Cake Mix
Eggs
Oil
Water
Vanilla Bean Ice Cream (or which ever flavor you prefer)
Double Stuff Oreos
Chocolate Fudge Syrup
Cool Whip
Chocolate Bark or Chocolate Chips
Bake
cake in 10" round cake pan according to directions on cake mix. Let
cool, remove from pan, and slice into two layers. Take bottom half and
place in the bottom of your 10" springform pan. Smash down and up sides
a bit to form crust. Place in freezer until frozen. (You won't use
the other half of sliced cake in this recipe, you can freeze it for
another use or make cake balls with it).
On top of cake crust,
spread a layer of ice cream, top with crushed Oreos, a layer of
chocolate fudge syrup, another layer of ice cream, crushed Oreos and a
final layer of ice cream. Top with more crushed Oreos and drizzle
melted chocolate chips or chocolate bark on top. Return to freezer
until firm, or overnight.
Remove from freezer and
release/remove the sides of springform pan. Frost sides of cake with
cool whip and pipe a border on top of cake. *Had I transferred the cake
to a large serving platter I would have piped a bottom border, too, but
as you can see, I didn't.
Return to freezer until ready to serve.
Enjoy!
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