Peanut Butter Brownies

Mmmm peanut butter brownies- how could you not love this idea (unless you're allergic to peanuts)?

I'll tell you how- reading the recipe to find that you'll need a stick and half of butter to make an 8x8 in pan of brownies. That's 1.5 tbsp of butter per square inch of brownie.

Ok, so if you're not quite so calorie conscious as I am, you'd thoroughly enjoy this decadent dessert.

Line brownie pan with parchment, thusly:

Mix up your choc (melted), butter, sugar and eggs:

and then make the peanut butter swirl sauce- a combo of vanilla, sugar peanut butter and- you guessed it- even more unsalted butter:

Scott actually helped cook this recipe- normally he's on camera duty, but he got this nice jar shot before he started in on his mixing:

after all this, you add dry ingredients to your chocolate batter

then move to your papered pan, and swirl in the peanut butter sauce- cutting with a knife.

Very heavy, and a bit dry which I couldn't believe based on fat in both batters. All in all a nice taste. I served at our Oscar party, and most folks liked them, but I have to say I was expecting a bit more out of my first homemade brownie recipe.

Madelines

I got a very lovely valentines day gift from Scott- a new cookie tray, and decided to use it immediately as I had all of the essential ingredients for making Madelines. This particular varietal is lemon flavored, so it included along with cake flour, some butter and eggs, a bit of lemon juice and rind.

Can you tell by now that we had a technical flub? In my excitement to try out my new pan, I neglected to notice that my camera battery was out of juice, before mixing the batter, so you guys get no procedural photos, only the end shot. I can tell you that baking these is pretty easy - the only tough part was getting the dough into the pan.

Grease pan liberally, and I'd even grease the spoon. After letting this dough rest for a half hour as per the recipe- it became quite sticky. Oh- and do abide their request to fill only 3/4 full- although that's a little difficult to eyeball due to the odd nature of the pan recessions- the one's that I overfilled definitely bubbled over and kind of lost their pretty shape and golden edges.

Oatmeal Raisin- One of My Favorites

Yah! Finally something more normal for Scott! Oh, but wait- not a big raisin fan- oops. Well I already bought the tub of oatmeal (and we don't eat oatmeal that often) so I'm going ahead with this recipe anyway. Also, kudos to him for this excellent oatmeal action shot.



I may be repeating myself here- but I'm slowly getting the hang of this- cream butter and sugar, mix dry and incorporate!



The more I say it, the quicker I get. I didn't think this experiment would make me actually enjoy baking, but much to my surprise, I think it's growing on me- the routine of it perhaps? I love routines- dance routines, ice skating routines, daily routines- so I suppose I should have know all along....I just hope I'm not addicted- I made 4 batches of cookies this week- so I may have to throttle back.

Back to the recipe, same as the last one I made add in your flavor- raisins and wheat germ in this case, spoon onto baking sheet and throw into the oven.

A lovely batch- halved and still came out with about 24 cookies. Co-workers loved them- who wouldn't they're a staple American lunch dessert. I unfortunately can't say the same for the hubs.

Cornmeal, Thyme Cookies

These were really interesting and surprisingly crisp.



First it was choppin thyme- ahaha, get it...



Then on to creaming butter & sugar, and mixing dry ingredients- including an unusual appearance by cornmeal and currants (dried- I've made the mistake of baking with uncalled for fresh currants before, so I knew better this time around):

Mix em together, drop on a cookie sheet and here we go!

These were very tasty little buggers- although I still can't figure out why when Martha says my cookies should be flat they're poofy, and vice versa. These seemed to be a thyme and current flavored butter cookie of sorts based on the picture, but they came out raised. Still tasted awesome though. I served for dessert after a chicken fajita meal, and the cornmeal really played well with the flavors from dinner. I'll definitely repeat.

Almond Macaroons

What in the hell? These were the weirdest cookies to make. Recipe looked simple enough: little flour,



Marzipan, some baking powder, and mix with egg white and vanilla

then top with almond slivers (I slivered myself even though I found a package of slivered almonds buried in my pantry later that weekend.)

They didn't taste terrible, in fact my dad scarfed down quite a few at mom's bday celebrations, but they came out completely flat- although they did not look like that in the pic in the book. I think it might have had something to do with not beating the egg white- instructions were to mix in with marzipan- and I assume if it had been aerated it would have puffed a bit more. All in all a disappointing outcome.

Honey Florentines

I take it back about the macaroons- these have to be the easiest thing to make in the book. And so pretty! Only 5 ingredients, including honey which always makes things taste good in my opinion. Combo the sugar and butter to simmer:

Mix dry into the prepared sauce:

then drop on a cookie sheet and bake for six minutes! Six minutes!! How can it get any better.




After they bake (did I say it was only for six minutes already??), you should certainly heed the recipe's advice to let them cool completely before removing from the baking surface.





It always takes me a bit longer to finish since I'm photoing the whole process, but sans photography time, I bet I whipped these up in about 10 minutes. They are freaking awesome. I'm not a big fan of over-sized floury cookies- I much prefer something more delicate. These are paper thin, and remind me of lace. They have a crunch, but almost melt in your mouth after you bite. They would be a perfect piece to top a fancy sorbet or ice cream dessert. I may try these again with some additional flavor- lemon, almond perhaps.

I highly recommend!