Chocolate Cookies with Peanut Butter Chips

I made these for a treat last Sunday when Travis' family came for dinner. I really enjoyed them! I got the recipe from a Baker's Chocolate book, but the original called for chocolate chips and walnuts. I felt like switching in the peanut butter chips and it definitely worked well! I loved this recipe too because you do it all in one bowl and makes the clean up easy!
Chocolate Cookies with Peanut butter Chips
1/2 bag of semi sweet chocolate chips
3/4 C brown sugar
1/4 C butter
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 C flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 bag peanut butter chips

Preheat oven to 350. Microwave chocolate chips for 2 minutes, stirring after 1. Stir until all is melted. Add brown sugar, butter, eggs and vanilla and stir til well mixed. Add flour and baking powder, mix well. Stir in peanut butter chips. Drop onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 12-13 minutes until puffy.

Fudge Nut Pie

Here it is, the yummiest pie of all! I made the family favorite, fudge nut pie, for some friends who came over for dinner on Saturday night. It was a hit! It's rich, thick, nutty, fudginess won their hearts! I know the original recipe calls for meringue, but I don't care for it. And some people serve it with whipped cream, but I just don't think it needs anything else except maybe a tall glass of cold milk.

Note: This recipe makes one really big heaping pie. I cut the recipe in half and it fit well into my pie crust.

Fudge Nut Pie
1 baked 10" pie shell
2 2/3 C sugar
1/2 C flour
1/2 C cocoa
2 cans evaporated milk
6 egg yolks, slightly beaten
4 T butter
3 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 C chopped walnuts

Sift together sugar, flour and cocoa; gradually stir in milk. Stir over medium heat until mixture comes to a boil and thickens. Reduce heat; cook and stir 4 minutes. Add a small amount to the egg yolks, then return it all to the pan. Cook and stir another 1-3 minutes until very thick. Remove from heat; stir in butter, vanilla, and nuts. Cool 5 minutes and turn into pie shell. Cover with meringue and bake at 350 for 12-15 minutes.

Monte Cristo

So I don't know if many people are familiar with a Monte Cristo sandwich, but my impression of them comes from Disneyland, where it is a deep fried ham and Swiss sandwich topped with powdered sugar and served with jam. I've been craving one terribly and I have no idea where else to find one.

I saw a recipe in a magazine for one, but it wasn't quite what I consider a Monte Cristo. It called for dijon mustard and had no powdered sugar or jam (so what would be the point?!). But it did have instructions for dipping it in a milk and egg mixture and frying it in oil, much like a French toast.

So we did these for dinner one night last week and really enjoyed it! It wasn't quite the deep fried version, but it certainly satisfied my craving!

Cinnamon and Raisin Swirl Bread

A few days ago we almost bought some cinnamon raisin bread, but decided it was kind of pricey. So I figured, why not try to make some? I know there are lots of recipes out there, but I turned to my good old favorite bread recipe that I make all the time. And when it was time to shape it, I rolled it out and filled it with cinnamon, sugar, and raisins. I topped it with a little sugar and cinnamon too. It turned out really yummy!

Chocolate Wedding Cookies

First off, my apologies for the crummy picture. But I still wanted to share the yumminess.

Yesterday was Travis' last day with his class so I figured we should celebrate with a treat. I asked him what sounded good and he asked for those wedding cookies I made before. So I did do those, but I also saw a recipe that uses the same thing but you put some chocolate chips in the center and add cocoa to the powdered sugar.

So I split the batter and did half and half. I really liked the chocolate, but I think the original kind were my favorite.

Cookies and Cream Cupcakes

Today I made these cupcakes for Travis' potluck tomorrow. It is the last one of the school year-I'm so sad! So anyway, I wanted to try out a recipe from a new cupcake book that my sister, Cherie, gave me for my birthday. I made cookies and cream cupcakes with a chocolate frosting and topped them with white chocolate stars.



Originally I wanted to make hi-hat cupcakes, which look something like this:

But apparently it is harder than it looks. :-(

So, I made my cute little chocolate stars instead. These were actually more difficult to make than the regular chocolate ones I made the other day. I don't know what the difference was, but they gave me a tough time and kept breaking. But I managed to pull it off!

Oh yes, and as for the recipe: thumbs up yumminess!


Cookies and Cream Cupcakes
1 stick butter at room temperature
1 C milk
2 tsp vanilla
2 1/4 C flour
1 T baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 2/3 C sugar
3 large egg whites at room temp.
1 C crushed Oreos

Preheat oven to 350 and line cupcake pan with liners or spray with cooking spray.
Cream together butter, milk, and vanilla for 3-5 minutes.
In a separate bowl combine flour, baking powder, and salt.
Add the dry ingredients to butter mixture. Stir in sugar. Beat for 30 seconds on low speed, then on a medium speed for 2 minutes. Add the egg whites and beat for 2 more minutes. Stir in Oreos.
Fill cupcake liners 3/4 full. Bake about 20 minutes.

Chocolate Frosting
6 T butter
2 tsp vanilla
3 C powdered sugar
3/4 C cocoa powder
1/3 C milk

Cream the butter and vanilla with electric mixer. In a separate bowl combine powdered sugar and cocoa. Add the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture until fluffy and fully mixed. Slowly add the milk until you have reached desired consistency. You may not need all of the milk. Beat until creamy.
(I doubled the frosting recipe so I could get higher frosting swirls and this is a pretty dark chocolate frosting so if you didn't want it to be quite as strong you could easily cut back and use less cocoa.)

Chocolate Silk Pie

This weekend we were invited to dinner by a sweet lady that Travis works with. When we asked if we could bring something, she said I could bring dessert. Does anyone have any idea how happy they make me when they suggest I bring dessert?! Seriously, it makes my day.

So I went to my notebook (yes, a notebook) full of all the recipes I'm dying to try as soon as I have an excuse, and I picked this one. I took this out of a cookbook that came with my kitchenaid. And I've been in a pie mood recently, so it was perfect! I used the same pie crust as my last dessert, which is my family's favorite that comes from my Grandma Summers.
I liked this pie, but I can't say that I loved it. Actually, after I made it I was thinking about my most favorite pie ever, fudge-nut pie and wished that I thought to make that one. So, I wrote it in my notebook for another time!


Chocolate Silk Pie
1 1/2 C sugar
3 T unsweetened cocoa powder
3 eggs
2/3 C evaporated milk
1/2 C melted butter/margarine
1 tsp vanilla
1 unbaked pie crust
whipped cream-optional

Preheat over to 350. Place ungreased cookie sheet in over to preheat.
Mix sugar and cocoa. Gradually add eggs, evaporated milk, butter and vanilla. Beat on medium speed about 2 minutes. Pour into pie crust and place on preheated cookie sheet. Bake 55-60 minutes or until the center puffs up and pie is set. Cool completely and top with whipped cream.