12 days of cookies: peanut blossoms

I seriously can’t believe it is only two days before Christmas… and not even full days! Christmas has come way too fast and before I know it, it’ll be the new year and I will be running in the Disney 1/2 marathon – only 2 weeks and a day away! Well, there’s still time for two more cookie recipes to round out the 12 days of cookies and you will be sure they do not disappoint.

Peanut blossoms have been a staple in my house at Christmas for as long as I can remember. I personally like the chocolate star topping the best – it is the perfect size and it is easy enough to get some chocolate in each and every bite. If you can’t find chocolate stars, then you can substitute kisses (might want to spring for the ones out of the wrappers!) or four Christmas-colored m&m’s on top. This recipe makes 7 dozen… which might seem like a lot, but they will be gone faster than you could imagine.

Peanut Blossoms

• 1 cup unsalted butter
• 1 cup natural peanut butter (I used Skippy)
• 1/2c brown sugar
• 1/2c organic white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2t vanilla
• 4T milk
• 1 package gluten free bisquick
• 2t xanthan gum
• 2t baking soda
• 1t salt
• chocolate stars/kisses/m&m’s

1. Cream together the butter, peanut butter and sugars until all creamy (I cut the sugar quantity in this recipe in half – I couldn’t put in 2 cups of sugar!).

2. Add in the eggs and vanilla and milk. Mix to combine.

3. Put in the xanthan gum, baking soda and salt, and then gradually add in the bisquick. Doing your dry ingredients this way helps keep this to a one-bowl recipe!

4. Scoop the dough into balls (I used a small cookie scoop and then rolled into round balls). Roll into additional sugar to coat the outside of the dough.

5. Place on to a lined baking sheet, and bake in a 375′ preheated oven for 8 minutes.

6. Take out of the oven and place a chocolate star on the top of each one. Put back into the oven and bake for an additional 2 minutes. Remove from the oven and move to a cooling rack.

Once again, the gluten free bisquick makes this recipe just as good as the original… if not better because of the extra puffyness!

You can make this dough in advance and keep in the fridge for a couple days, but the balls are easier to roll when you make them right away. These cookies are also Santa approved ;).

Check back tomorrow for the 12th day of the 12 days of cookies! We’re trying out a new recipe tonight, so hopefully it turns out!!!

peanut butter pretzels

Saturday was a very good day.  My best friend, Ashley, came down for the afternoon and we went to the pumpkin patch!  Some may say that the pumpkin patch is for kids, but Ashley, Kinley and I had more fun than any of the other kids there that day.  It was almost a perfect fall day – although it was a bit windy with some gusts up to 20mph ;).  We took a hayride out to the pumpkin field and picked our pumpkins.  It took me awhile to pick one that I liked, they seemed to be pretty picked over already for there still being a couple weeks ’til Halloween!

After we picked our pumpkins and put them in the car, we went right back in to the corn maze.  I love going in corn mazes and have gone to one each year for the past 4-5 years.  I think part of why I like them so much is that for some reason I am extremely good at reading directions to get from one point to the next.  Occasionally I get turned around, but for the most part I am right on ;).

After we had our fun learning Wisconsin trivia in the Wisconsin-shaped corn maze (did you know Milwaukee was once known as Milloki?  Who knew!), we headed to a coffee shop to hang out some more.  There was a grocery store across the way and for some reason we still were up for some walking and decided to wander down the aisles – oh, what we do for fun…  Well, I passed by their various candies and treats and spotted peanut butter pretzels.  I had never had pretzels like these before, but I instantly wanted them and knew I (obviously) couldn’t have them.

Luckily, we were in a grocery store.  A grocery store that had gluten free pretzels and peanut butter chips not made on equipment shared with wheat!  Obviously we just had to pick these two items up and headed on our way.  And what we made was the most delicious confection I have had in quite some time.  I absolutely love pretzels, even more so when they are coated in chocolate.  And peanut butter is good on anything.  I had never had gluten free pretzels before these, and I was more than pleasantly surprised that they tasted just like I remembered!  These are my new favorite treat and absolutely perfect for fall!

Peanut Butter Pretzels multiply recipe as many times as you wish

1 serving gluten free pretzels (I used Snyder’s)
1 serving peanut butter chips
1-2t grapeseed oil
sprinkles (optional)

1.  In a double boiler, heat up the peanut butter chips with the grapeseed oil until melty and smooth.
2. Lay out a sheet of parchment paper and a handful of pretzels to coat.
3. Dip each pretzel individually in the peanut butter coating, twisting to make sure the peanut butter isn’t too thick (unless you want really thick coating).
4. Lay the coated pretzel on the wax paper and top with your desired sprinkles or decoration.
5. Let set up before trying to move them anywhere, although you don’t have to wait to eat them if you can’t stand it anymore!
6. Enjoy!

These would even be a fabulous activity for kids – although I think I have proven you don’t have to be a kid to enjoy Fall activities ;).

 

heat advisory

One week it’s in the 60’s… the next it’s in the 90’s.  95* currently to be exact.  But don’t worry… it’ll be back in the 60’s by Thursday so I guess it’s just time to enjoy the heat while it lasts, which is exactly what I did.

I met up with a friend this morning and we headed to the beach in Milwaukee, even seeing a TV anchor taping all of the beach-goers.  I made sure to put on plenty of sunscreen to not look like a giant tomato during an interview I have tomorrow – and so far I’m looking alright!

If you’re experiencing any kind of heat similar to what I’m experiencing here in Wisconsin today, I bet that drink is looking mighty tasty up above!  Don’t worry, I’ll provide the super simple recipe below for this wonderful smoothie to get you through the hottest of days :).

Peanut Butter Banana Smoothie

• Approximately 1 1/2 frozen bananas (just peel and chunk up a few bananas and throw them in a container in the fridge)
• 1 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk
• 2T PB2 (I’m guessing 1T of regular creamy peanut butter would work here as well)

Simply add the above three ingredients to a blender (or magic bullet) and puree until smooth.  For an even colder concoction, freeze the almond milk in an ice cube tray before blending.  As long as you’ve got a few bananas and some almond milk ice cubes, you’ll be ready to make this recipe any time.

Adding some chocolate sauce wouldn’t hurt a thing either.

p[ea]nut love

I am inspired by peas.  Well, one Pea in particular.  Mama Pea.  And when she says that her Peanut Butter Cookie Dough Balls are the best recipe she has ever made?  Of course I made three batches.

Peanut Butter Cookie Dough Balls from Peas and Thank You

• 1/2 cup earth balance (or any other non-dairy margarine)
• 3/4 cup natural peanut butter (naturally, I used Trader Joe’s natural creamy)
• *1/4 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk*
• 1/2 cup unpacked brown sugar
• 3/4 cup powdered sugar
• 1/2t vanilla extract
• 1t baking powder
• 1/2t baking soda
• 3/4t salt
• 1 1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
• 1 cup + non-dairy chocolate chips (Trader Joe’s definitely makes the best semi-sweet chocolate chips around)

*the almond milk is optional based on if your dough is too dry without it, I found that mine was so after making the first batch I combined it in with the wet ingredients

1. Beat earth balance, peanut butter, both sugars, almond milk and vanilla until fully incorporated.

2. In a smaller bowl combine baking powder, soda, salt and flour.

3. Add the dry ingredients to the wet, a little at a time until almost mixed together.

4. Now add the chocolate chips that you managed to not nibble on during the making of the dough.

5.  Chill dough for roughly 30 minutes.

6. Preheat oven to 350*.  Roll the dough into small balls.  Roll these in your hands to look more like a dough ball and less like a scoop of ice cream.  Place on a lined cookie sheet (they don’t spread so you can fit a lot on each sheet).

The mini cookie scoop I used made tablespoon-sized balls, perfect for a party.

Bake for 8-10 minutes (mine were small so if you make larger ones the time might be slightly more).  But do not overbake.  I repeat, do not overbake.

Doesn’t that make for an awesome dessert selection.

Peas and Thank You, Mama Pea.

pb&j bar

Originally, I was just going to have appetizers to serve at my graduation party to avoid attempting to find something that would be a crowd-pleaser for dinner.  It is also tricky to find something that incorporates my dairy-free and no-meat diet that is still popular with everyone.  Thus, the PB&J bar was born!

I think everyone was pleased with this “spread”!  Most of the items were store-bought which made it so simple to put together, but because of the mason jars, I was asked over and over again if everything was homemade!  All of the ingredients are from Trader Joe’s, I just love that place!  We had:

Natural Creamy & Chunky Peanut Butter

Sunflower Seed Butter

2 Kinds of Homemade Almond Butter (recipes below)

Blueberry & Strawberry Preserves

Apple Butter

Mango Butter

Honey

About 5 loaves of whole-grain bread (we got a mix of sprouted, different grains as well as cinnamon-raisin bagels which Grandpa adored).

Just make sure that you have plenty of knives laid out for people to use!  It seemed like most people put a variety of spreads on their bread and very much enjoyed everything!  My cousin even dipped some crackers in one of the homemade almond butters because it was just that good!

To make the almond butters, I used ideas from two recipes from The Edible Perspective.  The recipes can be found here and here.  To start out, I had a 16oz bag of raw almonds from Trader Joe’s.  Each recipe called for 2cups of raw almonds.  I separated the bag of almonds by weight (8oz which is just shy of 2cups) to make the following almond butters.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Almond Butter

• 8oz raw almonds
• 1T brown sugar
• 1/4t salt
• 2t vanilla extract
• 1/3t almond extract
• 1T grapeseed oil
• 1/2 cup chunked dark chocolate

Vanilla Maple + Cinnamon Almond Butter

• 8oz raw almonds
• 1T pure maple syrup
• 2t vanilla extract
• 1/2t cinnamon
• 1/4t salt
• 1-2T grapeseed oil

Directions

1. In a 325* oven, roast the raw almonds for 12-18 minutes, flipping every 4-5 minutes.  Let cool for 5 minutes on the baking sheet.

2. Place the almonds in a food processor and turn on for 6-10 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl occasionally.  Eventually it will start to look more and more like almond butter.  You can add additional oil at this point if it isn’t starting to come together (mine did no problem so I did not need to add additional at this point).

3. Add in the desired additions and mix until incorporated.  At this point, my almond butters stiffened dramatically so I added grapeseed oil to both to reach the consistency I wanted.

4. Spoon into a jar and keep at room temperature if you will eat within 2-3 weeks (both recipes make around 1 cup of almond butter, which is no problem to finish off in this household), otherwise keep in the fridge.  For the chocolate chip cookie dough flavor, refrigerate the base for an hour before stirring in the chocolate chunks or else the chocolate will melt all over (which probably wouldn’t actually be a bad thing ;), just would not look as much like cookie dough).