Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

My most favorite cookie EVER! I've been making these for years!

You can find the recipe on the back of some of the miniature Reese's Peanut Butter Cup bags but I use a slightly different version that is posted at AllRecipes. Even with that recipe I do a couple of things differently. 

First off, to keep the peanut butter cup from melting and losing it's shape I freeze them ahead of time. I also recommend using a medium sized cookie scoop (measures about 1.75" across) - when you use the scoop the cookies end up being the same size and they bake evenly. Instead of ending up with 40 cookies (as the recipe states) in my version you end up with approximately 28.  However, since mini-muffin pans have only 24 cups you could save some time and add a tad bit more dough to each cookie.....

Here's the recipe: 

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup peanut butter

1/2 cup brown sugar, packed

1 egg, beaten

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 tablespoons milk

28 miniature Reese's Peanut Butter Cups (frozen - put in freezer for at least 30 minutes)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Sift together the flour, salt and baking soda; set aside.
2. Cream together the butter, sugar, peanut butter and brown sugar until fluffy. Beat in the egg, vanilla and milk. Add the flour mixture; mix well. 
3. Scoop cookie dough using the medium sized cookie shape dough into 28 balls and place each into an ungreased mini muffin pan.
4. Bake at 375 degrees for about 9 minutes. While the cookies are baking remove the wrappers from the miniature Reese's Peanut Butter cups.
5. When cookies are done baking remove them from the oven and immediately press a mini Reese's Peanut Butter Cup into each cookie. Cool and carefully remove from pan (I use a small spoon to help lift them it out.)

Cooling in the pan....

This baby's got some height and weight to it!

Wrapped and ready for a cookie exchange!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving! So much to be thankful for!

This morning I got to sleep in for a whole extra 20 minutes! WHOO -HOO! (Hey, I'll take what I can get!) 

Soon after we woke Kailani saw a rainbow....right next to the moon that hadn't yet set:

WOW. What an awesome way to start the day!

Another awesome thing was that I wasn't expected to cook a big elaborate Thanksgiving feast. Whew! Thank goodness for Thanksgiving dinner packages offered by nearby restaurants! So, without having to dedicate all that time in the kitchen I used the time to do some fun domestic stuff with the girls. 

Since I opted out of ordering or making the traditional pumpkin pie I decided to have the girls help me with a local Hawaiian/Japanese favorite, pumpkin mochi! If you've never had mochi it's a bit hard to describe. It's gooey, it's sticky, it's yummy....but a lot of people can't get past the texture. Having grown up eating it I don't have any problems with it. The problem I DO have with mochi is that, well, I LOVE it TOO darn much! 



Busy at work!


Using the recipe from AllRecipes here's how it came out:

No.....it's not pumpkin pie but pumpkin mochi with a dollop of whipped cream!

I don't normally cut pumpkin mochi this way but I thought I would try to psych Kailani out and it worked. She truly thought it was pumpkin pie but was not at all disappointed to find out it was pumpkin mochi. 

 

Pumpkin Mochi

Usually I cut the mochi into bite size pieces. BIG bite size pieces. HA!

After we made the pumpkin mochi we then made pumpkin pie playdough! It was easy, fun, and smelled heavenly! And it was SUPER soft....but not so soft that you can't mold it. According to the instructions the play dough will keep for about a week if you store it in a sealed plasItic bag. (By the way...it also says you need 2-3 hours to make it but it took more like 45 minutes - and that's with having to stop to help the girls with the mixing.Thought it was worth a mention.)   

Pumpkin Pie Spice Play Dough

The girls attempted to make some pumpkins out of the pumpkin play dough.

The play dough kept them occupied for a good chunk of the afternoon. Kailani also used cookie cutters and had her own little bakery going. Check out the sign she posted for her shop:

Notice that the cookies are $.25 but tips are $1.00 or $.50. Well, that is if you don't get the "other cookies" for $.99. What an imagination this kiddo has! 

Hope you had a great Thanksgiving!

Pizza Swirls

My friend, Lei recommended that I try out this recipe and I'm so glad that she did! It was a huge hit in our house....everyone loved it (and that's rare. There's always someone that isn't pleased - isn't that always the case?)

I was a bit intimated about baking my own bread but in the end it was worth it and not nearly as difficult as I imagined. The bread was PERFECT! So incredibly soft! I made one roll with pepperoni and one without. While there were a few leftovers they were gobbled up for breakfast! 

Lei found the from Allrecipes but I will post it here as well. The changes I made (just a few) are in blue.

Ingredients:

Bread:
1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
1 1/3 cups warm water (110 degrees to 115 degrees F)
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

SAUCE:
1/4 cup chopped onion
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
1/4 teaspoon dried basil

TOPPINGS:
4 cups shredded mozzarella cheese, divided
2 (3 ounce) packages sliced pepperoni (we used turkey pepperoni and only used one package. I chopped the pepperoni into small pieces.)
1 (2.25 ounce) can chopped ripe olives, drained (we did not add olives)


Directions:

In a mixing bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water.
Add oil, sugar, salt and 2 cups flour; beat until smooth.
Stir in enough remaining flour to form a soft dough.
Turn onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 6-8 minutes.
Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease top.
Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Punch dough down.
Turn onto a floured surface; divide in half.
Roll each portion into a 12-in. x 8-in. rectangle; set aside.


For sauce, combine the onion and garlic in a microwave-safe dish. Cover and microwave on high for 1 minute.
Add tomato sauce and basil; cover and cook at 50% power for 3 minutes or until bubbly.
Spoon over crust to within 1/2-in. of edges.
Sprinkle with 3 cups mozzarella cheese, pepperoni and olives.


Roll up jelly-roll style, starting with a long side; pinch seam to seal.
Cut each roll into 12 slices.
Place cut side down on a greased baking sheet.
Sprinkle with remaining cheese.
Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes or until crust is golden and cheese is melted.
Serve warm.

There are so many variations that you could do with this recipe - buy store bought dough  and/or store-bought spaghetti sauce....but seriously.....I'd leave it just the way it was written! This recipe is definitely a KEEPER!