Chocolate Peanut Butter Easter Eggs

This started out as an experiment. I had tried other recipes for peanut butter cups, but they never tasted quite right. My husband said they just weren't "peanutty" enough. So like the proverbial mad scientist, I went into the kitchen, determined to make a more "peanutty" peanut butter cup!! After a couple of tries, I made some ingredient adjustments and came up with this recipe. I recommend you use a high quality milk chocolate, but it must be tempered. If tempering chocolate seems too intimidating, you can use milk chocolate flavored candy melts.

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Jacque's Peanut Butter Cups

1/4 cup unsalted dry roasted peanuts

1/2 cup peanut butter

2  Tablespoons softened butter

dash salt

1 Tablespoon brown sugar

3/4 cups powdered sugar

Melted Milk chocolate ( tempered)

Grind peanuts very fine in a blender or processor. In a bowl, Mix together  ground peanuts, peanut butter, butter, salt and brown sugar. Add Powdered sugar and incorporate until you have a nice dough, about the same feel as a pastry dough. 

If it is too crumbly, add more peanut butter. If too soft, add more powdered sugar.

Roll out on a silicone mat or wax paper about 3/8" thick.

 Using a 3/4" circle cutter, cut out patties and set aside.

Use only what you need. Wrap remaining dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate.

Fill a medium sized Peanut Butter Cup mold  almost half full with milk chocolate.

Using a stiff artist brush, paint the chocolate up the sides of the molds.

Place peanut pattie in each cup. 

Drop enough chocolate over the top of the patties to fill cups.
 Lightly tap mold on counter to remove bubbles. Place in freezer for 5 minutes. Pop out of mold.

Wash mold and repeat process.

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For Easter Eggs, use a chocolate egg mold.  Form the peanut butter centers into ovals instead of round.

 Follow the directions as shown above.

Pop out of mold for your own Chocolate Peanutbutter Eggs.

Now if you want the Easter Bunny to deliver these, you will have to hide them!

Because they are likely to disappear "mysteriously".  ;-)

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Photography and Tutorial by Jacque Benson 2010- All Rights Reserved

This material may not be republished or reproduced in any manner without the expressed permission of the author.

Christmas Trees Tutorial

Supplies :

Waffle Cones for Ice cream

Small bowl with 1/2 inch water

scissors

Forest Green Royal Icing

Piping bag with #67
Piping tip

Yellow colored Gumpaste

3/4" Five petal or Star Cutter

Gumglue or piping gel

Wilton Pastel Candies
Dragees

Place two waffle cones together as shown.

Place in shallow water for 15- 20 seconds.

Remove from water and, using scissors, cut away soft edge of cone

until bottom edge is even and level.

Using royal icing, attach the cones to make "trees".

Starting at bottom of tree, begin piping leaves pulling out as you pipe.

Continue until you have filled the tree with "fir branches", leaving about 3/4" at top bare so you can move your tree into place. When the tree is placed where you want it on your cake or board, you can fill in the remainder of the top of the tree.

Roll out yellow gumpaste to about 1/4" thickness and cut out a star using your cutter. Place a yellow pastel candy on both sides of star, using gumglue or piping gel. Place on top of tree and secure with royal icing. Hold in place until firmly set.

Decorate your tree with colored pastels and dragees, securing with fresh royal icing if needed.

Photography and Tutorial by Jacque Benson
2009 copyright all rights reserved
This material may not be republished or reproduced in any manner without the expressed permission of the author.

Hoot Owl Cookies....Hoot! Hoot!

When I was a little girl, my fondest memories are of my mother happily baking in the kitchen. And in the Autumn and Winter, she was baking every chance she could get. I remember once coming home from "trick 'r treating" to the smell of homemade raised donuts. Ooooh if you ever tasted my mother's donuts, it would ruin you for life on the donut shops!

This recipe for Hoot Owl Cookies is a refrigerator cookie. Mom used to make these around Halloween.
It comes from an Old Pillsbury Family cookbook, but I have adjusted the recipe a bit.

2-1/2 cups cake flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp fine salt

3/4 cup butter

1 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1 egg

1/2 tsp madagascar vanilla

1/4 teaspoon Caramel Lorann Oil

1-1/2 squares unsweetened baking chocolate, melted and cooled

1/4 tsp baking soda

***

For decorating

Semi-sweet or Milk chocolate Chips for eyes

White Chocolate Chips or Cashews for beak

In a bowl, Sift flour with baking powder and salt. Set aside. In mixing bowl, cream butter with electric mixer at med speed , beat until creamy smooth, then gradually add brown sugar, incorporating well. Add egg, vanilla and Lorann Oil and mix well. Stir in flour mixture, adding 1/4 cup at a time until well mixed.

Divide cookie dough into thirds, and remove 1/3 dough. Stir baking soda into chocolate, then add to the 1/3 dough, mixing well. Cover and chill until the dough can be easily handled.

Divide the plain and chocolate dough in half. Return half of the dough to refrigerator.

Roll the plain dough to a 4-1/2 x 10" rectangle on lightly floured wax paper. Roll the chocolate dough into a 10" long roll. Place the chocolate roll on the center of the rectangle

.

Lift the sides of the of the wax paper to roll cover the chocolate roll with the plain dough.

Wrap the wax paper around the dough and chill. Repeat process with remaining cookie dough.

Chill dough well, for at least two hours. I usually prepare the night before and allow to chill overnight for easier handling.

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Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cut the firmly chilled roll into 1/8-1/4" slices.

Place two sliced cookies touching in the middle on a greased cookie sheet or Silpat mat.

This creates the owl face with two eyes.

After all the cookies are placed on the cookie sheet, they will have softened. Pinch the top corners of the cookie to make ears.

If you want to make a Menacing Owl, push the top of plain cookie dough forward over chocolate dough eye, as shown.

Place one chocolate chip on each eye. You can place them with the point up, but I also like to push the pointed end of the chocolate chip into the cookie to create a flat pupil to the eye.

The original recipe calls for a cashew nut for the owl's beak. This is quick and easy, and once the cookies are baked and cooled, they will be ready to serve. But because nut allergies have become prevalent, if I am baking for a group other than my family, I wait until the cookies have cooled and add the beak later, using white chocolate.

Bake the cookies in a 350 oven for 8-12 minutes until lightly browned on the sides. Remove from oven and place cookies on a cooling rack.

When the cookies have thoroughly cooled, melt about 1/2 cup of White Chocolate chips. Spoon melted chocolate into a plastic pastry bag with a #8 tip.

Pipe a bead on the left side of bottom center, as shown. Repeat same step on the right side, the pipe over the middle, pulling down to the bottom creating a beak.

Allow the chocolate to completely cool and firm up.

You can make these look like cute Hoot owls, or if I make them look menacing,
my husband calls them Horned Owls.

To each his own.

Hey, it is Halloween after all! We can become anything we want on that day!!

Happy Hauntings!




Note:
The creator of this recipe is Natalie R Riggin

It was the 2nd Grand Prize Winner in the Pillsbury Bakeoff in 1956

The link to the original recipe

Thank you Natalie. This has been a family favorite for years!

Photos by Jacque Benson -2009 all rights reserved.

Key Lime Cookie Tree Centerpiece

Key Lime Cookie Tree

  Ingredients and Supplies

  Cookies

·                        1 cup butter (no substitutes)

·                        1/2 cup sugar

·                        1/4 cup Nellie and Joes’ key lime juice

·                        1 teaspoon vanilla

·                        2 1/4 cup all-purpose flour

·                        ¼  cup confectioner’s sugar

·                         

 Icing

·                       2 tablespoon meringue powder

·                        1/4 cup warm water 

                     + 2 tablespoons key lime juice

·                        3 cups sifted powdered sugar

·                        1 teaspoon vanilla

·                        1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

·                        1 - 2 colors assorted paste food coloring-

                     mint green, teal, aqua

·                         

Supplies

·                        Rolling Pin

·                        Parchment Paper

·                        2” and 1” leaf cookie cutters

·                        Thin bamboo skewers, cut to 3” lengths

·                        Tooth picks

·                        Piping bags

·                        #2 or #3 piping tip

·                        Glue

·                        6 inch Styrofoam cone
                          6-8” plastic plate or covered cardboard cake circle

·                        Small needlenose craft pliers

·                        Confectioner’s Sugar for decorating

                         silver and/or gold dragees (optional)

·                        White Sparkle gel
                         Star shaped lollipop

Directions

·                               1. Beat butter with an electric mixer on medium speed for 30 seconds. Beat
in sugar until combined. Beat key lime juice, and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Beat in as much flour as you can with the mixer. Stir in remaining flour with a wooden spoon. Divide dough in half. Cover and chill 1 hour or overnight until easy to handle.

·                               2. Sprinkle Parchment paper with confectioner’s sugar. Roll each portion
of dough on a lightly dusted surface until 1/4-inch thick. Cut out using floured light leaf-shape cookie cutters. Lift away unused cookie dough, wrapping in plastic wrap and place back in refrigerator to cool. Insert bamboo skewer into larger leaf cookies, and toothpick into center of small leaf cookies. 
(If skewer is exposed, pinch dough up around the skewer to cover, then place that side down on the parchment
paper. )  Place the parchment with cookies on an ungreased cookie sheet.

·                               3. Bake in a 350 degree F oven for 8 to 10 minutes or until light brown around edges. Transfer cookies to wire racks to cool. Allow to cool completely before icing the leaves.

·                               4. For icing: combine meringue powder, warm water, key lime juice, powdered sugar, 1 teaspoon vanilla, and cream of tartar in a large mixing bowl. Beat with an electric mixer on low speed until combined, then on high speed for 7 to 10 minutes or until smooth and of spreading consistency. Divide into portions and color with aqua, teal, and mint green paste food coloring. Use at once to frost cookies.

 

·                               5. Fill piping bag with icings and pipe a Line around the edge of each cookie.

When finished, thin remaining icing with water until proper consistency for flooding cookies.  Icing is ready to fill  in outlines when a small amount dropped  from a spoon into the mixture disappears on the count of ten..

  Place on racks until set.

 

·                               6.Glue Styrofoam cone onto a plastic  plate or covered cake circle. ( I inverted a clear plastic plate purchased from the dollar store.) Sprinkle confectioner’s sugar onto the cone.

·                               7. Starting at the bottom, carefully push the larger cookies into the Styrofoam cone using a pair of small needlenose craft pliers on skewers and toothpickes. Do not push on cookies as they will break. 

Continue adding cookies , using large cookies at bottom, then adding smaller cookies toward the top of cone. Use leftover small leaf cookies to fill in gaps on lower part of cone.

·                               8.To decorate the tree, run a small line of sparkle gel around the tips
of cookies to resemble icicles.  Place dragees on the tips of leaves. The sparkle gel will hold the dragees in place. Sprinkle the tree with confectioners sugar to resemble snow. Cut stem of lollipop to 2” and
place the star lollipop on top of the tree by inserting stem into upper tip of cone.

 Tutorial and photography by Jacque Benson

All rights reserved 2011

This material may not be republished or reproduced in any manner without the expressed permission of the author.

Recipe inspired and adapted from

Lime Cookie Lights by Better Homes and Gardens

Grandma's Sherry Cake

Looking for something a little different to serve for the holidays?

My Grandmother made the best sherry cake I have ever eaten.
After she passed away, I found her prize recipe.
Although her recipe was a doctored cake mix, her secret to
this very special cake was the thin custard she drizzled over
the cake while still warm.



I decided to recreate her cake by replacing the doctored cake mix with a recipe using all ingredients from scratch.
Here is the result:

Grandma's Sherry Cake

4 oz cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup cream sherry
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1-2/3 cups cake flour
1/3 cup almond flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 325 degrees
In a small bowl, whisk together flour, almond flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder; set aside. With mixer, beat cream cheese until smooth; add sherry and incorporate into cream cheese, then cream in butter and add oil in a stream until emulsified.
Add sugar and beat until fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time. Add dry ingredients gradually until mixed in, then add vanilla.

*Pour into a prepared 9" pan ( greased and floured ) and bake for 30-35 minutes until cake tester comes out clean.
Place on cooling rack, and while warm drizzle sugar syrup over cake. Allow to cool to room temp, then drizzle custard icing over all.

Sugar Syrup

1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
2 T cream sherry
1 tsp vanilla

In a small saucepan, bring sugar and water to a boil, stirring until sugar dissolves. Add sherry and vanilla.

Sherry Custard Icing

2/3 cup milk
4 Tablespoons flour
1/2 cup cream sherry
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter

Stir milk and flour in heavy saucepan over med heat, stirring constantly until thickened to the consistency of heavy cream; add sherry and stir until well thickened. Cool until just warm.
In a small bowl, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy with a mixer. While beating, slowly pour in warm custard sauce and continue beating until smooth. Cool to room temperature.
Pour over cake.

* Can also be baked in 2- 6" pans.





recipe by Jacque Benson 2008

Lady Bug, Lady Bug, Fly Away Home

How to make a cute little lady bug:

3/4" ball black fondant
 pink fondant
 green fondant
Gum glue*
3/4" Circle Cutter
Scissors
#10 piping tip

*To make gum glue mix 1/8 tsp Tylose powder with
1 oz. warm water

Pinch a bit of black fondant

 and make a ¼” ball.   

Using the rest of the gumpaste,

 make an oval.

 Attach the two

 and set aside.

Roll out a small amount

 of pink fondant 

and using the ¾” cutter,

 make a circle.

With the scissors,

 cut a small “v” at one end of circle. 

 Press a line from “v” to other end of circle. Moisten the black ladybug

 with gum glue, and attach the pink ladybug wings. 

Roll a small amount

of green fondant very thin. 

Cut 5-6 dots from the green fondant

 using the small end of #10 piping tube.   

Place green dots  pink circle.

2015 All Rights Reserved

Jacque Benson

This material may not be reproduced without permission from the author.