Grab some milk because you’re going to want a big cold glass to go with these chocolatey cookies.
Here are all the ingredients to make your day a little sweeter.
The dough gets off to a delicious start with butter, sugar, brown sugar and creamy peanut butter.
When the dough is ready, these morsels get mixed in for a perfect marriage of peanut butter and chocolate. My favorite.
It’s easy to see why.
Chocolate and Peanut Butter Chip Cookies
1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/3 cup peanut butter
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 1/2 cups peanut butter morsels*
1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate morsels*
Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and line baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt and then set aside.
In a large bowl, beat butter, both sugars and peanut butter using a mixer until creamy. Add eggs and then vanilla, beating well until incorporated.
Slowly beat in the flour mixture. Stir in both morsels.
Chill dough for 15-20 minutes and then scoop onto prepared baking sheet placing 2 inches apart using a 1 1/2 inch scoop for evenly sized cookies.
Roll scooped dough into balls and gently flatten the tops of the cookies. * You can reserve some of the morsels to press into the tops of the cookies before baking.
Look how cute. And I’ve been playing around with different sayings to put on display in the kitchen so I thought it would be fun to say things with sugar, too.
I used this awesome sugar cookie recipe and two rectangular cookie cutters to make the signs.
The big cutter is 2 X 3 inches and the little one is 1 x 1.5 inches.
Once the cookies are baked and cooled, roll out vanilla fondant and you can use the same cutters to cover the cookie tops.
When rolling out fondant, keep your roller and work surface lightly coated in powdered sugar or corn starch so the fondant can be easily lifted and transferred.
Spread a thin layer of frosting on your cookies and then position the fondant in place. Gently press down and smooth out without making indentions in the fondant.
To make the signs, I used a mini spatula to press indentions into the fondant to create a border. The width of the spatula was also perfect for the middle horizontal lines, but you can also use any straight edge that works for you.
BTW, this mini spatula is one of my all-time favorite things in the kitchen. It’s from Pampered Chef if you want to track one down.
I also tinted some fondant light pink for even cuter signs.
Let the fondant dry out a little and then use a black edible ink pen to write something sweet … or sassy. If you write right away, the pen may make indentions in the fondant.
When done writing your words, use the same edible ink pen to fill in the borders. Indenting with the spatula helps to make sure you stay in the lines.
But wait, don’t you think these signs should totally stand up?
I think so, too.
Here, I used a small teardrop cutter to make triangle shapes by cutting off the rounded ends.
Then I attached the triangles to the cookie backs with melted peanut butter candy coating. You can use other colors, but the peanut butter wafers blended in with the cookie color nicely.
I’ve been monkeying around this weekend and made the sweetest little cake pops in partnership with Hulu to share with you guys. I’m working with them to help celebrate that all nine seasons of Curious George are now streaming only on Hulu and of course I had to explore how my favorite mischievous little monkey would look in cake pop form.
Okay …Who’s curious to find out how to make George and make people smile.
First, we need to mix up some cake and frosting and roll the mixture into balls. You can reference my basic cake pop instructions here for the full how-to and then follow along below to make them into mini monkeys.
Once you have all your balls rolled out, begin to shape the heads. Use a paper lollipop stick to make indentions on the front of the face and then roll it along the sides and surface to help smooth it out.
After shaping, chill the balls until firm.
Have some butterscotch or peanut butter morsels handy because they will be our ears.
Okay, first let me say… I really wanted to try and get George’s hair to curl like his cartoon. That said, you can skip this step and then just use a toothpick to swirl on little curls of melted chocolate on top of his head at the end of decorating.
But, if you are up for it… These are Moon and Star Sprinkles and the moons made perfectly proportioned hair. Let’s see.
Dip the ends of three moon sprinkles (one at a time) into melted chocolate candy coating and attach to the top and side of George’s head. You can help secure them by adding a little more coating around the base where they are attached. Just smooth it into the surface of the pop. Place shaped balls back in the fridge to chill again before dipping.
Insert a lollipop stick into the shaped ball and carefully dip the entire pop into chocolate candy coating. Remove and gently tap off any excess. Before the coating sets, attach two butterscotch or peanut butter morsels to the side of the head with the bottoms facing forward for ears. Let dry completely.
Voila… now we’re ready to fill in these blank faces.
For the fronts of the faces, you can use peanut butter or butterscotch candy wafers. If you can’t find those flavors, then you can also just make your chocolate candy coating lighter by mixing in white candy coating. Here I placed some peanut butter flavored candy coating in a small container and dipped the front of George’s mouth area into it. Remove and then apply more coating to his eye area using a toothpick. Gently use the toothpick to coerce the coating where you want it. You can also place the melted candy coating in a small squeeze bottle and pipe it quickly on the front.
When dry, draw on a nose using a toothpick dipped in melted candy coating and attach the eyes.
The eyes are white confetti sprinkles.
When completely dry, draw on the eyes, ears and a big grin with a black edible-ink writing pen. For the final finish, dot the eyes with melted white candy coating.
Super cute.
But I think we need some balloons.
Just dip round cake pops in red, yellow and blue candy coating and let dry. Then use a toothpick to apply coating around the base of the stick for the knot.
Now it’s a party and I think Curious George agrees.
Enjoy!
Curious George is swinging into your home. Hulu has all 9 seasons (108 episodes) of the animated TV series, as well as the animated film Curious George 2: Follow That Monkey. Hulu is THE streaming destination for the best of TV, and a great selection of films! Plus, you can stream almost anywhere, on any device, including gaming consoles, set-top boxes, tablets, mobile phones, and more. Visit Hulu.com to start a free 1-month trial, for a limited time. This post is in partnership with Hulu.
I was playing in the kitchen this weekend and made these super fun candy buttons.
And instead of sugary pink, blue and yellow dots, I made them into these soooo super tiny chocolate chip cookies. Eeek!
Here’s what you’ll need:
Royal Icing (see recipe below)
Chocolate brown icing color
Black non-pareils
Toothpicks
Small squeeze bottle
3 X 4 inch plastic treat bags
Double-sided tape
Template and tags (download here and print out on letter size paper)
Use the printables provided above to pipe dots of brown royal icing onto paper. (Note: I tried using parchment paper and wax paper to pipe on, but the buttons fell off way too easily). Pipe one sheet at a time using a small squeeze bottle. If the dots have peaks on top from piping then, gently coerce them down with the tip of a toothpick until it blends into the dome of the dot.
Royal Icing
2 cups confectioners’ sugar
2 tablespoons meringue powder
3 tablespoons water
Sift confectioners’ sugar and meringue powder into the bowl of a stand mixer. Add water. Then, using the paddle attachment, increase speed to high and beat for 5-8 minutes until glossy and stiff peaks form.
Tint icing with brown icing color. (I used chocolate brown from AmericaColor.) Check consistency before filling your squeeze bottle. If the royal icing is too thick, add a teaspoon of water at a time. (Note: I only added one extra teaspoon) Alternatively, if the icing is too thin, you can mix in more confectioner’s sugar to thicken it up.
Recipe will make enough for 40 sheets of 15 dots each or 600 dots. : )
As soon as you finish piping each sheet, go ahead and pinch a few nonpareils at a time and drop them on the tops of each dot of sugar. If you try to sprinkle too many at a time, they will fall in between the dots and attach to the sides making the cookies look kinda weird.
I kept a small amount in the cap of the bottle they came in so they would be handy and to avoid making a mess.
If any of the nonpareils are sitting too high on the sugary “cookie” then just use a clean toothpick to gently press them down a bit.
Now just let them dry! Let them sit out for several hours or overnight before packaging them.
Easy peasy!
I made the tags for these little treats in the iconic happy colors you usually associate with candy buttons. Just a little subliminal association to help since my treat bags weren’t the normal long and skinny size they usually come in.
When the cookie candy buttons are completely dry, place each sheet in a treat bag and use double-sided tape to attach the tags to the tops.
Super cute.
I can’t help but thing how fun the blue ones would be as party favors from Cookie Monster at a Sesame Street birthday party.
I can’t stop eating these cookies. They’re Peanut Butter Cup-Filled Brownie Cookie Sandwiches from my sweet friend Shelly of Cookies and Cups. Her brand new cookbook (The Cookies and Cups Cookbook) is coming out April 12th and when I saw her recipe for these, I knew I had to try them first. I mean brownie cookies and melty peanut butter cups … I’m so there.
Plus, I like recipes where I have everything on hand. And in this case I just happened to have a bunch of Reese’s on the ready for Easter … they’re a staple in my house for just about any holiday, you know.
Melted chocolate and butter means we’re off to a delicious start.
I used a small cookie scoop for the brownie batter. As the batter rests, it thickens a bit to make it easier to scoop onto your baking sheet.
Cookies. And. Cups.
Sandwich them while they’re still warm and watch the middles melt… along with my heart.
Peanut Butter Cup-Filled Brownie Cookie Sandwiches
1/2 cup (1 stick) salted butter
16 oz semisweet chocolate, chopped
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 large eggs
1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
12 regular-size peanut butter cups
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a medium saucepan, melt the butter and chocolate over low heat, stirring frequently until the ingredients are just melted. Remove from the heat and let the chocolate-butter mixture cool for about 5 minutes.
Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Then set aside.
In another larger bowl, whisk together the eggs, brown sugar, and vanilla. Add the chocolate and butter mixture to the egg mixture slowly, stirring as you go. Then stir in the flour mixture until combined.
Scoop brownie mixture using a 1 1/2 inch scoop and place on baking sheet 2 inches apart. Bake for about 9 minutes until cookies are set in the middle.
Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 3 minutes. Flip half the cookies over and carefully place a peanut butter cup on each flipped cookie. Place the remaining cookies on top while they are still warm. The heat from the cookies will melt the peanut butter cups enough to hold the sandwiches together when cooled completely.
Makes 12 – 16 sandwich cookies.
I enjoyed every last bite of these babies! Hope you do, too. Just make sure to have a big glass of milk ready when you do.
Here’s a little peek at more of the yumminess from The Cookies & Cups Cookbook. Check it out, you can pre-order now! So proud for you Shelly!
