PEANUT BUTTER COOKIE CHUNK BROWNIE

YUMMMM!

If you're one of the peanut butter and chocolate lovers amoung us, you will love these! Sorry to all of those with peanut allergies :(. Adding peanut butter cookie dough to your favourite brownie recipe brings the experience to a whole new level.

Make some peanut butter cookie dough and place in fridge.

In a small bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa and salt, set aside. In another bowl, melt the chocolate and butter over a double boiler making sure the boil isn't touching the simmering water below. Remove the melted chocolate and butter and add the sugar, eggs and vanilla, stir until it is well mixed.

Add the sifted ingredients and mix until it's all incorporated. Pour into a 9 x 13 greased and parchement papered pan.

Remove the cookie dough from your fridge and place tablespoon size pieces throughout the batter pressing them down slightly. Bake for about 25-30 minutes until it's puffed a bit and springs back slightly when pressed.

When it cools, drizzle liberally with chocolate ganache.

BROWNIE RECIPE

Sift together and set aside:

1 cup flour

¼ cup cocoa

½ t salt

Melt together:

1 cup butter

6 oz bittersweet chocolate

Stir into chocoate:

1 ½ cup sugar

1 T vanilla

4 ea eggs

Add the sifted dry ingredients, mix until it's incorporated and pour into a greased 13x9 inch pan. Press in the peanut butter cookie dough pieces. Bake at 350F until it springs back slightly when pressed, about 25-30 minutes.

Crispy Oat Cookies

Soft and chewy? Crisp and dunk-able? Whatever kind of cookie lover you may be, these crispy oat cookies are sure to be a strong contender gracing your cookie jar! I must admit, I usually go for the soft and chewy cookie but the softies aren't always practical. Say you want to send cookies to a friend but they won't get there for a couple of days... Chewy cookies have peaked and are on their way down. In comes the crispy cookie! With a shelf life crushing the competition! These crunchy goodies will arrive with plenty of goodness to go around.

Here's the recipe....

7 oz butter, room tempurature

1 c sugar

1/4 c brown sugar

1 ea egg

1 tsp vanilla

2 1/2 c oats

1 c flour

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

3/4 tsp baking, powder

1/2 tsp baking, soda

1 c walnuts, chopped and toasted

1 c chocolate chips

Now let's make some cookies!!!!

In a medium bowl, sift together your dry ingredients. To a large bowl, add your butter and the sugars.

With a mixer, beat your butter and sugars until they're well mixed and starting to get fluffy. Add the egg and continue to beat for a couple of minutes.

Add the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Add the chocolate chips and walnuts.

Roll the dough into balls that are about an inch in diameter. Wet your fingers with a bit of water and pat the dough balls flat. Bake at 350 F for about 14-16 minutes until they are golden and firm around the edges.

Time to get a glass of milk or a hot cup of tea and dunk away! Next time you make them try adding a 1/2 cup of coconut for an extra dimension. Yummmm!

Enjoy

Saturday Morning Cinnamon Buns

Nothing says weekend like a warm gooey cinnamon bun, eaten in your pyjamas of course!!

With a little time, these warm, gooey buns will fill your home with an intoxicating aroma that'll get everybody stumbling to the kitchen.

A couple of tips before we get started, if you want these buns early in the morning but don't want to get up with the roosters, make them the night before. To do this, reduce the yeast by a 3/4 of a teaspoon, and place them covered in the fridge after you've cut them and placed them in the baking dish. In the morning, remove them from the fridge, let them warm up for about 30 minutes while the oven preheats and you make the icing then bake as directed.

CINNAMON BUNS

1-1/2 pkg (about 3-1/4 teaspoons) dry yeast

1/4 cup warm water

1/2 cup butter

1/3 cup sugar

1-1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1 cup luke warm milk

1 ea egg

4-5 cup sifted flour

Filling:

as needed butter

as needed brown sugar

as needed cinnamon

as needed raisins or chocolate chips (optional)

Here are the how to photos with the recipe following.

Place all ingredients, except the filling ingredients, in the bowl of a mixer. Add enough flour so that the dough comes together. Once the dough has come together, knead for about 5 minutes.

Place the dough in a greased bowl and cover. Place in a warm area and let rise until doubled in size, about 1 to 1.5 hours.

Roll into a rectangle about 1/2 inch thick and spread on the butter leaving 1 inch at the end so that you can seal the log. Generously spread the brown sugar over the butter then sprinkle on the cinnamon and any other toppings you would like

Roll up and cut into 1.5 inch pieces. Place in a greased baking dish and let rise until doubled in size, about 1 hour.

Bake in a 350 F oven for approximately 25 minutes. Once they are baked, remove them from the baking dish and glaze. For the glaze, mix icing sugar, milk, vanilla and a little melted butter together until it is a good consistency to spread. You can also use your favourite cream cheese icing but make sure you don't spread that on until they buns are completely cool.

ENJOY!!!

Fall Dessert

Vanilla Bean and Port Poached Pear with Honey-Cinnamon Mascarpone

Fall time offers up some amazing ingredients to bake up incredible desserts. Make sure you take advantage with this recipe, it's simple, light and sure to please. When choosing your pears, make sure to choose ones that are still firm. If your using soft pears, they're more likely to fall apart causing an unwanted headache. Second, what ever you do, don't break into the old bottle of port from 1977 that you've been saving for a special occasion! These pears are special but not that special! There's so much sugar in the syrup and you cook it for so long that a good port would loose all of it's goodness. A cheap cooking port will suffice. Ok here we go...

In a pot just big enough to hold your pears combine:

2 cups port

1.5 cups sugar

1/2 cup water

1/2 ea orange, sliced

3 ea cinnamon sticks

5 ea cloves

1 ea vanilla bean, sliced and scarped

3 ea pears

Bring this to a simmer. Meanwhile, peel your pears. Peal your pears and leaving them whole, place them in the port syrup. You want them to be almost completely submerged, if they aren't, add a bit of water to bring the level up. Be sure not to dilute the syrup too much with water because it's the sugar in the liquid that helps the pears hold their shape as they cook. Too much water would turn into mushy pears, still tasty but not the goal. If you've find that you're having to add more then 1/2 a cup of water, just add about 1/4 cup of sugar.

Cover the pot and on a very low simmer, cook the pears until they are tender when pierced with a skewer. This till take a while but also depends on the firmness of the pears you started with. Make sure to turn the pears often to ensure even cooking.

While the pears are cooking. make the honey mascarpone filling. Simply mix mascarpone, honey and cinnamon to your desired sweetness, set it aside.

When the pears are done, remove them to a plate to cool. Remove about a cup of the cooking liquid to a small pot and reduce it until it's sauce consistency. As the sauce reduces, it will thicken, make sure you consider that it will continue to thicken as it cools. To achieve the correct consistency, boil it until the bubbles become thick and close together, let it cool and adjust your consistency by either adding more of the cooking liquid to thin it or reducing it further by boiling it again.

Once the pears are cool, slice them lengthwise and remove the core with a melon baller. Fill the centre with the mascarpone filling and plate with a little bit of the sauce.

MMMMMarshmallows!!!!

Recipes are some of the best gifts to give. When I give a gift I try to make it homemade, time permitting of course. I also like to include the recipe I've baked with the goodies. Like a mini recipe exchange, as I pass on my recipes, I receive a few in return, it's great!! Because I specialize in sweet stuff, my gifts are usually something baked. This can be tricky when the goodies have to travel. For this reason, I'm passing on my marshmallow recipe. They can be made ahead of time and last for a long time. Another great thing about them is that they are a blank palate for the flavor of your choice. Some yummy ones to try are mint, coconut, strawberry and toffee. Try to use extracts as you don't want to add too much moisture to the mixture but for the fruit ones, add a couple of tablespoons of thick compote to give the marshmallows a great coloring.

Marshmallows

• 3 pkg gelatin
• ½C water
• 1 ½c sugar
• 1 c light corn syrup
• ¼tsp salt
• 1T vanilla extract

STEPS

1. Combine the gelatin and water in the bowl of a mixer
2. Combine the sugar, corn syrup and salt with ½ water in a saucepan and cook until dissolved and reaches 240 degrees. Remove from heat.
3. Place the bowl with the gelatin and water over steam to dissolve gelatin
4. With mixer on low slowly pour the syrup into the gelatin.
5. Turn the mixer to high and mix until it is very thick about 8-12 minutes.
6. Add flavorings and vanilla. Add as much extract as you want to achieve the desired taste. Try peppermint and put them in spiked hot chocolate, yum!
7. Press into a pan lined with parchment paper and pan spray. This step gets messy!
8. Allow marshmallows time to set at room temperature. Cut and roll in icing sugar. Keep in airtight container.