Hey, You Got Peanut Butter in My Chocolate Cookies!

I'm going to get a bit mushy for a second. My "little" brother (he's 24 years old- not so little anymore) is in the Army and is stationed in Iraq. He's a good guy, and I'm super-proud of him. We're only two years apart, and have always been close and I feel like the older we've gotten, the better friends we've become. (He was my "maid of honor" at my wedding- way before that turd of a Patrick Dempsey movie, I might add.)

Here we are, waiting in line at the Haunted Mansion and at my wedding. He cleans up pretty well.

The real point of bringing up my brother is that last week was his birthday, and I wanted to bake him a birthday treat. However, my oven was broken, and I wasn't able to bake him anything. These cookies are his belated birthday gift. (So on the off chance he's reading this, I guess I spoiled the surprise.)

Two of his favorite foods are chocolate and peanut butter, so it only made sense to engineer a cookie to fit his favorite flavor profile. These are very chocolate-y, with a slight peanut butter nuance. If you wanted a stronger peanut butter flavor, you could go half and half with chocolate chips and peanut butter chips, or you could totally replace the chocolate chips with peanut butter chips.

Peanut Butter Double Chocolate Cookies

Makes about 2 1/2 dozen 1.5oz cookies

1 stick (4oz) butter, softened

3/4c creamy peanut butter

1oz dark baking chocolate, melted (I like Green & Black)

1/3c sugar

1c brown sugar, lightly packed

1tsp vanilla

2 eggs

3Tbsp milk

3/4tsp salt

1tsp baking powder

1/4c cocoa powder

2c flour

1 bag (11-12oz) chocolate chips (or half chocolate chip. half peanut butter chip)

Preheat oven to 350F.

Cream together the butter, peanut butter and melted chocolate. Add the sugars and vanilla and mix to combine. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing just until combined. Mix in the milk.

Sift together the salt, baking powder, cocoa and flour. Add to the wet ingredients and blend until just combined. Fold in chocolate chips.

Using a 1.5oz scoop (or a spoon) plop dough onto a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. The cookies won't spread much, so if you prefer your cookies flatter, press down with a fork. Bake for about 12-15minutes. Enjoy with a big glass of milk!

To the Moon!

Recently at pastry school, I've been in a chocolate and sugar class. It was divided into two sections, chocolate and sugar. (You probably could have guessed that...) We just finished the chocolate section Wednesday, which ended with a final project- a chocolate centerpiece. I'll be honest, I liked making bon bons and truffles and chocolate candies, but the centerpiece was a stressful affair.

In case you've never worked extensively with chocolate before (which I hadn't prior to this class- though I had eaten chocolate extensively) there are several steps required to ensure that your chocolate will dry smooth and shiny, will be hard and will release properly from molds. Every kind of chocolate you will ever buy, from a plain ol' Hershey's bar to a box of Godiva truffles (yum!) has gone through this process, called tempering.

Tempering is basically a process in which you melt your chocolate to a specific temperature (it varies by the type of chocolate), then you pour it out and paddle it on a marble or stainless steel table until it cools to a specific temperature, then you warm it back up to another specific temperature. If you don't temper chocolate, it won't harden properly, it will have a grainy texture and it will have a sticky feel.

After tempering the chocolates (we had to use white, milk and dark in our sculptures) I poured them out, let them cool slightly and cut out my pattern pieces (which I had made from paper the day prior). Once all the pieces were cut out and cooled, I carefully assembled them using more melted chocolate and a special cooling spray that cools the chocolate so it sets faster. Some were assembled flat, others were assembled once the piece was upright on the base. The final touch was some bon-bons and chocolate garnishes on the base, some edible luster dusts and filigree work.


Mine, as you can see, was space themed, with a comet, stars and the aurora borealis. (The aurora borealis was done with colored cocoa butter and luster dusts.) From the base to the tip of the comet's tail was probably about 15in. Chef liked it, and I got an excellent grade, which was gratifying, as my goal for the project was to make something that at least wouldn't collapse under its own weight.
We just started working with sugar last night, which is a very different process. Much hotter. I should probably stock up on burn cream.