Peanut Butter Brownies

This is possibly the best tasting peanut butter dessert I've ever had. These brownies have the flavor of a salty peanut butter cookie while being chewy and moist like a brownie. The only change I will suggest is to make this in a smaller pan so the brownies are thicker.

In addition to the amazing taste, these are very simple to make. I mixed everything in a medium sauce pan with a wooden spoon. Just be sure to have a sink full of hot soapy water to toss measuring cups and such in as you are finished. This will speed up the cleaning time!

Peanut Butter Brownies (Printer-friendly PDF Version)

1/2 C unsalted butter

2 C brown sugar, packed

2 eggs

1 C flour

2 t baking powder

1 t salt

1 t vanilla

3/4 C peanut butter (smooth or crunchy)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Melt the butter over low heat in a medium sauce pan.

Remove the melted butter from the heat and stir in the brown sugar. Mix well.

Make sure the mixture is cool and then stir in the eggs. Just stir this until it seems combined.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Stir this into the sugary mixture.

Mix in the peanut butter and vanilla.

Spread the batter into a well greased 11x15 inch jelly roll pan.

Bake for 20 minutes or until done. If you are using a smaller pan, increase the bake time accordingly. Let cool for a few minutes before cutting.

Enjoy!

Peach Cobbler

Baking bread isn't an option right now because it is incredibly hot outside. When the weather stops being nearly 100 degrees and incredibly humid, I will return to the bread baking. Until then, I will bake random things. Or I will be smart and make something that requires no baking. Maybe next time.

Today you get a recipe for peach cobbler. We had 6 pounds of peaches for some reason, so I used nearly 3 pounds to make this. If you aren't sure how to properly peel peaches, feel free to look at the previous post. I altered this recipe a bit from the original. I cut down the amount of sugar and added cinnamon and nutmeg. The outcome is amazing. If you like peaches, you should absolutely give this a try.

Peach Cobbler

7 or 8 peaches, peeled and sliced

cinnamon and nutmeg, to taste

1 T butter, softened

1/2 C sugar

1/4 t salt

2 t baking powder

1 C sifted flour

1/2 C milk

1/2 C sugar

1/2 C cold water

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Line the bottom of a greased 9x9 inch baking dish with the peach slices. Sprinkle nutmeg and cinnamon on top. I didn’t measure, but I probably used around 1/2 t cinnamon and 1/4 t nutmeg.

In a small bowl, mix together the softened butter and 1/2 cup of sugar with a fork.

Add the salt, baking powder, and sifted flour to this sugary mixture.

Add the milk and stir until combined. I forgot to take a picture of this step, but the result is nothing unexpected.

Pour the batter over the peaches and gently spread it all around. Evenly pour the 1/2 cup of sugar on top of the batter.

Drench all of this with the 1/2 cup of cold water.

Bake for an hour.

Let cool for 15 minutes before slicing and serving. This goes great with whipped cream. It probably also goes great with ice cream, but I didn't have any ice cream.

Enjoy!

How to peel a peach

Peeling peaches is a messy and not very fun process. The easiest way to peel a peach is to blanch it first. To blanch something you stick it into very hot water and then cool it in very cold water. This loosens up the skin of the peach and makes it come off easily. The next recipe that I'm posting is for peach cobbler made with fresh peaches, so I thought I would share the peach peeling process with you now.

You will need:
Fresh peaches
2 plates
A knife
Some sort of spatula
A bowl
Medium pot
Water
Ice

Fill the pot with enough water so that the peaches will be fully submerged when placed in the pot. Heat this water to a light boil.

Fill a bowl with water and some ice. You want this water to be nice and cold.

Take your peaches and place them on a plate. Gently cut an X into the bottom of each peach. You only need to cut through the skin of the peach.

Once the water is at a boil, place a few peaches into the water for 30 to 60 seconds. The water in the picture doesn't look like it is at a simmer, but it is.

After the peaches heat for the allotted amount of time, scoop the peaches out of the hot water with the spatula and place them into the icy water to cool. Leave them in the cold water for at least a minute. This prevents the peaches from cooking anymore.

Repeat this process with all of the peaches you need to peel. Place the blanched peaches on another plate so you don't blanch the same peach twice.

Peel the skin off of each peach, starting at the X on the bottom. The skins should peel off easily. Place the peeled peaches on the original plate. Throw away the skins unless you want to keep them for some reason.

Cut the peaches into quarters down to the pit, but not through the pit. The fruit should fall away from the pit.

Dispose of the pit and scrape off the prickly red part. Repeat with all of the peaches.

And now you have peaches that are ready for baking!

Enjoy!

Apple Cake II

Yes, another apple cake. These old cookbooks have a lot of apple cake recipes, plus I still have a few bags of frozen apple slices in the freezer! Those need to be used up so we can restock the freezer with even more frozen apple slices. I'm also not brave enough to attempt strudel yet. I have a lot of strudel recipes, but they are all intimidating...

This apple cake is good. I can't really give a comparison to the other recipes since I make them so far apart. The best part of this cake is the crumbly goodness on top. The directions to assemble the ingredients were kind of weird at one point, but it turned out nicely. I also like that no mixer is required!

Apple Cake

1 C sugar

1/2 C shortening

1 egg

1 1/2 C flour

1 t baking soda

1/4 t baking powder

1/4 t salt

1/2 C milk

1 t vanilla

4 apples, peeled and diced

1 T butter, melted

1/2 C brown sugar, packed

2 t cinnamon

2 T flour

1/2 C chopped nuts (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

In a bowl, stir together the sugar and shortening with a fork until well blended and kind of fluffy.

Add the egg and mix until combined.

In another bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.

Add the milk and vanilla. Stir until combined. This will be a thick and kind of dry mixture. That is how it is supposed to be, so continue on unfazed.

Place the flour mixture into the bowl with the sugar mixture and combine. Make sure it is decently combined!

Add the diced apples and mix.

In yet another bowl, combine the melted butter, brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, and nuts. Stir until blended.

Pour the batter into a greased 9x9 inch pan. Sprinkle the brown sugar mixture on top.

Bake for 45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. If you are using frozen apples, the baking time will increase a bit. Let cool for at least 15 minutes before serving.

Enjoy!

A Day Off

I'm going to take today off because it is my birthday. You might want something that is food related since you bothered to view this, so here is a picture of the cake that I made for my nephew (his birthday is the day before mine!). I haven't decorated a cake in a very long time... I forgot how to do a lot! I made the cake nice and simple, with little Mickey heads around the side.

Some people only come here and view pictures. One picture won't make you happy. You will probably demand more pictures. So here you go. Some pictures. Of my cat's belly.

Quick Coffee Cake

I haven't found the perfect coffee cake yet. Fortunately, I still have plenty of coffee cake recipes to use before I attempt to make my own version. This recipe is pretty good. I think I will try it again at some point and use a larger pan. I didn’t follow the directions completely and the coffee cake puffed up a lot in the center. The recipe said to use two pans, but I only used one 9x9 inch pan. Maybe a 9x13 inch will work better.

The “quick” part of the title is accurate. It only takes a few minutes to mix it up and assemble it all together. You may finish the assembly part before the oven is even preheated! The baking time isn’t too long either: only 30 minutes. The brown sugar and cinnamon sprinkled on top is to taste and you can even add some chopped up nuts if you like that sort of thing.

Quick Coffee Cake

2 C flour

3/4 C sugar

2 T unsalted butter, softened

1/4 t salt

1 T baking powder

1 egg

1 C milk

1/4 C butter, melted

1/2 C brown sugar

brown sugar, cinnamon, and nuts to sprinkle on top

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

Sift together the flour and the sugar. Add the salt, softened butter, and baking powder. Mix together as you would for a pie dough. I used a pastry blender. A fork can be used instead, just press it repeatedly through the flour mixture until the butter is combined in.

Lightly beat together the egg and milk in a separate bowl. Add to the flour mixture and stir until combined.

Pour the batter into a greased 9x9 inch pan (or two 9x9 inch pans or a 9x13 inch pan).

Mix together the melted butter and the brown sugar. Add a bit of milk if it seems thick. 

Spread this on top of the batter.

Sprinkle the cinnamon, brown sugar, and nuts on top.

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Let cool for 15 minutes before serving. The melted brown sugar gets very hot!

Enjoy.

Italian Bread 2

This attempt at Italian bread turned out much better than the previous attempt. I used a completely different recipe and made the bread in one day. While the bread turned out nice, I thought that it was lacking flavor. The previous recipe had a "starter sponge" or "pre-ferment" part to it, which seems to provide the typical Italian bread flavor. This recipe did not have anything like that. The Italian bread recipes that I use from now on will have the pre-ferment included, even though they are much more time consuming.

This recipe comes from How to Cook Like Your Grandmother by Drew Kime. The bread is good and had a nice crust to it. If you aren't too picky about the strength of the flavor, go ahead and try this bread.

Italian Bread (link to the original)

1 package (1/4 ounce, 2-1/2 teaspoons) active dry yeast

1-1/4 cups warm water (105°-115°)

3 cups unbleached flour or all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon olive oil

cornmeal for dusting

Proof the yeast in 1/4 cup of water. Or you can forget to pay attention and proof it in the 1 and 1/4 cups of water. It turns out fine; the yeast just won't get as foamy on top.

In a bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, and salt.

Once the yeast is proofed, pour it into the flour mixture and combine until all the liquid is absorbed. At this point, add the olive oil and mix well. I did all this mixing with my hands. 

Place the dough on a clean surface and knead until smooth. Put the nicely kneaded dough into a lightly oiled bowl and cover. Let rise for an hour or until doubled in size.

Sprinkle some cornmeal onto a wooden cutting board. This will prevent the dough from sticking to it.

Place the dough on a clean surface and lightly punch it down. Roll it into a loaf shape. Cut the loaf into two pieces.

Roll each piece of dough until it has a length of around 10 inches. Place the pieces of dough onto the wooden cutting board, leaving room for them to rise. Cover with an oiled piece of plastic wrap and let rise until doubled in width. Slice the top of the dough pieces with a very sharp knife.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit with a baking stone or baking sheet inside. I don't have a baking stone, so I used an upside down baking sheet! To create steam in the oven, which will create a better and "crustier" crust, place a pot or small pan of water at the bottom of the oven.

Once doubled in width, scoot the dough onto the preheated cookie sheet. This is tricky if you haven't done this before! I accidentally flipped the dough upside down at least once. Be careful or the dough will deflate.

Return the cookie sheet to the oven. Bake at 425 degrees for 10 minutes. Reduce the temperature to 400 degrees Fahrenheit and bake for an additional 25 to 30 minutes. The bread with be finished when it sounds hollow when tapped.

Slice and serve immediately or let cool completely.

Enjoy!