Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies!

Hi Everybody!!!

Okay I have found it... The BEST ever Peanut Butter Chocolate Chips cookie recipe! These are perfectly chewy and don't crumble as you eat them. Every bite is full of peanut butter and chocolate. Sooo delicious!

Sooo how about I share the recipe instead of making you all drool at the thought of these cookies. I honestly don't remember where I found this recipe as it has been my go to for quite a few years now.

tHE INGREDIENTS:

• ½ c. butter, softened
• ½ c. creamy peanut butter
• 1 c. granulated sugar
• 1 c. packed brown sugar
• 1 egg
• ½-1 t. vanilla
• 1¼ c. flour
• ¾ t. baking soda
• ½ t. baking powder
• ½ t. salt
• 1 C. chocolate chips

THE INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Cream together butter and peanut butter.
2. Add sugar, brown sugar, egg, and vanilla and cream with butters.
3. Stir together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
4. Beat in to creamed mixture.
5. Fold in chocolate chips.
6. Spoon dough onto parchment lined baking sheet.
7. Bake at 350 degrees for 9 mins- DO NOT OVERCOOK them!!!

I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!

Also if you want to watch a quick video on how I prepare these you can hop on over to my Youtube channel and have a watch!

S'mores Chocolate Cookies

If there is one thing I can never have enough of it's s'mores... It is not unusual for me to wake up and make a s'more over my stove at 7 am before I go to work in the morning. 

I literally try and make every s'mores recipe I find, some haven't always been winners. However some have! and these cookies are one of those! They are every bit delicious as they are easy! 

These cookies have everything you want in s'mores; graham crackers, marshmallows, chocolate and lots of it!

The Recipe:
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp milk
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
2-3 mini marshmallows per cookie 
1/2 cup graham cracker crumbs

Preheat oven to 350 Degrees.

Cream butter and sugars, next add the egg, vanilla, and milk. Mix all the dry ingredients in separate bowl(flour, cocoa powder, baking soda). Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ones and mix until no dry ingredients remain. Fold in chocolate chips and graham crackers. Once all mixed scoop out using a tablespoon measuring spoon and drop on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet. Next top each cookie with 2-3 mini marshmallows.

Bake at 350 degrees for 13-15 minutes or until the marshmallows appear toasted on top. Moving your rack up one spot will help to toast the marshmallows. Let the cookies cool for about 5-10 minutes on the baking sheet before moving them to a cooling rack or enjoy them warm off the pan for that perfect, campfire s'mores experience!!

I hope you enjoy not only making these but eating them as much as I did! 

Banana Hazelnut Crepes

We love going to Cora's for breakfast, I love the fresh fruit and decadent breakfast choices. There are only about 4 or 5 Cora's in the city of Calgary so on the weekends they can be very busy, very often we want to go but there is always a line up and when I am hungry the last thing I want to do is wait in a line to eat.

One of their recipes that I love to "re-create" is there banana blasts. If you have tried this before oh my goodness you need to! They are light crepes filled with Nutella and sliced banana with a bit of whipped cream on top! Sooo Yummy!

This is one of the easiest, tastiest breakfasts to make.

I have made these crepes for years, they are one of the easiest things to make pretty much fool proof. 

1/2 Cup Water

1/2 Cup Milk

1 Cup flour

2 tsp Sugar ( I sometimes omit this, out of forgetfulness) 

1tsp Vanilla

2 Eggs

Melted Butter for pan

I put all the ingredients in a bowl in the order of the list and mix it with a fork or whisk. You can also mix these in a blender, it is much faster and gets the lumps out easier. 

Once all the lumps are out I put coconut oil in my pan and melt it, after it is melted I take a 1/3 Cup measuring cup and scoop the batter and pour it in my pan.

I tilt my pan in a circular motion to try and cover the entire bottom with the batter, once the bottom is covered with batter and it starts to bubble a bit I use a spatula and flip the crepe over, once it is slightly golden on both sides I take it out of the pan and repeat the process till all the batter is gone. 

Next the fun part: Adding the toppings! 

This time I used Laura Secord Hazelnut Spread, but you can use Nutella too. I spread a thin layer of it all over the crepe

Then I add sliced bananas ( I somehow forgot to take a picture of this step )

Lastly I just fold up the crepe like a burrito, I will use a little of the hazelnut spread to keep the crepe closed. Then I add a few dollops of whipped cream and a couple more slices of banana on top.

You can also add in other toppings like strawberries with the hazelnut spread, or a custard and other fruits or even a rhubarb! 

Voila! You have your very own version of the Cora's Banana Blast!

Pretzel Caramel Bites

Since its Christmas I think A LOT of us are eating more than usual... (maybe even a little too much). I've decided to share a quick and easy Christmas snack that would be perfect to have out in a little dish while you have visitors coming and going over the holidays.

I made this up one evening and it probably took all of 25 minutes... maybe a bit longer because peeling the wrappers off caramel squares are one heck of a tedious task!

Originally I wanted to add pecans on top of these kind of like a turtles themed treat. however, the price of pecans is crazy! When I loaded some into a bag at the bulk barn they rang in as $25, I decided that was a little pricey for a small little snack and that if I went without the pecans it wouldn't even cost half of that to make them. 

So I just went with the pretzels, caramel, and chocolate drizzled over them. 

making these was extremely easy! you can always enlist a child or two to help ;) 

I covered my cookie sheets with parchment, laid out the  pretzels and then unwrapped all the caramel squares and placed one on each pretzel, I then baked them in the oven on 325 for about 6 mins.

Once all the caramels were melted/soft, I took them out and placed another pretzel on top to make like little sandwiches.

I then took my chocolate chips and melted them in a bowl in the microwave once it was all melted I poured it in a ziploc bag to use like a piping bag and drizzled my chocolate all on top. 

I love these. I love the mix of the chocolate, caramel and the salt from the pretzels. perfect quick and easy snack to have out if you know company is coming. 

You could also do some up in cute cello bags tied with ribbon as a little gift if you visit someone over the holidays. 

Cookies!

I'm a bit of a cookie snob. I only like homemade cookies. I hate hate hate store bought cookies. The ones from the grocery store bakery aren't too bad and will do in a pinch but never do I buy packaged cookies. Cookies have always been my go to item when I bake.  I just love how simple they can be, mix them, drop them on the pan and bake. Can't get much easier than that. 

This past weekend a friend and I decided we wanted to get together and do some Christmas baking. We knew we wanted to do sugar cookies and gingerbread, classic Christmas cookies. I actually had never made sugar cookies before I was always so intimidated by them... why I have no idea but for some reason I thought they would be difficult. However I scoured the internet and by internet I mean Pinterest... and found this recipe and decided to give it a try. 

It was sooo easy, and they are delicious! 

I also found a new gingerbread recipe which will definitely now be my go to recipe. Again it was another Pinterest, I loved how the cookies were crisp to the touch but almost melted in your mouth. You can find the recipe here. 

We also made some macaroons which is the recipe I am going to share here with you, as it is my own, or at least a recipe that has been in my book for years and has now become my own.

Disclaimer... I am still getting used to this blogging thing and totally forgot to take pics of the process so I am including a group picture of all the cookies we made. 

Chocolate Macaroons

6TBS of cocoa 

1/2 cup of butter

1/2 cup of Milk

1 1/2 cup of sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
3 cups oatmeal
1 cup coconut

Mix first 4 ingredients together in a pot. 
Boil for 2 minutes
remove from heat add vanilla, mix in coconut and oatmeal*.
Drop spoonfuls on wax or parchment paper while still warm, wait until dry and peel off and store in air tight container. 

* I usually pre-mix my coconut and oatmeal in a bowl and mix together all at once

What are your favourite Holiday cookies? Let me know in the comments below! I am always looking for more cookie ideas!