Peanut Butter Cookies and more!

Hey there! I know it’s been a little while, but rest assured, I have been baking. I just haven’t had enough time to blog it all. I made mini pumpkin spice bread loafs. They were delicious and very cute. I was in a quick-bread mode, so I made some mini chocolate pound cake loafs. Also tasty, but not my personal favorite. I also made my famous chocolate chip cookies. They have some EXTRA secret ingredients that make them the best chocolate chip cookie EVER.
My friend Robert’s birthday is today, so I made him a cake for Friday [which was the closest i could see him to his birthday]. This could be a long post :) .

Chocolate Cake with Mocha Buttercream

Cake
2 cups sugar
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup+ 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup whole milk
2 large eggs
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
1 cup hot water
1 tablespoon instant espresso powder or instant coffee

Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 350°F. Butter two 9-inch-diameter cake pans with 2-inch-high sides. Line bottom of each with parchment paper; butter paper and dust pan with flour.
Sift sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into large bowl. Add milk, eggs, and melted butter. Using electric mixer, beat at low speed until blended. Increase speed and beat 2 minutes. Stir 1 cup hot water and espresso powder in small bowl to dissolve. Add to batter; beat until blended (batter will be thin). Divide batter between pans (about 3 cups each).

Bake cakes until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 32 minutes. Cool cakes in pans on racks 10 minutes. Cut around cakes; turn out onto racks. Peel off parchment and cool completely. Let cake stand at room temperature 1 hour. Cut cake horizontally in 2 halves. Using an offset spatula, spread mocha buttercream between layers generously. Position second part of cake on top. Continue with however many layers you choose. Frosting the sides and top of cake. Enjoy decorating!

Mocha Buttercream
2 1/4 sticks unsalted butter
Pinch of salt
2-3 cups of powdered sugar
3/4 cup Dutch processed unsweetened cocoa powder
2-3 teaspoons of coffee extract

Peanut Butter Cookies

2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup smooth peanut butter
1 cup sugar, plus more for later
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 350°F.
In an electric mixer with paddle attachment, cream butter and peanut butter until smooth. Add both sugars and mix until smooth. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. In a large bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. With mixer running on low speed, add flour mixture in 2 turns. Continue mixing until dough forms. Form dough into a ball and flatten slightly into disc shape in plastic wrap. Refridgerate 1-2 hours. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Using 1 1/2″ batter scoop, make balls. Roll in sugar, covering the ball completely. Use a spatula to flatten ball and use a fork to make ‘#’ shape. Bake for 16 minutes, rotating the pan at 8 minutes. At 15 minutes, use spatula to flatten puffed-up cookies. Remove from over and let cool completely.

These cookies are the best peanut butter cookies I’ve ever had. They are crunchy on the outside, soft and chewy inside. So good. Mmm…

I’ll put the recipes for the pumpkin spice bread and the cookies up later. My hands are cramping.
xoxo
Natalie

Cookies!

So yesterday I made two kinds of cookies. One was a basic vanilla rollout cookie and the other was a lemon sugar cookie. I did make a couple changes to the recipes that I used and will be sure to include them.

I made little hearts and elephants. I thought they were so cute. Some people thought the elephants were like “republican elephants” and they are not. i’m not a republican i just like elephants. they’re cute. period.

Vanilla Rollout Cookies
10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 large egg
1 1/4 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 tsp cinnamon

Using electric mixer, beat butter in large bowl at medium speed until smooth and creamy, about 2 minutes. Add sugar and salt and beat until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add egg; beat until well blended, about 1 minute. Reduce speed to low and beat in vanilla. Add flour and cinnamon and beat on low speed just to blend. Gather dough into ball; divide in half. Form each half into ball and flatten into disk. Wrap disks separately in plastic and chill until firm, at least 4 hours. I only chilled by for about 3 and it worked fine.
The dough can be made 2 days ahead. Keep chilled.

Position rack in center of oven; preheat to 350°F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Working with 1 disk at a time, roll out dough between 2 sheets of waxed paper to 1/8-inch thickness for smaller (2-inch) cookies and 1/4-inch thickness for larger (3- to 4-inch) cookies. Using cookie cutters, cut out cookies and transfer to prepared sheets, spacing 1 inch apart. If cookies become too soft to transfer to baking sheets, place in freezer on waxed paper for 5 minutes before continuing. Gather scraps, roll out dough, and cut more cookies, repeating until all dough is used. If not icing cookies, decorate with sprinkles or other sugar toppings, if desired.

Bake 1 sheet at a time until cookies are firm on top and golden around edges, about 10 minutes for smaller cookies and up to 14 minutes for larger cookies. I rolled by cookies about 1/6″ thick and baked for 10 minutes and they came out PERFECTLY. I suggest starting with 10 minutes and then going from there since they are super easy to burn. Cool completely on rack.

Decorate with royal icing, then sprinkles or other sugar toppings, if you’d like [they look so pretty!]. Let stand until icing sets. DO AHEAD: Can be made 4 days ahead. Store between sheets of waxed paper in airtight containers.

Royal Icing
3 1/4 cups (or more) powdered sugar, sifted
2 large egg whites
1 teaspoon strained fresh lemon juice
Assorted food colorings (optional)

Using electric mixer, beat 3 1/4 cups powdered sugar and egg whites until thick and shiny, adding more powdered sugar by tablespoonfuls if mixture is too thin to spread, about 3 minutes. Add lemon juice. I found that this was just a little too thick to flood, so I added about 1.5 tablespoons of water and it was perfect. Divide icing into portions, if desired, and add different food coloring to each. Cover until ready to use.

Lemon Sugar Cookies

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 sticks (10 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups plus 2 teaspoons sugar
1 large egg
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
Couple drops of lemon oil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside.
Mix butter and 1 1/2 cups sugar with an electric mixer on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes. Add egg, extract, lemon oil; mix until smooth. Reduce speed to low. Gradually mix in flour mixture.
Scoop batter using a 1-inch ice cream scoop; space 2 inches apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper. I used a 1-1/2 inch scoop and they were HUGE. Like 5-6 inches across and very flat and tasty :).
Bake cookies 4 minutes. Remove from oven; gently tap baking sheets on counter to flatten cookies. Return to oven, switching positions of sheets; bake until cookies are just set, 6-8 minutes more. Let cool on parchment on wire racks.