Category: Desserts - Simple Everyday Food

peanut butter s’mores cookies

Posted by :Amy On : August 10, 2013

Tags:cookies, dessert, peanut butter, smores

Happy S‘mores Day!

I’ve never sat by a campfire and roasted s’mores before. I’m 27 – is that weird? As much as I try to avoid camping, I absolutely looooove s’mores (and the smell of the campfire). It wasn’t until a few months ago did I have my very first roasted marshmallow on a stick over an open flame… and that was just using the leftover flames from the grill. You’d probably think that I’m sheltered – I would probably agree with you on that.

Summer is the perfect season for s’mores and any kind of dessert that involves the trio of marshmallows, chocolate, and graham crackers – last time I checked, the Blizzard of the Month flavor at DQ was a S’mores Blizzard (!). I can’t exactly pinpoint why I adore s’mores-flavored anything so much. I think it’s something with the combination of the marshmallows and chocolate and the combination of the different textures – sweet, rich chocolate paired with roasted ooey gooey marshmallows sandwiched between crunchy graham crackers…. just thinking about it is making my mouth water. There really isn’t a dessert flavor combination I love more (well, mint chocolate does win by just a teeny tiny bit…) – I have a whole board on Pinterest dedicated to s’mores desserts to prove it!

When I saw this recipe a few days ago, I knew I had to make it. It’s a spin on the traditional s’mores – we’re using a peanut butter cookie as a base instead of graham crackers. I promise it tastes even better! It’s the perfect cookie for those who are peanut butter & chocolate fans and those that are s’mores fans as well. You just can’t go wrong with it!

Brian who doesn’t even care for s’mores, was a fan of this cookie! I think he loved the peanut butter cookie base that won him over. These cookies are so soft that it’ll be hard not to leave any crumbs behind!

peanut butter s'mores cookies

2013-08-09 09:06:51

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Ingredients

1/2 cup salted butter, softened to room temperature
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup creamy peanut butter
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 and 1/4 cups all purpose flour
10-12 large marshmallows, cut in half length wise
8 oz chocolate chips

Instructions

In an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugars together on medium speed. Add in the peanut butter. Mix. Then add the egg. Mix. Finally, add the vanilla extract. Beat until combined. Slowly add in the baking soda and flour, scraping down the sides as needed. Place in refrigerator and chill for 30 minutes to an hour.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper or a silicon baking mat. Roll 1.5 tablespoons of dough into balls. Bake for 7 minutes. Take the cookies out, gently press a marshmallow onto the cookie. Bake for another 3-4 minutes, until marshmallow is slightly brown on top.
Remove from oven and let cool. In the meantime, melt the chocolate chips on a double boiler. Using a spoon or a fork, drizzle the chocolate over the cookies.
Store in airtight container for 7 days.
Makes 20-22 cookies

By Simple Everyday Food

Adapted from Sally's Baking Addiction

Simple Everyday Food https://www.simpleeverydayfood.com/

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It’s important to bake these cookies for exactly 7 minutes so they don’t overbake. Take them out. Press the marshmallows into them, and stick them back into the oven for a few more minutes to allow the marshmallows to melt and for the cookie to finish baking. Once the chocolate and spooned over the top and the cookie is cooled, you’ve got yourself a rich, decadent peanut butter cookie with a gooey marshmallow center and a little chocolate drizzle on top.

Of course, no one said you have to wait til the chocolate and cookie are cooled to eat these! I wasn’t patient enough to wait and accidentally had a few right away… oops.

If you happen to have any left after they’re completely cooled, place them in an airtight container and store for a week… if they even last that long. :)

Enjoy!

Recipe from Sally’s Baking Addiction

© Simple Everyday Food. All images & content are copyright protected. Please do not use any of my images without prior permission. If you want to republish this recipe, please re-write the recipe in your own words, or kindly link back to this post for the recipe.

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classic apple pie

Posted by :Amy On : July 30, 2013

Category: Desserts

Tags:apples, dessert, pie

Apple pie. It’s as American as baseball, NASCAR, and country music.

(Yes, I love all of the above)

Plus, now you can make it just in time for the 4th of July holiday!

A few weeks ago when I made my key lime pie bars, I mentioned that during my break from work and school, I was going to muster up the courage and attempt to make my first ever pie.

Well, since my “days left of vacation” are dwindling down to single digits, I figured what better time than this weekend. The pie isn’t going to make itself, right?

As I was assembling my pie together, I remembered why I never made pies in the first place – they are just way too much work and take so much time! It’s definitely not something to make on a regular basis when you work and go to school full time, that’s for sure. Even though it was pretty dang worth it in the end.

First you have to make the filling. Peeling and slicing 4 pounds of apples was not fun.

Then you have to make the dough. This step wouldn’t have been so difficult if our food processor could hold more than 1 cup of flour at a time. I figured, “oh I’m sure it can fit 2.5 cups of flour and 4 tablespoons of shortening and 1.5 sticks of butter so let me just try to fit everything in there and pulse it together.”

Of course it wasn’t that easy: flour went everywhere and nothing was getting pulsed and mixed the way they were supposed to. Instead of a simple 10-minute process, I think it took me about 40 minutes fighting with the food processor to make the pie dough.

Needless to say, my dough-making process involved a lot of swearing, “ugh”‘s from annoyance, and thoughts about giving up and buying pre-made pie crust instead.

In the end, I persevered and showed the pie gods a tiny food processor wasn’t going to hinder my making-pie-for-the-first-time spirit.

After the dough was made, it needed to chill in the refrigerator for at least an hour. Then they needed to be rolled out into two 12″ discs. Well, this step proved to be quite a challenge for me too. First my pie dough kept sticking to my work surface (I think I wasn’t generous enough with the flour), then parts of the dough stuck to my rolling pin, leaving little holes in my crust. After a small battle (and a little bit more cursing), I assembled my pie together, only to find out I forgot to dot the chilled filling with the two additional tablespoons of melted butter before covering the pie up with the other disc of dough.

UGGGHHHHHHH.

Well, I guess I just inadvertently made this pie a little bit healthier, because I sure wasn’t about to take that thing apart and do it all over again. Now I won’t feel as guilty later when I go back for seconds (or put an extra scoop of ice cream on it).

classic apple pie

2013-06-29 14:44:42

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For the pie dough

2.5 cups all-purpose flour
4 tablespoons cold vegetable shortening
2 teaspoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1.5 sticks cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes

For the filling

4 pounds of mixed apples (I used Granny Smiths and Gala apples), peeled and cored
2/3 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons lemon juice
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons flour, plus more for dusting
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 large egg, beaten

To make the pie dough

Pulse the flour, shortening, sugar, vinegar, and salt in a food processor until it turns into a fine meal. Add the small cubes of butter and pulse. Add 1/4 cups of ice water and pulse until the dough begins to come together. Add in an addition 1-4 tablespoons of ice water (one tablespoon at a time), if the dough doesn't seem like it's holding together.
Divide the dough between two sheets of plastic wrap and pat into discs.
Wrap tightly and chill in fridge for an hour, preferably overnight.

To make the filling

Slice the apples into 1/4" thick slices. Transfer into a large bowl and toss with lemon juice and sugar.
Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the apples and cook until softened, about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add in the flour, cinnamon, and salt. Stir until sauce starts to thicken. Remove from heat. Set aside and let cool completely.

To assemble the pie

Roll out one disc of dough onto a well-floured work surface into a 12" round. Carefully transfer to a 9" pie plate. Add in the cooled filling.
Roll out the other disc of dough into a 12" round. Lay the dough over the filling and press the two crusts together. Trim the edges if needed and crimp with your fingers.
Brush the top of the crust with the beaten egg and sprinkle with coarse sugar, if desired. Cut a few slits on the top crust to allow steam to escape. Chill in the refrigerator for an hour.
Meanwhile, place a baking sheet on the lower rack of the oven and preheat the oven to 425 degrees for at least 30 minutes. Put the pie directly on the hot baking sheet and reduce temperature to 375 degrees.
Bake until the pie is golden and filling is bubbly, about 60-70 minutes, rotating the pie several times throughout.
Transfer to a cooling rack and cool until the filling is set (about 2-3 hours).

By Simple Everyday Food

Adapted from Food Network Magazine

Simple Everyday Food https://www.simpleeverydayfood.com/

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Despite all the technical difficulties experienced, the pie turned out to be a success! Not only does it taste great, it’s actually a pretty good looking pie for my very first ever attempt! (If I may say so myself…)

I’ll be honest, the thing that bothered me the most throughout this whole process were the 5 slits on the top crust not being evenly spaced.

…It’s just part of my OCDness. At least once I cut out the first slice, it didn’t bother me as much anymore.

Now that I know I can make a pie, I think I’ll stick with cookies, cupcakes, truffles, and other individual-sized desserts for now.

Enjoy!

Recipe adapted from Food Network Magazine

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chewy chocolate chip cookies

Posted by :Amy On : June 24, 2013

Category: Desserts

Tags:chocolate chips, cookies, dessert

When it comes to desserts, I don’t do boring.

By “boring“, I mean traditional – like chocolate cake, vanilla cake, red velvet cupcakes, oatmeal raisin cookies, chocolate chip cookies…. you get the idea. I like making desserts that aren’t your everyday “boring” flavors….My reasoning is, if I want old fashioned dessert flavors, I’m sure I can find them at just about every bakery/grocery store in the neighborhood. If I’m spending the time to make something from scratch, it’d better be something I can’t find easily.

Wait, but isn’t this post about “plain”, “regular”, “boring” chocolate chip cookies?

Yeah yeah… today I actually felt like making some traditional chocolate chip cookies. Actually, one of the reasons why I chose chocolate chip was simply because I didn’t feel like going to the store and buying a bunch of ingredients for cupcakes. I also didn’t feel like standing in the kitchen for hours making cupcakes either. Talk about laziness – I just wanted something sweet, something homemade, and something easy to make.

That’s when I decided to go back to the basics and make something simple.

I like my cookies chewy, and the high proportion of brown sugar kept these cookies soft and moist (sorry!) in the middle. Slightly golden crunchy edges with gooey soft chocolatey centers.

chewy chocolate chip cookies

2013-06-24 13:07:16

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Ingredients

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 1/2 sticks butter, softened to room temperature
1 3/4 cups packed brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Instructions

In a large bowl, sift together flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda. Set aside.
Using an electric mixer, beat the butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar on medium-high until pale and fluffy, about 3-4 minutes.
Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then beat in the vanilla. Reduce the speed to low, then slowly incorporate the flour mixture into the egg mixture. Stir in the chocolate chips by hand.
Cover with plastic wrap and chill in refrigerator for at least an hour, preferably overnight.
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Roll cookie dough into ~1" balls and place onto prepared cookie sheets. Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until edges begin to brown.
Remove cookies from oven, cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes, then remove and cool completely on a wired cooling rack.
Makes about 48 cookies

By Simple Everyday Food

Adapted from Food Network Magazine

Simple Everyday Food https://www.simpleeverydayfood.com/

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So this recipe makes about 48 cookies. Of course we’re not going to eat all of them (although Brian would’ve polished off the whole bowl of raw cookie dough last night if I wasn’t guarding the bowl with my life), so it’s a good thing I’ll be swinging by work today to drop some off for my lucky coworkers!

After putting some cookies in a Tupperware for work, there were about 20 left. We divided the rest amongst the two of us – I got five, and the hubs took the rest of the 15.

Somehow he thinks I won’t be touching his cookies if he placed them all the way up on the cupboards……

Little does he know, there’s not a whole lot that can stand between a girl and her sweets…. I might be short, but I have my ways. MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!

Yep, that’s my evil laugh.

Enjoy!

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key lime pie bars

Posted by :Amy On : June 12, 2013

Category: Desserts

Tags:bars, dessert, keylime

Making pies can be such a daunting task. First you have to make the crust, then you have to make the filling.. then depending on what kind of pie you’re making, you have to either make some sort of a meringue or a pie crust lattice and make sure that looks nice and pretty. Every step requires much diligence to make sure the entire pie turns out nice and presentable in the end.

Talk about pressure – if the whole pie doesn’t turn out to be as photogenic as you imagined it to be, you’re either left with nothing to show for, or you’ll just have to try to capture the best angle of your pie.

For those reasons, I haven’t been brave enough to tackle a pie yet – maybe I can try to check that off of my to-do list this summer during my break from school.

On the other hand, cookies, bars, cupcakes, truffles are much easier to make. If some don’t turn out as pretty as you hoped, at least you still got a bunch more to choose from to be part of your picture.

That being said, I opted for some easy key lime pie bars instead of making a whole pie. When you think of summer, you think of key lime pies – they’re light, tart, tangy, and sweet all at the same time.

Waiting for these babies to cool in the fridge was probably the most difficult part, but the end result was totally worth the wait!

key lime pie bars

2013-06-06 19:34:29

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Ingredients

2 cups finely crushed gingersnap crumbs
3 tablespoons butter, melted
4 oz cream cheese, softened to room temperature
4 large egg yolks
1 14-oz can sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup key lime juice
2 teaspoons lime zest, plus more for garnishing

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9x9" cake pan with foil, leaving some overhanging on the sides and spray with nonstick spray. Set aside.

For the crust

Using a food processor, pulverize the gingersnap cookies into fine crumbs.
Pour crumbs into a medium bowl, combine with melted butter.
Press firming into cake pan. Make sure the crumbs are evenly distributed throughout. Bake for 10 minutes.

While the crust is in the oven, make the filling

Using a handheld mixer (I was lazy and used an electric stand mixer), beat cream cheese on high until smooth. Slowly incorporate the egg yolks. Beat in the sweetened condensed milk, key lime juice, and lime zest. Mix until all ingredients are thoroughly combined. Pour into pan with warm crust.
Bake for 16-18 minutes, or until the edges just begin to brown slightly.
Remove from oven, garnish with additional lime zest if desired. Let the bars cool in the pan on a wired rack, then transfer them to the refrigerator for 3-4 hours or until completely chilled.
Once chilled, remove the bars from pan with the overhanging foil and cut into squares.

By Simple Everyday Food

Adapted from Sally's Baking Addiction

Simple Everyday Food https://www.simpleeverydayfood.com/

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This recipe is really easy – if making a key lime pie is this easy, I think it just might be the first ever pie I attempt to make. I’m not a fan of cheesecakes, but the little bit of cream cheese added in here gives it a creamy texture. The gingersnap cookie crust is also recommended over the traditional graham cracker crust, as the sweet/spiciness of crust goes very (very) well with the creamy tartness of the filling.

I brought this to work last weekend for a pot luck and received plenty of rave reviews. Everyone loved it, except for the hubs, who is a wimp when it comes to anything tart… he had an expression as if I made him eat a whole bag of Sour Patch Kids at once (I would’ve taken a picture of his facial expression if he would’ve let me). Trust me, these bars are delicious and are just perfect for summer! Plus it only requires a few ingredients and little baking time!

Enjoy!

Recipe adapted from Sally’s Baking Addiction

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strawberry chocolate chip cookies

Posted by :Amy On : June 4, 2013

Category: Desserts

Tags:cake mix, chocolate chips, cookies, dessert

On Friday, I finally broke down and got myself my very first (ever) cookie scoop!

Yes, all these years of baking and I’ve never owned a cookie scoop of any kind. I have never been a fan of using fancy kitchen gadgets when I cook – I grew up cooking with a few simple equipment, so I always stuck to the old fashion way of cooking.

Seriously though, all my mom had in the kitchen growing up were a few knifes, a cutting board, a wok, a spatula, a ladle, and a few pots. No fancy garlic presses, mango slicers, or onion choppers…

To this day, I still don’t own a lot of those fancy kitchen gadgets. I’m not caving into getting a garlic press, a mango slicer, or a juicer just yet, but I do own an onion chopper only because it was given to us as a wedding gift (which, has saved me a lot of tears lol). It also took me a few years to finally get a rolling pin. Before the rolling pin joined our family, I created my own cheap version of a rolling pin by wrapping a bottle of cooking wine in plastic wrap…

Anyway, now that I finally own a cookie scoop, I was determined to find a cookie recipe that required scooping cookie dough out of my mixer bowl this past weekend.

I’m not particularly fond of making desserts with premade cake mixes, but this recipe intrigued me so much that I just had to give it a try (and I was feeling a little lazy…). Plus, strawberries and chocolate are like a match made in heaven – just like cookies and milk, peanut butter and jelly, peanut butter and chocolate, chips and salsa, mashed potatoes and gravy, burger and fries…. need I go on?

I made these for a family cookout and they were a big hit. I added a few minutes onto the original cooking time stated on the site that I got the recipe from and they turned out soft and chewy. Plus, they were pink and were pretty to look at.

strawberry chocolate chip cookies

2013-06-04 11:29:44

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Ingredients

1 box strawberry cake mix
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 large eggs
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, combine the cake mix and baking powder. In a smaller bowl, whisk the eggs, oil, and vanilla extract. Add the egg mixture to the cake mixture. Gradually turn electric mixer to medium speed and thoroughly mix batter for about 3 minutes, or until all the ingredients are combined. Stir in chocolate chips.
Drop rounded balls of cookie dough, about 1.5 tablespoons each, onto the prepared baking sheet.
Bake for 10-12 minutes, making sure the cookies do not turn brown. Remove from oven and let cool. As the cookies cool, the tops may settle down a bit. If not, you can press them down gently with your fingers. Transfer cookies onto wired cooling rack and allow to cool completely.

By Simple Everyday Food

Adapted from Sally's Baking Addiction

Simple Everyday Food https://www.simpleeverydayfood.com/

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Surprisingly enough, these turned out to be pretty good. They were gone within minutes at our family cookout, and I think I may just have to make them again sometime to bring to work. Maybe I’ll make a double batch next time.