recipe

homemade nutter butters.

in , ,

about that new year's resolution with the cookies:
i've been failing gloriously and i love it!
my biggest failure success yet has been 
homemade nutter butters!
omg. 
peanut butter and i have this special relationship
because for the longest time i couldn't have it since
mum is allergic.
{it is kind of like jack and rose from
the titanic, except jack is peanut butter}
so now that i don't live at home anymore,
i do just about everything with mr. pb. 
+++
for these off-the-hook/unbelievable/light & fluffy sammich cookies
i used bouchon bakery's recipe. and i quartered the recipe because
i don't know there is just something about a recipe that calls
for a pound of butter that screams i am not part of a new year's
resolution. i also made them smaller than bouchon's, and there 
were still more than enough for my office mates and the like.
+++
they are extremely delicious and worth every brussel sprout.
-yeh!

peanut butter sugar cookies!

in , , ,

{with halloween-y jimmies!}

failure

earned a new definition with my attempted dumpling costume. what i was going for was essentially an upside down bed sheet ghost, where my legs would go through the eye holes and everything would meet up at the top and be tied neatly around my neck. more of a shumai than a guotie, if you catch my drift. instead i got a big fat spit ball... and a frowny face.

so i made peanut butter cookies. they're really tasty and easy. here are the clues:

with a mixer, combine 4 tbs softened butter + 4 tbs peanut butter + 1 c sugar

add 1 large egg + 1 tspn vanilla

in another bowl, combine 2 c flour + 1/2 tspn baking powder + a pinch of salt

{if you're using unsalted peanut butter, up the salt}

combine the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients. if the dough is too crumbly, add a bit more peanut butter.

divide into two rolls, 1.5 inches in diameter, roll in jimmies!

wrap in cling wrap and freeze while you watch one episode of revenge, or for like 45 minutes.

slice into 3/4 inch discs, and bake at 325, preferably on a pizza stone, for ten-ish minutes.

eat them all immediately!!!!

-yeh!!!!

the sweetest new year ever.

in , , ,

in a massive effort to ensure an insanely sweet new year,
and to go beyond the old apples & honey...
mum and i spent hours in the kitchen this weekend cranking out:
crystallized ginger
pretzel caramels
apple donuts 
a million kinds of jelly
apple donuts stuffed with jelly {namely, jalapeno jelly}
honey cake
sweet corn ice cream
cotton candy
...and so much more.
omg. 
i think the guests at our rosh hashanah fest thought we'd lost our minds.
but having a pretty table full of homemade candies 
and other noshies is oh-so-very satisfying. 
see before i came home, i told mum that we wouldn't be eating anything during the weekend that we didn't make from scratch. and we almost stuck to it.
friday pizza night doesn't count. especially in chicago. 
below are recipes and links that we used...
of course we still had apples & honey. but they were freshly picked fuji and honey crisp apples. and freshly whipped creamed honey
caramels {+ crunched up pretzels on top}
pumpkin ice cream {half of the sweet corn base, minus the corn + 1/2 a can of pumpkin + cloves + cinnamon + ginger + nutmeg}
apple donuts {we substituted apple butter for the cider and topped them with creamed honey}
ricotta {+ rosemary, thyme, and basil from the garden}
jalapeno jelly* {vinegar + jalapenos + sugar + pectin}
ginger jelly* {juice from the crystallized ginger + sugar + lemon + pectin}
hotberry jam* {strawbees + bluebees + raspbees + jalapeno + lemon + sugar + rosemary + water}
apple butter* {apples + autumny spices + pectin + water}
maple mustard* {mustard powder + white wine vinegar + sugar + maple extract + turmeric}
*i winged it with these things. just play around with those ingredients in a saucepan until it tastes good.
mum was in charge of the honey apple cake, the pumpkin challah, and the pickles... and i think they came out of real live cookbooks... so we're all out of luck on those ones.
-yeh!!