Easy Peasy Peanut Butter Blossoms (Gluten Free too!)

Posted on December 18, 2012 by skibootsinthekitchen

Christmas = peanut butter blossoms (to me). I am a huge fan of peanut butter and chocolate any way you serve it, but these cookies are always the best! I found this easy recipe a long time ago online and since then I’ve tweaked it to make it better. These are gluten free and only require 6 ingredients that you probably already have laying around in your kitchen! Whats better than not having to go to the store? I always manage to go in to the grocery store only needing bananas and almond milk and I some how end up with $60 worth of crap in my cart (even when I use the small one!) needless to say saving a trip to the store is good for my bank account! Here’s what you’ll need..

Ingredients-

1 cup creamy peanut butter (don’t use the fancy stuff for this, Jiff or Skippy works best)
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla (optional)
Hershey’s Kisses (unwrapped please!)

Instructions-

Preheat oven to 350. Combine sugars in medium bowl. Beat egg and vanilla, combine with sugar. Add peanut butter and stir until completely incorporated. Using your hands, roll dough (about 1 to 1 1/2 tablespoons) into balls and evenly place them on a un-greased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool on the cookie sheet for 2-3 minutes before pushing a kiss gently into the center of the cookie. Allow to cool completely before covering (the kisses will be soft while cookies are cooling down) Enjoy!

Nutella-Stuffed Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Posted on December 17, 2012 by skibootsinthekitchen

I have been on the hunt for the perfect chocolate chip cookie and I’ve found it… the most delicious chocolate chip cookie EVER.

Nutella on anything is amazing- then you stuff it inside a chocolate chip cookie and you’re on cloud 9. I found this recipe on Ambitious Kitchen yet another one of my new favorite blogs. Two tricks to this recipe, browning the butter before mixing it with the sugar gives the cookies a wonderful nutty flavor and making sure to refrigerate the dough before baking it keeps the cookies chewy and plump!Three different kinds chocolate chips (dark, milk and semi-sweet) combine for awesomely chocolatey cookies.

I don’t know if I’ll make a normal chocolate chip cookie again! sprinkling the cookies with some coarse sea salt gives that salty sweet combination that I love! Gooey and delicious, you’ll be addicted too!

Nutella Stuffed Brown-Butter Sea Salt Chocolate Chip Cookies:

Ingredients

2 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon of salt
2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter
1 1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg plus 1 egg yolk
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 tablespoon plain Greek yogurt
3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup milk chocolate chips
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
1 jar of Nutella, chilled in refrigerator
Coarse sea salt for sprinkling

Whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt in a bowl and set aside. Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. The butter will begin to foam. Make sure you whisk consistently during this process. After a couple of minutes, the butter will begin to brown on the bottom of the saucepan; continue to whisk and remove from heat as soon as the butter begins to brown and give off a nutty aroma. Immediately transfer the butter to a bowl to prevent burning. Set aside to cool for a few minutes.

With an electric mixer, mix the butter and sugars until thoroughly blended. Beat in the egg, yolk, vanilla, and yogurt until combined. Add the dry ingredients slowly and beat on low-speed just until combined. Gently fold in all of the chocolate chips.

Chill your dough for 2 hours in the refrigerator, or place in freezer for 30 minutes (I tried putting mine in the freezer the first batch and found it was nearly impossible to work with the dough- so try to leave enough time to put dough in the refrigerator even if its only for 1 hour).

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Once dough is chilled measure about 1 1/2 tablespoons of dough and roll into a ball. Flatten the dough ball very thinly into the palm of your hand. Place 1 teaspoon of chilled nutella in the middle and fold dough around it; gently roll into a ball — it doesn’t have to be perfectly rolled! Make sure that the nutella is not seeping out of the dough. Add more dough if necessary. Place dough balls on cookie sheet, 2 inches apart. Bake the cookies 9-13 minutes or until the edges of the cookies begin to turn golden brown. They will look a bit underdone in the middle, but will continue to cook once out of the oven. Cool the cookies on the sheets at least 2 minutes. Sprinkle with a little sea salt. Remove the cooled cookies from the baking sheets after a few minutes and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. I continued my holiday baking with an updated version of the chocolate cinnamon pretzels I blogged on before. This time I used pretzel thins which catch even more cinnamon, sugar and chocolate! I crushed up some candy canes and sprinkled them on top! Its a great combination! I’ve packaged up all my holiday goodies! Happy Holidays everyone!

Morning Glory Cranberry and Orange Scones

Posted on November 18, 2012 by skibootsinthekitchen

I was in the mood for some baked goodness this weekend and the best baked goods always come from Morning Glory Farm. So I took out my favorite cookbook for some Vineyard scrumptiousness. Scones are kind of intimidating, you’ve got to get the butter nice and cold and work the rock hard butter into the dough with out over work the dough… My mom has a great way for cutting the butter into scones which makes the whole process a breeze! The fresh cranberries and orange zest give the scones a wonderful tart flavor and are a perfect fall treat. Enjoy!

Cranberry Orange Scones

Ingredients:

4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1 tsp. salt
2 Tbsp. baking powder
1 1/2 sticks cold unsalted butter (put in the freezer for 1 hour)
2 cups fresh chopped cranberries (ruffly chop berries- do not cut too small)
1 Tbsp. orange zest
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
1/2 cup fresh orange juice
2 eggs
Milk and sugar for top of scones

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two regular sized cookie sheets with parchment paper. In a medium mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder.
Now for my moms trick… using a grater/zester or box grater, grate 1 1/2 sticks of butter into flour, cut in cold butter until flour mixture seems mealy and resembles small peas.

Once butter is well incorporated stir in fresh chopped cranberries and orange zest. In a separate small bowl, stir heavy cream, orange juice and eggs until well blended. Using a pastry cutter or large fork mix the egg, cream and juice mixutre into the dry ingredients just until a rough dough has formed.

Flour the surface of a wooden cutting board and turn the dough out on it, gently shaping the dough into a ball and flattening slightly.

Using a dough cutter or knife, cut the dough into 10 equal triangles. Place triangles evenly spaced about 2 or more inches apart on the parchment paper on the prepared pans and flatten slightly.

Using a pastry brush, brush lightly with milk and sprinkle with sugar. Bake for approximately 20 minutes or until lightly browned.

I added an extra 1/4 cup of flour to the recipe since I live above 6,000 feet (they also required extra time in the oven at altitude, about 10min. Keep checking them to make sure they are golden brown and do not burn if you leave them in longer!) Enjoy with fresh jam, honey or as they are!