Peant Butter Cookies- Recipe #2.5

A girl in my sister's ward made these cookies for my nephews' baptism. They were so tasty that I hunted down the girl and I begged her for the recipe. She told me it was the easiest recipe and I didn't believe her until I tried it. They are delicious and actually dangerously easy. (This recipe gets #2.5 because I did make them over the Christmas holiday for a cookie exchange. However, I wanted to share anyway.)

Step One: Buy a peanut butter cookie mix. I know, it is cheating, it has added preservatives,they are not "homemade", I get the arguments but go buy a mix.


Step Two: Make up the mix according to the instructions and use a small cookie scoop to evenly distribute the dough into mini cupcake pans. Do not press down dough into the pans or the bottoms of the cookies will get too well done (like we did below).


Step Three: Bake according to the mix. When the cookies have about 3-5 more minutes left to bake, take them out and gently press a Reese's peanut butter into the center of each cookie. Put them back into the oven for 3-5 minutes or until cookies are done.


Step Four: Be patient and let the cookies sit for 2 minutes in the pan. Take the cookies out of the pan and let them sit for 2-3 more minutes. As Alton Brown says, "Your patience will be rewarded."


Step Five: Enjoy, repeat, go to the gym (the gym statement is just for me):) These cookies are super easy but they look complicated-a perfect mix.

Happy Halloween

My friend Maria is a wonderful baker. Here are the Halloween creations that she baked and designed (I helped a little).

My camera isn't the greatest but if you try hard you can squint and see that we made a spider out of chocolate chips and the spider's legs out of a Tootsie Roll.

Happy Halloween!

Problem Solved

Whenever I make cookies I usually try and double the recipe so I have some dough to freeze for future use. I made frozen logs of dough for a long time but I thought that the cookies never baked up like the originals. Frustrated, I told my mom of my dilemma. My mom told me that my cousin Andrea (who is an amazing homemaker) would freeze the dough in balls and then she was able to pull out of the freezer how many cookies she wanted and they also bake up nice and round like the originals. Problem Solved! Saturday I had a family come look at my house and I wanted to have some cookies baking for good measure.

This is what I did with the rest of the dough. Note: The white board is my cutting board turned upside down. Remember to line the surface on the board with Saran Wrap or the dough will stick. It is always nice to have homemade cookies in the freezer. I can't count the times these balls of dough have saved me when I have needed a treat for a party, mix n' mingle, seminary, etc.