Peanut Butter Chocolate - Chip Pound Cake with Peanut Butter Glaze

Pay attention folks, this is one recipe you should NOT miss!  I expected it to be delicious, but WOW, it's amazing!!  It's also totally not good for you, but you can pretend I didn't write that.

Okay, so I pinned this on Pinterest ages ago from Recipe Girl and I finally got around to making it.  I feel like I was in a cupcake rut and wanted to try something different.  I picked the right recipe with this one!!

I'm just going to get to it so you can start baking this ASAP, but it's going to be hard for me because I sent it all to work with my Husband so I wouldn't eat any more.  Yeah, guess what I've been craving all day!!

Peanut Butter - Chocolate Chip Pound Cake with Peanut Butter Glaze

Recipe by Recipe Girl

For the Cake:

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup creamy peanut butter (Recipe Girl advises against natural)

1/2 cup butter, at room temperature
3 cups granulated white sugar
6 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups milk chocolate chips


For the Glaze:
1 1/2 cups confectioners sugar
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup milk chocolate chips for garnish


To begin, preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Spray a tube pan thoroughly with non-stick cooking spray, set aside.  Next, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl.  Set aside.  In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat together peanut butter and butter until creamy.  Add granulated sugar and beat for an additional 5 minutes.

Add eggs and vanilla, beat until combined.  The batter will be thin.

Add the flour in increments (I did 4) to the batter.  It will thicken very quickly:

Pour the batter into the greased tube pan and tap it against the counter to make sure any air bubbles will pop.

Bake for 1 hour and 20 minutes.  Test with a wooden skewer to make sure it is fully baked (stick skewer into middle of the cake and if it comes out clean the cake is done.).  Remove cake from oven and let it cool in the pan for 20 minutes.  After removing the cake from the pan, let it cool completely before adding the glaze.

To make the glaze, whisk together the confectioner's sugar, peanut butter, milk and vanila extract until its combined.  The glaze needs to be thin enough to drizzle on the cake, so if it's too thick add a bit of milk a little at a time until desired consistency is reached.  Once the cake is cooled and glaze is whisked up, drizzle!  Garnish with additional chocolate chips.

I totally want this cake for dinner.  I'm so glad I sent it away, but not-so-secretly wish I saved myself a slice!  Anyway, a word of caution when making this cake.  I had to make it twice because the first one did not bake through all the way.  I removed the first attempt from the pan and left for an appointment while it finished cooling.  I noticed, when I returned, that it sank.  I ignored it and added the glaze and after it set I cut a nice slice for myself.  That's when I noticed the ring of uncooked dough all around my cake:

I used toothpick to check the cake and it came out clean, but I believe a toothpick is not long enough to give an accurate result.  The second attempt I used a skewer and after 1 hour 20 minutes it was not done, so I baked it for an additional 15 minutes and it was perfectly done.

But when I cut into the first cake, I'm not going to lie, I was devastated.  I wanted to eat a slice so badly I did the only thing I could do...I made it again.  So.  Worth.  It.

Now, if you like super dense, peanut buttery, chocolate accented, glazey goodness this cake is for you and I guarantee you will love it!!

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Shortbread Cookies

 

If you like shortbread cookies you are going to want to try this recipe ASAP.  One of the things I love about shortbread is the ease and quickness of making them from beginning to end.  Very few ingredients are required with no complicated maneuvers.  You can add different flavorings to them for some variety, as I did with my Cherry Shortbread Hearts.  I've also experimented with raspberry and almond extract, which I'll be posting about soon.  When these Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Shortbread Cookies showed up on Pinterest, I knew immediately I would love them and had to mix up a batch just to be sure.  I was not wrong!  Give them a try yourself:

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Shortbread Cookies

recipe by The view from the Great Island

1/2 cup (one stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

1/3 cup creamy peanut butter

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup confectioners sugar

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

3/4 cup milk chocolate chips

• Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  
• In a standing or electric mixer cream together butter and peanut butter.
• Beat in the vanilla.
• Whisk together flour, sugar, and salt in separate bowl.
• Add dry ingredients to butter mixture and beat just until combined.
• Stir in chocolate chips.
• Turn the dough out onto waxed paper, and shape like a log.

• Roll the wax paper completely around the dough, maintaining log shape.
• Twist the ends like a piece of candy.

• Refrigerate for several hours.
• Cut into 1/3 thick slices and bake for 12-14 minutes.

• Let cool on cookie sheet for 5 minutes before placing them on wire rack to cool completely.
• EAT!

Okay, so embarrassing at it is to admit, once again, I did not read the entire recipe thoroughly and used semi-sweet chips rather than milk chocolate.  Believe me when I tell you, this does not work.  This cookie needs the sweetness of milk chocolate to really bring out the flavor of the peanut butter.  What I ended up doing was pressing some milk chocolate chips onto the cookies before baking (once I recognized my mistake).  Perfection.  In fact, I loved the semi-sweetness combined with the milk chocolate for a more layered chocolate/peanut butter taste.  And, I must add, the sea salt really makes this recipe!  All of the flavors combined just really, really work together to make one fantastic cookie.  I hope you enjoy them, too!

My All Time Favorite - Peanut Butter Blossoms!

If there's one cookie I have no self control over, it's the Peanut Butter Blossom.  I think this cookie is absolute perfection.  Chocolate and peanut butter goodness.  And they're cute, too!

Since I've started this blog, the most popular post by far has been my pink peanut butter zebra stripe cookie.  It's just a variation on a theme; using pink dye for the dough and a Hershey Hug rather than a Kiss, and it has taken off like wildfire!  I'd like to give some love to the inspiration, the irreplaceable, the original Peanut Butter Blossom.

For me, this cookie represents the Thanksgiving through New Year's holiday season.  It's not a celebration if these are not present on the dessert table, so I made some.  More than some, actually.  I made a LOT.  Here's how I did it:

Peanut Butter Cookies (adapted from Betty Crocker's Cookbook)

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup peanut butter (I prefer Reese's Peanut Butter)

1/4 cup shortening (I prefer Crisco baking sticks, butter flavor)

1/4 cup butter, softened

2 tablespoons milk

1 egg

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Cream together the butter, shortening, and peanut butter. Mix in sugars, egg and milk. Add the remaining ingredients. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Roll the dough into 1 1/2 - 2 inch balls.  Dredge the balls through sugar and place on an ungreased cookie sheet at least three inches apart. 

Bake between 9-10 minutes.  While they are baking, unwrap enough Hershey Kiss's to place on top of each cookie.

After removing cookies from the oven, push a Hershey Kiss into the center of each one.  Let cookies cool several minutes before removing them from cookie sheet.

 Be careful not to touch the kiss for at least an hour after placing them on the cookie.  It will keep it's shape, but it will also be quite soft and easy to squish.  After a few hours they will be perfectly set and you can stack them in an airtight container for storage.  If they last that long!

Reese's Peanut Butter Pumpkins

Right off I'm going to say part of me wishes I didn't make these.  I have absolutely no self control around the holiday times when Reese's sells their peanut butter eggs, trees, hearts, and pumpkins.  It's a problem.  So, obviously I am taking a big risk learning how to make them in my own house.  But I did.  And they taste perfect.  And I'm sure I'm going to regret this day!

I found this recipe here and restrained myself as long as I could from giving it a try.  They are so simple you may or may not want to make them yourself.  It all depends on whether or not YOU have self control to stop at just one, or two, or....you get the idea.

Anyway, this is what you need:

Reese's Peanut Butter Pumpkins

1 cup creamy peanut butter (I used Reese's Peanut Butter)

1/4 cup melted butter

2 cups powdered sugar

1-2 tablespoons milk

1 1/2 cups of melting chocolate

Mix together the peanut butter, sugar and butter.  If the mixture is too thick, add the 1-2 tablespoons of milk.  The texture should be stiff but pliable, like Play-Doh.  Place the mixture onto a flat surface and spread evenly until is the thickness you desire.

Next, use a cookie cutter or mold your own shapes to dip into chocolate.  I did not have a small pumpkin cutter, so I used a small Christmas ornament cutter, which I then shaped into a pumpkin myself.  While I was at it, I cut out a few trees to see how they would look.

Also, I could not help but use my small Buffalo cookie cutter to make some Buffalo's.  I love representing my home!  Once you cut out your shapes (continue remolding the scraps until you have used all of the peanut butter mixture.  I also made some ball shapes to make a truffly version.), place them in the freezer for about 10-15 minutes.  Use a toothpick stuck in the side of your shape to dip them into melted chocolate.  I used Merkins melting milk chocolate wafers.  Melt them in a microwaveable bowl for 30 second intervals on Power Level 2 until all chocolate is melted smooth.

After letting the excess chocolate drip off, place the dipped shape onto waxed paper and remove the toothpick.  Dab a bit of chocolate onto the hole where the toothpick was.  I made the mistake of placing my shapes on a baking rack.  I do not advise this, as my shapes stuck to the rack and were not only difficult to remove, but also many of them tore.  The ones I placed on waxed paper had excess chocolate melted around the edges, but they came off the paper with no problem and held their shape wonderfully.

How GREAT are these??!!  And they taste so, so, so delicious!  Really, in a blindfolded taste test I would not be able to tell the difference between these and the real thing.  See, this is a problem.  Give them a try yourself, you won't regret it.  Or, you might!