Pretzel M&M Bars

Posted by: Annie

Pretzels and chocolate have always been one of my favorite combinations. That being said, the new Pretzel M &M’s are constantly finding their way into my shopping cart. I was in a baking mood after work yesterday and really wanted to bake something involving pretzel M&M’s, so I was thrilled to find a recipe that called for not only M&M’s, but peanut butter. From there on Peanut Butter Pretzel Crumbly Bars were born. I adapted the recipe from here.  Enjoy!

What You Will Need:

1 stick butter

2 eggs

1 cup peanut butter

¾ cup sugar

2/3 cup  packed dark brown sugar

2 cups flour

¾ tsp baking soda

1 ¼ tsp baking powder

1 “Medium” Bag Pretzel M&M’s (9.9 oz)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Beat together the butter, eggs, peanut butter, dark brown sugar and sugar. Gradually mix in  the flour, baking soda, and baking powder, and mix until smooth. Remove 1 ½ cups of the dough mixture and set aside. Press the remaining dough into the bottom of an ungreased 13x9 pan. Add the M&M candies to the reserved dough and crumble into the pan pressing down lightly. Bake 20-25 minutes until golden brown. Cut into bars.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes

Posted by: Maggie

A few hours from now I'll be participating in Cupcake Camp DC! After much deliberation over what recipe to make, I settled on these dark chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter buttercream from Brown Eyed Baker.

I did a test run of them on Thursday night and gave them away to my coworkers. I received VERY positive reviews, and two coworkers didn't believe I made them myself, which makes me feel a bit more confident about going up against more experienced bakers today!

I had a bit of trouble finding Dutch processed cocoa for this recipe, but was finally able to track it down at Whole Foods (don't bother with Harris Teeter or Shoppers).

Here's what you'll need: (I doubled this - amounts below yield a dozen)

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces
2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
½ cup (1.5 ounces) Dutch-processed cocoa powder
¾ cup (3.75 ounces) all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
¾ teaspoon baking powder
2 eggs
¾ cup (5.25 ounces) granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon table salt
½ cup (4 ounces) sour cream

Adjust oven rack to the lower middle position, and preheat to 350 degrees (325 if using a non-stick muffin tin). Line muffin tin with paper liners and set aside.

Combine butter, chocolate, and cocoa in a microwaveable bowl. In 30 second increments on 50% power melt until smooth and combined. Set aside to cool.

Whisk flour, baking soda, and baking powder in a small bowl.

Beat eggs in second medium bowl to combine; add sugar, vanilla, and salt until fully incorporated. Beat in cooled chocolate mixture until combined. Sift about one-third of flour mixture over chocolate mixture and beat on lowest setting until just combined. Beat in sour cream until incorporated, and then add the remaining flour mixture. Do not over mix!

Divide batter evenly among baking cups, and bake 18 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Cool completely before frosting.

Frosting Recipe:

1 cup confectioners’ sugar
1 cup creamy peanut butter
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
¾ teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ teaspoon kosher salt
1/3 cup heavy cream

Beat the first 5 ingredients on medium low speed until creamy. Add the heavy cream, and beat on high speed until mixture is smooth. I used a 1M star tip to frost mine.

Snickerdoodles

Posted by: Maggie

I've had a few baking failures lately.

First there was cornbread a few weeks ago, which I made to go with a batch of black bean soup that I never posted on here.

Then I attempted to make "Redskins Red-Velvet Cupcakes" for Jeff, which I envisioned as red velvet cupcakes with gold cream cheese frosting and these doodads on top. I neglected to buy plain cupcake wrappers, so after mixing the batter up had the genius idea to spray the muffin tin with Pam. Don't do this. It stains your cupcakes brown. Also, since the recipe I used neglected to indicate how many cupcakes it yielded, I eyeballed the batter. That was mistake number two. It was a mess. I should have taken a photo but it was too shameful. I tasted the ugly cupcakes and the cake wasn't even very good, so I blame the author of the recipe for 50% of that debacle.

My most recent baking disaster was on Saturday night when I was staying in and watching tv with Jeff. We were watching some show about cakes, and I got the itch to bake. I'm running low on staples at the moment, and realized I had enough ingredients to make Snickerdoodles. I mixed up the cookies, and...I think you know where this is going. Jeff was kind enough to eat 4 of them, but he also referred to them as Frisbees since they were so flat and spread out.

Now comes the process of correcting (with new recipes) these recent failures. I made Snickerdoodles again last night using my favorite sugar cookie recipe, and they turned out delicious. The cinnamon flavor is really perfect for fall, and they made my kitchen smell amazing.

Here's what you'll need:

(yields about 50 small cookies)

1 1/4 cups white sugar
1 cup butter
3 egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar

For rolling: 1 part cinnamon to 3 parts sugar (you'll want about 1/4 -1/3 cup mixture total)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, and line baking sheets with parchment paper.

Cream together sugar and butter, and beat in egg yolks and vanilla.

Mix together dry ingredients in a medium bowl, and stir into wet ingredients until combined.

Refrigerate dough for at least 1 hour. After dough has chilled, roll into 1 inch balls, and lightly coat in the cinnamon sugar mixture. Bake for 7 minutes, or until top of cookie has just started to crack. Let cool on baking sheet for 3 minutes, and transfer to wire rack to finish cooling.