Peanut Butter Fingers

I love this dessert. It's like a homemade peanut butter cup, but it has to be better for you because it has oatmeal in it. Right? My college friend Laura's mom, Dawn, who is akin to Donna Reed, made these the first time I had them when I visiting her while we were in Washington DC last April during David's JAG school trip. She made them to take to a church activity, or I could have probably eaten the entire pan by myself. Peanut butter and chocolate is one of my favorite combinations. This is a great recipe to take to a potluck or to make for a crowd.

Peanut Butter Fingers (Dawn Eves and Laura Bailey)

1/2 c butter
2/3 c peanut butter, creamy or chunky
2/3 c brown sugar
2/3 c sugar
2 eggs
1 t vanilla
1 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
2 c oatmeal
2 c flour

Cream the butter, peanut butter, and sugars together. Add both eggs and mix. Then add vanilla, soda and salt. Stir in oatmeal and flour. Press this into a greased jelly roll pan and cook on 350 for 10-15 minutes dpending on how soft you want the cookie. When cooked, let cool completely. Frost with a layer of creamy peanut butter and then a layer of chocolate frosting. You can use a homemade recipe for the frosting, or use one can of chocolate frosting that is premade. Slice into bars and EAT!

Holy Cow! Cookies

Okay, they're not really called Holy Cow cookies. But after eating the first one (actually after eating my *first* spoonful of batter), those were the first words that came to mind. The official name of the cookies is "Deluxe Triple Chocolate Cookies" and they came out of the Pillsbury 2011 Annual Recipe Cookbook and they were a Pillsbury Bake Off Contestant winner, so I knew they had to be good before I even made them. I mean, they have Nutella AND peanut butter in them. Probably two of my most favorite foods, in one cookie. I couldn't get to my kitchen aid fast enough after reading the recipe.

I ended up sending almost all of them to work with David. This house simply isn't big enough for me and those cookies. They passed the co-worker test and the kid test, and most importantly of all, MY test. Put this one in your cookie-keeper file. You'll come back to this one again.

1 c butter, softened
3/4 c packed brown sugar
3/4 c granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 t vanilla
1/2 c Nutella
1/2 c peanut butter, creamy
1 box (5oz) instant hot cocoa mix, chocolate
2 c all-purpose flour
1 c oats, any kind
1 t salt
1 t baking soda
1 bag (12 oz) semi sweet chocolate chips

Heat oven to 375. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, beat butter and sugars with electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs and vanilla. On low speed, beat in hazelnut spread, peanut butter, and dry cocoa mix until well blended. Stir in flour, oats, salt and baking soda until well blended. Stir in chocolate chips.

Drop dough by rounded teaspoons (or using your medium Pampered Chef scoop like I did) 2 inches apart onto cookie sheets. Bake 9 to 12 minutes or until edges are set. Cool 3 minutes; remove from cookie sheets to cooling racks.

Oh, and what do you do with the spoon you used to dip the Nutella out? That is entirely up to you, but I'll give you one guess as to what I did with the remnants on this spoon...

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

I bake literally dozens of these during the fall season. (These are pre-oven, but they look pretty much the same when they come out!) My last double batch went to teachers, the ladies I visit teach, David, the kids and me! I've had a couple requests for the recipe, so figured I'd post it here since it needed to wind up here anyway. My sister-in-law loves them, and I have promised her a batch at Thanksgiving!

Yummy! So glad for fall and the food that comes with it!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies, from Everyday Food Magazine

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t baking powder
1/2 t pumpkin pie spice
1/4 t salt
1/2 c (1 stick)butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 can (15 oz) pure pumpkin puree
1 cup (or more if you're me) semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and pumpkin pie spice, and salt; set aside.

Beat together butter and sugar until light and flufy. Add egg; beat until smooth. With mixer on low speed, alterately add flour m ixture in two parts and pumpkin puree in one, beginning and ending with flour mixture; mix just until combined (do not overmix). Stir in chocolate chips. (The mini chocolate chips are good too!)

Drop dough by heaping tablespoons onto two baking sheets, about 1 1/2 inches apart. Bake until puffed and edges are golden, 15 to 20 minutes. Immediately transfer to wire racks and cool completely.

**I can rarely find pumpkin pie spice, so I make my own. For 1 teaspoon, you mix 1/2 t cinnamon, 1/4 t ginger, 1/8 t allspice, 1/8 t nutmeg. If you're just making 1 batch of these cookies, you would need to half these measurements since the above makes 1 t of pumpkin pie spice and the recipe calls for 1/2 t, but I always double this recipe, so I use the amounts as written for 1 t of pumpkin pie spice.

Heaps of Chocolate Goodness

I don't know what the real name of these are. I don't know where I got the recipe, but it was scribbled on a used envelope. I made these for a Scentsy party I had this past weekend, and I got two emails today from two different people asking for the recipe. So here ya go. :)

3 cups chocolate chips (I always use semi-sweet chocolate chips)
3 cups butterscotch chips
1/2 cup crunchy peanut butter
1 tsp vanilla
1 c peanuts (I like to use the salted ones because I like the salty/sweet combination)
2 1/2 cup chow mein noodles (found in the Asian foods section in a blue bag)

Place chocolate and butterscotch chips in a medium saucepan over low heat until melted. (I melted mine in my large Pampered Chef micro-cooker. 1 minute for the initial melting, and then in 30 second intervals until it was nice and smooth).

After mixture is melted, take it off the stove (if you melted in a saucepan) and stir in the peanut butter and vanilla.

Gently stir in peanuts and chow mein noodles. (Next time I make these I will break up the chow mein noodles a little so they're in smaller pieces).

Scoop heaps onto waxed paper laid on a cookie sheet. Put in the refrigerator or freezer to set-up until solid. I used my medium Pampered Chef cookie scoop for these because I was in a hurry, so they were a bit big. I plan on adding these to my Christmas treat trays and I will use my small scoop to make them tinier so that the recipe makes more. Using the medium scoop, I still made about 36, so if you use the small scoop you could probably almost double the amount.