[Food and Drink Wednesdays] Mini Peanut Butter Cream Pies

My latest project was making a dozen miniature peanut butter cream pies with the recipe I found in the White Lily Cookbook from somewhere around the 1970s-ish. It's super easy to make. All you need is your basic crust rolled out into muffin tins, peanut butter and powdered sugar (about a 1:2 ratio), pudding (use Jell-O heat & serve or make yours from scratch), and whipped cream topping. Super simple, super comforting. 

From the White Lily Cookbook

Making the pudding: be sure to cover it with plastic as it cools to avoid a film on top

For the whipped cream, you'll need heavy cream and powdered sugar

Then whip that stuff together

The peanut layer on the bottom is just natural creamy peanut butter and powdered sugar pressed into the pastry

The final, adorable product: crust, layer of peanut butter, layer of pudding, layer of whipped cream. Some chopped peanuts on top would be amazing.

[Food + Drink Wednesdays] Comfort Food: Old-Fashioned Peanut Butter Cookies

I've been kind of down lately, and nothing picks me up better than peanut butter. Add some butter to that, sugar to the butter and peanut butter, and then throw some flour into the mix, and you've got yourself a recipe for self-indulgent everything-will-be-okay-because-you-have-these-cookies Peanut Butter Goodness. They're easy to make too, so you can get back to wallowing in self-pity as soon as the timer on your oven goes off.

Ingredients

1 cup butter

1 cup peanut butter

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup white sugar

2 eggs

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla

Directions
1. Mix together the butter and peanut butter in a large mixing bowl. Then add the sugars and the eggs until everything is combined.
2. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and salt. Then add this mixture to the flour mixture.
3. Add in the vanilla. Cool the cookies for at least 1 hour (more is better though).
4. Preheat the oven to 375F. Shape the dough into 1 1/4-inch balls and squish down onto a non-stick baking pan. Dip a fork in sugar and press the fork down on the cookies to make a cute, criss-cross pattern.
5. Cook for 7-8 minutes and allow to cool on a wire rack.
6. Eat. Feel guilty after the first three. Eat a few more. Smile.

Pressing the cookies with a fork

[Food + Drink Wednesdays] Vegan Peanut Butter Cupcakes with Dark Chocolate

Peanut Butter and Cake

This recipe was inspired (okay, mostly taken) from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, which is by the girls who brought us Veganomicon and The Post Punk Kitchen.

November is the month of autumn-themed eating, at least according to me. That means lots baked goods, lots of squash, lots of apples and cinnamon, and lots of molasses. I'm pretty sure peanut butter fits in there somewhere too.

With a little re-working, I made sure these cupcakes were the perfect amount of moist and rich. That is, don't even think about eating half of one without a big glass of milk, soy or otherwise. What I also love about this recipe is that it's made from stuff you always keep in the pantry anyway, so I didn't even have to go to the store. I was just bored and started pulling out pots and pans.

Ingredients
3/4 cup of soy milk
2 tsp apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup chunky peanut butter (the original calls for natural, but that's really not necessary)
1/4 cup canola oil (the original calls for much more, but it's not necessary either, especially if you use normal PB)
2/3 cup sugar (I added 1/2 Splenda and 1/2 white sugar-- you can't tell the difference)
2 tbsp molasses or sorghum (Invest in some of this. It's also good on biscuits...)
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp ground flaxseeds (I always keep this around for smoothies and replacing butter and eggs in any recipe)
1 cup + 2 tbsp flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
OPTIONAL: a bit of melted chocolate for the topping; peanuts for garnish

Directions
1. Preheat the ocen to 350° F. Line a muffin tin with cupcake liners. Mine were jumbo liners, but I realized that after the fact.
2. Mix soy milk with vinegar and set aside to curdle.
3. In a large bowl, mix together PB, oil, sugar, molasses, vanilla, ground flaxseeds. Add the soy milk mixture until combined.
4. In a separate bowl, mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix until JUST combined. Not too much, now!
5. Fill cupcake liners two-thirds full. Bake for 23 to 26 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool.
6. OPTIONAL: When cooled a bit, place on wax paper or protective surface and pour melted chocolate over the top, then garnish with peanuts. I think this step is pretty unnecessary, but it looks prettier for parties 'n things.

Take a Bite Outta That!