Peanut Butter Lovers Cake Mix Cookies

  

Did you watch the Super Bowl? I was in a room with it on but really I only paid attention to the commercials. Because that's what it's all about right? Commercials and food. Especially desserts. And while there were lots of cute football themed treats my personal favorites from Sunday were these Peanut Butter Lover's Cake Mix Cookies.

Talk about the perfect combo of peanut butter and chocolate. (which is a perfection in and of itself). These cookies start out with a traditional cake mix cookie base using Devil's Food cake mix, add in some peanut butter chips and top with a melty Reese's heart and you have what one of my fellow game watchers called "the absolute best cookie I have ever put in my mouth."

This same friend is someone who I would consider to have significant will power when it comes to restraining herself around desserts. (And I mean that in the best way possible). Unlike me, she can usually just have one cookie or she opts for fruit instead of cake. So when she went back for seconds, thirds and possibly even fourths, I knew that I wasn't just being biased in saying these are amazing.

You can always switch these up if it's not Valentine's season by using a regular Reese's in the middle instead of a heart or you can leave them plain as I did with some of the dough. I will tell you that the cookies with hearts in the middle were WAY more popular than those without. So much more popular that my mom and aunt may have hidden some of them for later so that they wouldn't get stuck with the plain ones. (Remember how I told you my family hoards food? See I wasn't kidding)

Peanut Butter Lovers Cake Mix Cookies

• 1 box of Devil's Food cake mix (just the mix)
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup of vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 cup of peanut butter chocolate chips (I used the mixed Nestle morsels)
• 24 Reese's Hearts or Reese's Cups unwrapped

1.) Mix together the cake mix, eggs, oil and baking power until a cookie batter forms. 

2.) Stir in the chocolate/peanut butter chips.

3.) Drop by rounded scoops onto a greased or parchment covered baking sheet.

4.) Bake for 6 minutes at 350 degrees.

5.) After 6 minutes remove the cookies and gently press an unwrapped Reese's heart (or cup) into the center of the cookie. Finish baking at 350 degrees for 3 more minutes. The Reese's will melt completely if you leave them in the oven longer than that. 

6.) Let cool and enjoy!

Looking for more Valentine's Day fun? Check out my Valentine's Day Pinterest board!

25+ Valentine's Day Desserts & Treats

  

Do you feel it? Love is in the air! We are just 3 short weeks away from Valentine's Day (how is that possible?)!  To get you in the mood here are some amazingly good looking pink, red, and sparkly desserts to help you celebrate with loved ones!

Need more Valentine's Day dessert ideas? Check out my Valentine's Day Love Pinterest board!

Red Velvet M&M Valentine's Day Bark

Rich creamy chocolate bark topped with Red Velvet M&M's and an excessive amount of sprinkles. It's almost as over the top as Valentine's Day at a high school. 

  

Can you believe Valentine's Day is less than a month away? I haven't even fully finished putting my Christmas decorations away yet but already my Pinterest and social media newsfeeds are full of candy hearts and excessive amounts of pink sprinkles. My local stores actually had Valentine's Day Candy out on display as early as January 2nd so true to form, it's time for me to start sharing some limited edition holiday flavored candy treats with you.

Since Justin and I spent the first 5 years of our relationship living in different cities, Valentine's Day was something we always celebrated a little bit early or a little bit late. In fact we spent our first 7 Valentine's Days apart either due to distance or his shift schedule as a firefighter. We had actually been married for over a year before we got to celebrate together on February 14th. So the day always passed with little fan fare for me. Until I started teaching high school.

Do you remember Valentine's Day as a teenager? No? Let me refresh your memory: Huge stuffed animals that get carried from class to class, balloon bouquets, messages written on car windshields, roses left on homeroom desks, massive glittery cards, way too expensive gifts for people who probably don't have jobs, and so much sugar you get physically ill by the time the 2:30 bell rings simply from being around it all day.

There are happy tears, sad tears, why does he love her more than me tears, stories about how sweet it is that he brought me Dunkin Donuts for us to romantically share in the parking lot before school, oohs and aahhs, and death stares. Sound about right?

 It is one of my favorite days of the school year simply because I enjoy watching the romance and the drama unfold.

And while that may sound a little bit over the top, I assure you it is about 97% factual. You know what else is a little bit over the top in the best possible way? This Red Velvet M&M Bark.

This bark is made just like any other traditional bark but I added a little red food coloring to the white chocolate part and then topped it with crushed Red Velvet M&M's and an absurd amount of Valentine's Day sprinkles. It was creamy, crunchy, rich and had the perfect amount of sweetness. I apologize for the picture overload but the color combo was just too cute not to photograph in excess.

Red Velvet M&M Bark

• 1 pound good melting chocolate ( bars, chips, melts)
• 1 pound good melting white chocolate
• Red food coloring
• 1 cup of crushed Red Velvet M&M's
• Valentine's Day themed sprinkles

 1.) Using whatever method you prefer, melt your chocolate and pour/spread it evenly on a baking sheet lined with a silpat or wax paper.

2.) Let that layer sit while you melt your white chocolate. Once the white chocolate is melted stir inred food  coloring until it reaches your desired shade.

3.) Pour/spread the white chocolate over the regular chocolate layer.

4.) Top with crushed Red Velvet M&M's and sprinkles.

5.) Refrigerate until completely set. Break into bite sized pieces and enjoy.


Want more Valentine's Day treats?

Chocolate Covered Rolo & Ritz Cracker Sandwiches

I guess you could say that I like to do things in an over the top kind of way. Minimalist is not a word anyone would ever use to describe me. Why make one cheese dip for a party when you could make four? Why have one pair of black shoes when I could have seven? Why order the first book of a series off of Amazon when I could just go ahead and order the whole boxed set?

Why use store bought marshmallows when you could make your own? Because you're insane and a glutton for punishment that's why. Can you tell I am just a little bit bitter about this?

Friday night I decided to make my own Valentines Day marshmallows. What, you don't spend your Friday nights with a candy thermometer and powdered gelatin? I used a recipe from my favorite cookbook authors {the Baked Series of Cookbooks} and added an absurd amount of heart shaped sprinkles.

But I didn't stop there. Even though my marshmallows started out cute and yummy looking, I wanted to do more. I wanted to take those labor intensive homemade marshmallows and use them to make ridiculously unnecessarily time consuming Valentines Day S'more Cupcakes complete with melted chocolate hearts on top, an open face s'more cupcake if you will.

Apparently something was wrong with my marshmallows (too many sprinkles maybe?) because they turned to liquidy mush/goo in their tupperware overnight and they ended up in the trash can. Huge homemade marshmallow fail.

And then I realized that maybe I just needed to keep it simple for the rest of the weekend so I didn't end up throwing my kitchenaid mixer in the trash can in a fit of frustrated baking rage. So I went about as simple as you can go. I melted Rolos in between Ritz crackers. And then I dipped them in melted chocolate. And then I covered them in sprinkles. And they were amazing. See what I mean about having a problem with simplicity?

I actually saw this idea on Pinterest last week  and it was so simple I didn't even pin it for future reference. After doing some research tonight to make sure I properly credited the genius who came up with this idea, I landed at Something Swanky. It makes perfect sense that Ashton who is one of the co-creators of Online BlogCon also created something as delicious as Rolo Stuffed Ritz Crackers.

Talk about the perfect balance of sweet, salty and chocolatey, these treats are addictive and bite sized and easy to make in any quantity at any time of day. And simple, because simple is better, right? Especially when it is dipped in chocolate and covered in sprinkles. Whoops.

Chocolate Covered Rolo & Ritz Sandwiches originally created by Something Swanky

• Ritz Crackers
• Rolo Candies
• Melting Chocolates (I used Wilton's Dark Cocoa Melts)
• Insane amounts of sprinkles

1.) On a lined baking sheet, place Ritz crakers salted side down and top with an unwrapped Rolo.

2.) Bake at 275 degrees for three minutes.

3.) When they come out of the oven, press another Ritz cracker on top of the Rolos salted side up. Press down enough to form a sandwich but not too hard that the melty Rolo squishes out.

4.) Let cool and firm up completely.

5.) Dip in melted chocolate and cover in sprinkles.

6.) Let them firm up (or not) and enjoy!

Make sure you stop by this week's Mealtime Monday and link up any amazing recipes you have been working on lately.

***Depending on the day this post may be linked up to any of these fabulous linky parties.***

Do you host a weekly party? If so, make sure to visit my party page and add yours so we all can join in the fun!

Brown Butter Snickerdoodles {With A Valentines Twist!}

Anyone who is a food blogger knows that you are expected to produce tons of super cute, adorable appropriately themed holiday desserts and treats months before the holiday actually occurs. My first year blogging I had no idea of these expectations and I was wondering why when I posted my Christmas desserts on December 20th (when I would actually make them in real life) no one pinned them or commented on them.

It wasn't really until I started networking with other bloggers through Online BlogCon that I realized I was out of the loop. This past Thanksgiving/Christmas season I tried to be ahead of the curve on my holiday themed posts but I still fell way short of my lofty goals to shower you with Christmas dishes from Black Friday to Christmas Day.

2013 is going to be different. I am ready. You are going to get Valentines Day in January and St. Patrick's Day starting on February 15th and Easter well before Spring Break. Or at least that is the plan....

Now that I am mentally prepared and motivated to inundated you with preciously sweet holiday themed desserts, I realize my other problem. I don't have kids yet and the majority of my blog desserts end up at the fire station where my husband works. And that group of 30-55 year old men don't often request things like Pinterest Pretzel Bites or Homemade Valentines Day Marshmallows covered in Sprinkles (coming soon!) or Leprechaun Bark (coming Feb. 15th!).

So I took the easier way out and made you something non-Valentines Day related with a holiday twist. Did you know that if you use heart shaped anything you can automatically call it Valentines Day themed? So I took this advantage to bust out one of my new Christmas presents (thanks, Justin!) Baked Elements: Our 10 Favorite Ingredients the newest cookbook in the Baked Family of Cookbooks.

You know I love Snickerdoodle anything so their recipe for Brown Butter Snickerdoodles caught my eye immediately. These are the more labor intensive but infinitely better cousin of the box mix snickerdoodle. As the name suggests, you brown the butter and then you have to bring it back to room temperature before making your dough but it is so worth the extra time.

These Snickerdoodles were everything a cookie should be, crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside. The browned butter was the perfect contrast to the sweetness of the brown sugar and cinnamon. Pop a Dove Milk Chocolate Heart on them for the last three minutes of baking and you have a Valentines Day treat that even the manliest fire fighters aren't ashamed to eat. The heart shaped Valentines Day Marshmallows will have to go to the teachers' lounge.

Make sure you stop by this week's Mealtime Monday and link up any amazing recipes you have been working on lately.

***Depending on the day this post may be linked up to any of these fabulous linky parties.***

Do you host a weekly party? If so, make sure to visit my party page and add yours so we all can join in the fun!

Brown Butter Snickerdoodles

by Kaylee @ Couponing & Cooking

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes

Keywords: dessert cookie

Ingredients (24 cookies)

For The Dough

• 2 sticks (8oz) of unsalted butter
• 2 3/4 cups of flour
• 2 teaspoons cream of tartar
• 1 teaspoon of baking soda
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tablespoon milk
• 1 cup of sugar
• 1/2 cup of firmly packed brown sugar

For The Rolling Mixture

• 1 tablespoon cinnamon
• 3 tablespoons sugar

Instructions

In a medium sauce pan, place butter (cubed) and heat on medium heat until the foam subsides and the butter turns brown. Should take between 8-10 minutes.

Pour the browned butter through a strainer into the bowl of a stand mixer. Beat on medium to bring back to room temperature, 5-7 minutes.

Whisk together the milk and eggs.

Once butter has cooled, add the sugars (amounts for the dough) and beat on medium for about 2 minutes.

Add in egg and milk mixture and beat until fully combined.

Add in the rest of the dry ingredients in 3 parts until just combined.

Cover dough in plastic wrap and stick in the fridge for at least an hour but not more than 24 hours.

Mix the cinnamon and sugar for the rolling mixture in a bowl.

Using a cookie scoop or your hands form uniform ball of dough and roll them in the cinnamon sugar mixture before placing on a lined baking sheet.

Bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes or until the tops of the cookies have started to "crack".

If you want to add the Dove Hearts, remove the cookies after 8 minute of baking and press the chocolates into the dough and bake for 2 more minutes.

Let the cookies and the chocolate cool completely before storing in an airtight container.

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