Hey all! Today's my first non-auto post in almost a week. I thought about writing this up on Saturday when we got home, or even during the five and a half hour drive home from Vermont, but that didn't happen. I wanted to take a break for a couple days, since I had gotten ahead. Yesterday I was busy most of the day at my niece's baptism, so I didn't get a chance then either. It's nice to get ahead with the blog. Needing to make a DIY, photograph it, and write a well written, sincere post all in a day can be stressful. I'll definitely need to get ahead for this fall. In the fall I can easily work 45 - 50 hours a week as a school photographer.
Anyway! Happy Nom Nom Monday! For today's recipe I have the cookies I made for my niece's baptism. I made Reese's Nutella Cookies, and they were a giant hit. Everyone was telling me how delicious they were. I sourced the recipe from Domesticated Engineer, but she forgot a step, so I had to also check out her original source on My Kitchen Addiction. To simplify things, if you want to give this tasty recipe a try, I'm going to share my steps here.
What You'll Need:
- 2 1/2 C All Purpose Flour
- 1 Tsp Baking Soda
- 1/2 Tsp Sea Salt
- 2 C Mini Peanut Butter Cups (cooking size)
- 1 C Reese's Pieces
- 2 C Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips
- 1 C Unsalted Butter
- 1 C White Granulated Sugar
- 1 C Light Brown Sugar (lightly packed)
- 2/3 C Nutella
- 2 Eggs
- 2 Tsp Pure Vanilla Extract
Directions:
I began by preheating the oven to 350ºF. In a large bowl I whisked together 2 1/2 cups of all purpose flour, one teaspoon of baking soda, and half a tea spoon of sea salt.
In a separate bowl I mixed together two cups of mini peanut butter cups, one cup of Reese's Pieces, and two cups of semi sweet chocolate chips. I seem to have the best luck finding mini peanut butter cups at Trader Joe's, and it's definitely best to use the tiny sized cups for cooking, instead of chopping up the larger miniature peanut butter cups Reese's makes.
Then, I used my Kitchen Aid to cream a cup of butter, and slowly added a cup of white sugar, and a cup of lightly packed light brown sugar. My sources called for dark brown, but I only had light brown, so I went with it. The internet says the difference between light and dark brown sugar is the amount of molasses, which makes sense. So, dark brown sugar will have a stronger and sweeter flavor, and that is the major difference between the two sugars. It shouldn't affect the consistency or outcome of the cookies, other than the flavor. The light brown sugar will result in a lighter flavor, than if I had used dark brown sugar. Once the butter and sugars were completely mixed, I added in two thirds of a cup of Nutella.
Once that was throughly combined, I added in two eggs, one at a time. Then, I added in two teaspoons of vanilla. I continued mixing until everything was throughly combined. Then, I slowly added in the flour mixture.
When everything was completely mixed together, I called the mister in to do the heavy lifting. :) He used a wooden spoon to mix in the chocolate candies by hand. This was a super thick mixture, he was even tired by the time he finished. I'm pretty sure he needed to drink a glass of milk to replenish his strength.
I also make him spoon out the cook dough on the cookie sheets, because when directions tell me 'a heaping tablespoon' I end up with a cookie lake on my cookie sheet once removed from the oven. And by 'make him' I mean, I butter him up with heaping tablespoons of velvety compliments, waxing about his incredibly perfect cooking-making-abilities.
See don't they look all nice pre-oven time? Aaron's a fantastic helper! What a lucky girl I am. :) Aaron and I were super concerned there was way too much candy in the mixture, and that they wouldn't turn out at all. The candy to dough ratio made us think there was no way these guys would hold together in the oven. We thought for sure they'd come out as little chocolate puddles.
This is how they looked after thirteen minutes in the oven. The dough actually held everything together! After I let them cool for a couple minutes, they popped right off the cookie sheet. Then I moved them to a cookie rack for an additional five or so minutes to continue cooling. This mixture made 72 decent sized cookies. They were by no means 'small' cookies.
Great cookie recipe! How could you go wrong with Nutella, Reese's Pieces, peanut butter cups, and chocolate chips? Chocolate and peanut butter heaven! I made these on Wednesday before we went up to Vermont. My mom delivered them to my brother's house on Saturday, and my brother said they almost didn't make it to Sunday for their party. I think that's a true testament to how taste they are. Yummy!
Don't they look fantastic all piled up together? Hmmm, when will I be able to make these again??? These could become my go to cookie. Hope ya'll are having a fantastic Monday! Happy DIYing, chris!
