In the mood for Peanut Butter & Chocolate

Today was a day for Peanut Butter and Chocolate.  So for Thirsty Thursday I made a Peanut Butter Nutella Snicker Smoothie.  

Ingredients:

- two scoops of snickers ice cream

- one heaping tablespoon of peanut butter

- two heaping tablespoons of nutella

- 1/4 cup milk

Simply blend everything together, and wah-la!  A yummy peanut buttery creamy concoction.  Hope ya'll are having a great thursday, and happy DIYing, chris! 

Reese's Nutella Cookies

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!  

Peanut Butter Nutella Brownie Trifle

Happy Memorial Day, and Nom Nom Monday!  Today's dish is the prefect dessert for summer holidays like Memorial Day.  I made a Peanut Butter Nutella Brownie Trifle.  I adapted this recipe from How Sweet It Is' recipe for a Peanut Butter Fudge Brownie Trifle.  It's best to prepare this yummy treat the day before you plan on serving it.  

WHAT YOU'LL NEED:

- 5.5 oz box of Instant Vanilla Pudding

-Your favorite Brownie recipe (I used a box mix, because we had it, and it cut down on the work)

- 1 Bag of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups

- 1/2 Bag of Reese's Pieces

- 2 Cups Heavy Cream

- 4 Tablespoons of Sugar (white, granulated)

- 1 Cup Creamy Peanut Butter

- 3 Tablespoons of Nutella

- 8 oz Cream Cheese

- 1 Cup Powdered Sugar

- 2 Tablespoons of Milk

Directions:

Start by making the instant pudding.  Follow directions on the package.  I suggest starting this early in the day, because it takes a couple hours to firm up in the refrigerator.  Next, make the brownies.  I used a box mix, and just followed the direction on there.  While the brownies are in the oven, unwrap the peanut butter cups, and cut them into quarters.  

When the brownies are done cooling down, cut the brownies into tiny squares.  Then make the whipped cream layer, by combining the heavy cream and sugar in an electric mixer.  Whip the two ingredients together until they thicken up, and start to look like whipped cream.  I worked my way up to a fast speed, and it took almost five minutes to get thick enough.  When that's done, stick it in the fridge until you are ready to start layering.  

Now mix up the Peanut Butter Nutella layer.  Don't worry about cleaning out the mixer, and combine the peanut butter, nutella, and cream cheese.  Once those ingredients are well mixed, add in the powdered sugar, milk, and a cup of the whipped cream mixture.  Mix until creamy.  

Finally we can start layering everything in a large glass container.  You can layer the ingredients in whatever order you like.  I started with the brownies on the bottom, then the peanut butter nutella mixture, the pudding, the whipped cream, then the peanut butter cups and reese's pieces.  

The candy looks tasty on top!  How Sweet It Is piped her whipped cream on the top layer.  Which looked awesome, but was more work then I wanted.  I obviously took the easy route with this, but if you're trying to impress, I'd suggest piping on the final layer of whipped cream.    

I like my trifles to be three layers, so finding the correct sized container is important.  Or you could make many small trifles, with only one layer of each ingredient.  The smaller cups would probably be less messy serving.  I've made a similar trifle to this before, and once you dig in, this dessert looks less pretty, and more like a big slop.  A slop of amazing tastiness of course!  Maybe trying the smaller individual cups would maintain the pretty layered look.  Hope ya'll enjoy!  Happy DIYing, chris!