Peanut Butter Jam Bundt

A couple people at work take turns baking cakes for people’s birthdays. Recently it was my turn to make the birthday cake for my cake decorating buddy. I was getting a little tired of making cakes with flowers on them, and knew she probably was as well. From previous discussion I knew that she was a fan of bundt cakes – both look and texture wise, so I decided to give everyone a break from the icing laden cakes that had been coming from class. I have loved following the Food Librarians “I like big bundts” over the past years and thought that would be a good place to start looking for something to make. When I came across the Peanut Butter and Jelly Swirl Bunt, I had to make it – especially as the recipient loves peanut butter!

I did make a couple changes with the jelly. I used a strawberry rhubarb jam (complete with fruit chunks) that I had made in the summer and I increased the amount as it didn’t look like there was enough jelly in the pictures.

I also topped it with a peanut butter frosting, and served it with additional jam should people wish to add more (I don’t think anyone turned down the extra jam, and by the time it was done my 2 cup jar was almost empty!)

Below is her recipe (originally from Welsh’s) with a couple of small changes.


Peanut Butter & Jelly Swirl Bundt Cake

2 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter (one stick), at room temperature
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup peanut butter (smooth worked fine)
2 tsp. vanilla
3 large eggs
1 cup dairy sour cream

¾ to 1 cup Jam

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and place the baking rack in bottom third of oven.
2. Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt; set aside.
3. In large bowl, beat butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Continue beating as you add the peanut butter and vanilla.
4. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until incorporated, followed by the sour cream.
5. Slowly add flour mixture and mix until just blended (if using a mixer, use the lowest speed). Spoon half of the batter (about 3 cups) into greased 12 cup bundt pan. Dollop 1/3 Ts of the jelly over batter avoiding edges of pan.
6. Partially stir jam into batter using a skewer or thin bladed knife. Spoon remaining batter into pan and dollop and swirl remaining jelly into batter.
7. Bake for 1 hour or until a wooden pick inserted into center comes out clean. Let cake cool in pan for 10 minutes, then invert onto wire rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Peanut Butter Frosting
¼ cup peanut butter
¼ cup butter, room temperature
2 cups icing sugar

Directions:
1. Cream together the butter and peanut butter.
2. Mix in the icing sugar until smooth.
3. Enjoy


Reviews:
Everyone loved this cake, especially the birthday girl. It went so fast I was unable to get a picture of the inside of the cake with the jam swirls.

I will be making this cake again soon – I think it would be great with some blueberry jelly, and I am looking forward to trying it.

Peanut Butter Fudgey Brownies

This week the Bulldogs had a late game (10:45 pm start time, nice right?), and so I thought I had tons of time on Saturday to figure out something. Turns out I got a lot busier than I thought that day, and when I realized we would be leaving for the game in 3 hours, I still hadn’t even thought of anything to make. A quick look in my cupboard revealed a bag of peanut butter chipits, hmm what to do with those? I decided on brownies, as I needed it to get done quickly and cool so I could get them to the game, and still had to make some supper.

Fudgey Brownies with Peanut Butter
Ingredients:
1 cup margarine
2 cups brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
2/3 cup cocoa powder
1 cup all purpose flour
peanut butter chipits (I used ½ a package but would up that to ¾, do what you like)

Directions:
1.In a medium saucepan melt the margarine and remove from heat. Stir in the brown sugar until smooth.
2.Add in the eggs and vanilla once the mixture has cooled so it will not cook the eggs.
3.Stir in the cocoa powder and all purpose flour until just combined. Fold in the peanut butter chipits.
4.Pour into a 9x 13 inch pan ( I line mine with parchment paper)
5.Bake at 350F for 25 minutes, cool on a wire rack.
6.Enjoy!

Reviews:
The boys loved these brownies (and I must admit that I stole a few before they made it to the locker room). The peanut butter cuts the sweetness of the brownie just the right amount, and what goes together better than peanut butter and chocolate? When asked what they wanted next week, I was told these brownies (or the oreo cookies). Too bad for them that isn’t happening, I can’t have these things around too often!

The Game:
They won 10-4 against the Canadians! Way to go boys! They play again Saturday evening, and hopefully I will have post up a little quicker this time.

"Magic in the Middle"

Alright, I have seen these cookies on a couple of blogs now and they looked so cute I had to try them (well that and I am a bit of sucker for anything with chocolate and peanut butter), so I hunted down the original King Arthur Flour recipe and got to work.

Below is the recipe with my notes:
Recipe from King Arthur Flour, Pictures from my kitchen

Chocolate Dough:
1 1/2 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup granulated sugar (plus extra for dredging)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1/4 cup smooth peanut butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large egg

Peanut Butter Filling (I had leftover filling, and plenty in the cookies, so next time I may cut this down to 2/3 cup each).
¾ cup peanut butter
¾ cup icing sugar

1. In a mixer, combine the sugars, peanut butter and butter, mixing until creamy. Add the vanilla and egg, mix until well combined.
2. In another bowl mix together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. Slowly add to the butter and sugar mixture, mixing until well combined and set aside.
3. In a separate bowl mix the peanut butter and icing sugar together until smooth.
4. Using a teaspoon, or a teaspoon cookie scoop, make teaspoon sized balls of the filling (should make about 26 balls – I had leftovers).
5. Using a tablespoon (or tablespoon sized cookie scoop) scoop out about a tablespoon of the chocolate dough. Using your fingers make an indent in the dough into which you place a ball of the filling. Then fold the sides of the chocolate dough up and around the filling. Roll into a round ball and roll the ball in sugar. (For good step by step pictures go here )
Note: I did several of the chocolate balls at a time, added the peanut butter balls to each of them and then folded them and rolled into a ball.


6. Place the cookies on a sheet and flatten with the bottom of a glass. Bake at 375 for 7 to 9 minutes and let cook on a rack.

Note: The dough got dry on me and was hard to work with so I added a couple tablespoons of milk and it worked great!

Reviews:
These cookies were delicious, and while it looks like it is a lot of work, it really didn’t seem to bad. I couldn’t stop eating these cookies and had to get them out of the house. My boss told me that they were “like magic”, and everyone at my meeting said they were great. My husband’s hockey team also really enjoyed these and he game out with no leftovers (thankfully).

I will definitely be making these cookies again!

Peanut Butter with Chocolate - Brownies

So after the cookies, I was trying to figure out what else I could do with the peanut butter with chocolate, and someone suggested brownies. I used my Fudgey Brownie recipe and swirlled in 3 heaping tablespoons of the Peanut Butter with Chocolate before baking. These were pretty good and didn't last long in the house!

Peanut Butter with Chocolate - Cookies

I was in need of some peanut butter the other day and while in the isle and trying to decide if I wanted smooth or crunchy, I found this:


That is right, Peanut Butter with Chocolate. I knew I had to get it. I got it home and dug in, well, it tasted more of peanut butter with a faint chocolate taste in it, but it was okay. Now what to do it, my first thought was cookies so I tried on of my favorite peanut butter cookie recipes ( Grandma Ruth’s recipe from the 4H cookbook), just used this instead of regular peanut butter. The result was a yummy cookie, with just a hint of chocolate flavor - the color gives you an indication that they is something different about this cookie despite the peanut butter aroma.




Peanut Butter Cookies
½ cup butter
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated white sugar
1 large egg
½ cup Chocolate Peanut Butter
1 tsp Vanilla
1 ½ cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt

Cream together the butter and the sugars, add in the egg, peanut butter and vanilla.
Add the dry ingredients and mix well.
Roll cookies into a ball and place 2 inches apart on a cookie sheet. Using a clean fork press the cookies down creating a criss cross pattern on the top of each cookie.
Bake at 350F for 10 to 12 mintues.