Dark Chocolate & Peanut Butter Chip Pretzel Cookies

It's time for a cookie recipe! Dark Chocolate & Peanut Butter Chip Pretzel Cookies have great texture and a nice balance of sweet & salty. They are best right out of the oven, with gooey chocolate and peanut butter chunks and the crunch of broken up pretzels. I made them for a friend's labor day barbecue, and sadly there were none left over :( I guess I'll have to make more soon. I'm thinking of mixing a batch, roll the dough into tablespoon balls and freezing them. Homemade cookies in less than 15 minutes anytime I want, with no extra dishes to clean, and no need to bake the entire batch. Yum!

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups of all purpose flour
1/2 tsp. of salt
1/4 tsp. of baking soda
1/2 cup of butter at room temperature
1/2 cup of tightly packed light brown sugar
1/3 cup of granulated sugar
1 egg (beaten)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup dark chocolate chunks
1/2 cup peanut butter chips
1/2 cup broken up pretzels

Directions:
In a medium bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
In a larger bowl, beat the butter and sugars together on medium speed until light and fluffy (about 2-3 minutes). On low speed, slowly add the vanilla extract and egg. Beat to combine.
Add the flour mixture and beat just until there are no more streaks of flour. Carefully stir in the chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, and broken up pretzels. Cover and refrigerate for an hour, or freeze for 15 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 350F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Scoop out well rounded tablespoonfuls of the dough. Leave about 2 inches between each scoop. Bake for 10 minutes (11-12 if you like crispier cookies.) Cool cookies on the baking sheet for a few minutes before enjoying.

Makes 24 cookies.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Banana Oatmeal

Alaina introduced me to Chocolate Covered Katie's creative oatmeal recipes. As loyal oatmeal eaters, we were excited to experiment with her various concoctions. We both had a few failed attempts, so we challenged ourselves to create our own delicious breakfast oatmeal recipe with a touch of creamy chocolate sweetness. Over the past week this has become the reason I get out of bed in the morning. When my alarm goes off at 5:15, I am so tempted to snooze, but knowing that gooey chocolate and peanut butter oatmeal is waiting to be prepared helps me get out of bed. 

Ingredients:

1 cup rolled oats

1 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk (or whatever milk you like)

1-2 spoonfuls of semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 spoonful of natural peanut butter

1/2 a banana, sliced

Directions:

Mix rolled oats and chocolate chips in a microwavable bowl. Add the milk. Drop peanut butter on top in the middle (it will soften and get gooey and yummy), and sprinkle a few more chocolate chips, and place banana slices on top. Microwave for 1-2 minutes, depending on your microwave oven, and how you like your oatmeal. I like mine a little crunchy. (Mine in Michigan is ready in 1 minute, and here in LA is ready in 2. Strange huh?) Stir for gooey deliciousness. Be happy to be awake. 

Moving Day Energy Bars

Tears were flowing as our plane took off from our home in Washington DC to embark on our new journey in California. As much as we love Los Angeles, we also couldn't help tearing up the next morning when we caught a glimpse of the Capitol building on the news. Washington DC is inspirational. It is a city filled with intelligence and passion. Washington DC has made us stronger, and taught us what it means to work hard for what you believe in. After two years of learning from some of the best educators in country at Georgetown and KIPP DC: AIM Academy, we are taking what we have learned and bringing it back to California. Brent will be putting his MBA to use at McMaster-Carr, and I'll be teaching 5th grade at KIPP in South LA. Mama raised us to never throw away food, so in the weeks before our move I started cooking unusual combinations of food to make sure everything got used. While Marta was visiting DC we decided to use the last of our baking supplies to make energy bars. We just started throwing energy bar ingredients into the kitchenaid and hoped for the best. The result was quite delicious, required no cooking and was perfect to have on hand while packing. It has now been over a week since I've had all my kitchen supplies, and I am so eager to cook! The moving truck arrives in LA tomorrow, so I'll be energized and ready to cook and blog West Coast inspired meals. 

 

Ingredients:

1 cup natural peanut butter

2 1/2-3 cups old fashioned oats (depending on how the peanut butter and oats are sticking)

1/4 cup honey

1/4 cup grade a maple syrup

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup dried cranberries

1/3 cup dried apricots, chopped

Directions:

1. Line a 9x9 square baking pan with wax paper, leaving a 2 inch overhang on 2 opposites sides. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, combine first five ingredients, tossing with a wooden spoon to mix evenly. (I used my mixer)
3. Last, mix in the dried fruit.
4. Pour the mixture to prepared baking pan, spreading it evenly to the sides. To make energy bites, divide mixture in a mini muffin tin. Press down firmly to compact the granola.
5. Chill in the refrigerator until firm, at least 2 hours, up to overnight. When firm, using the wax paper overhang, lift granola out of pan and place on a cutting board. With a large, sharp knife, cut into bars.

The Focus Cookie

The Focus Cookie first made its appearance in Mrs. Lowry's classroom a few days before DCCAS standardized testing. The kids and I were getting burnt-out from all the intense work and stress. We needed joy and enthusiasm. The Focus Cookie was invented as a way to have fun, without sacrificing sacred learning time. I told the kids that Focus Cookies have a magical power and ability to help students focus and master math skills. My too cool for Mrs. Lowry sixth graders rolled their eyes when I pretended to sprinkle magic focus dust on each cookie, but raved about the taste and kept asking for more. Yesterday on our way back from the sixth grade West Virginia camping trip we stopped at Splash Down Water Park before saying our goodbyes. We spent three hours in the pool, and were treated to cookies and snow cones before boarding the bus. A bunch of KIPPsters ran up to me after eating what I considered to be delicious cookies and said, "Mrs. Lowry, these cookies are good, but they're nothing compared to Focus Cookies!" We'll see how much math they retain from the year, but at least they know how to recognize a good cookie.

Ingredients:
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter, softened
2 large eggs
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups of semi sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup of peanut butter chips

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375° F. Combine flour, baking soda and salt in small bowl and mix thoroughly. Beat butter, white sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract in large bowl until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well each time. Slowly stir in the flour mixture. Gently fold in the  chocolate chips and peanut butter chips. Drop small spoonfuls onto an un-greased baking sheet. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until golden brown. Remember, the cookies will continue to cook when you take them out of the oven. I personally enjoy gooey undercooked cookies, so I only cook them for 8 minutes. Cool on wire racks.

Nutter Butter Balls

Brent and I love nutter butter cookies. He asks me not to buy them because we both lack self-control when they are around. When I baked this bakerella recipe, we, being nutter butter fanatics, thought it would be an easy win for the KIPP Baking Club. Who doesn't love the combination of peanut butter and chocolate? Unfortunately they lost to a delicious batch of blueberry brownies by one vote. Although they didn't win, I will still vouch for these smooth, buttery nutter butter balls. Peanut Butter/Chocolate lovers will not be disappointed.

Ingredients:
1 pkg. Nutter Butter cookies
1 8oz. package cream cheese (softened)
2 bars of semi-sweet baking chocolate

Directions:
1. Finely crush all but 5 cookies in a food processor. Snack on the 5 leftovers while you bake.
2. Combine with cream cheese. Use a mixer, or a large wooden spoon.
3. Roll the mixture into 1 inch balls and place on wax paper covered cookie sheet. Refrigerate for at least thirty minutes.
4. Melt chocolate using a double boiler, then dunk balls into chocolate. Using a spoon, fish the balls out and tap off extra and set aside on wax paper covered cookie sheet to dry.
5. Once dry, keep refrigerated.
Makes about 30 balls.

Peanut Butter Cookies

I baked these cookies for our friend Elisa's Italian Meatball night. In retrospect it was risky of me to bake cookies for someone who bakes cookies for a living, but these got the stamp of approval from Elisa, CEO of Hoff and Holmes Baked Goods. They looked pretty with the light sugar coating and cracks, and were soft and cakey. Delicious after a meal of prosciutto, artichoke, olive and red pepper antipasto, and the star of the show, the Italian meatballs and pasta. Thank you Elisa for a fun night!

Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
1 cup natural creamy peanut butter at room temperature
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
3/4 cup sugar
1 large egg at room temperature
1 tablespoon milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup peanut butter chips
For coating the cookies: A few extra tablespoon of sugar

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, combine the flour, the salt, baking soda, and baking powder. Set aside.
With a mixer, beat the butter and the peanut butter together until fluffy. Add the sugars and beat until smooth. Add the egg and mix well. Add the milk and the vanilla extract. Slowly add the flour mixture and beat thoroughly. Stir in the peanut butter and chocolate chips. Place coating sugar on a plate. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls into the sugar, then onto ungreased cookie sheets. Using a fork, lightly indent the cookies with the signature peanut butter criss-cross. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes. Make sure you do not over-bake the cookies. Cookies may look underdone, but they are not.
Cool the cookies on the sheets for 1 minute, then remove to a rack to cool completely.