Chocolate Peanut Butter Swirl Cookies

Who's ready for their peanut butter fix??
These cookies are reminiscent of peanut butter cups, but better. Much better.
When I made these, (for a superbowl party), I was looking for a recipe that I had most of the ingredients  already. I got lucky and found these on the Picky Palate. I had everything I needed but I didn't have enough solid chocolate bars to make the chunks so I used half chunks, half chips. I think that had I used all large chunks, I would have achieved the gooey chocolate inside like the blog I got the recipe from did. Nevertheless they were delicious! My batch of cookies made around 50 cookies.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Swirl Cookies

1 cup creamy peanut butter
2 sticks softened butter
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 3/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
2 cups good quality chocolate chunks
1 cup cocoa powder

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Line large baking sheet with parchment paper.
Place peanut butter into freezer until firm, about 30 minutes.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream butter and sugars.
Add eggs and vanilla, beating until well combined.
Whisk flour, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl.
Add to wet ingredients along with cocoa powder and chocolate chunks, slowly mixing until just combined.
Drop dollops of frozen peanut butter into dough and turn mixer a few times, to get swirls of peanut butter in the dough.
Scoop balls onto the cookie sheet 1 inch apart.
Bake 14-16 minutes.
Let cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.

Strawberry Dark Chocolate Chip Cookies

Happy Valentines Day!
Now I know you're thinking that you don't have time to make anything.
However, these simple delicious cookies only have 4 ingredients and take less than an hour to make so don't you fret!
Kirbie's Cravings  made these cookies with chocolate chips, but I made them even more decadent with dark chocolate chips. Healthier too! I used olive oil so you don't have to feel as bad for indulging. If you're feeling experimental you could make these with white chocolate too.
Now these cookies are quite yummy, but I would change one thing, I had fresh strawberries at home and i really wish I would have chopped them up and added them to the batter for extra strawberry goodness. Next time.
I know that using a box cake mix is technically cheating, but that's what the recipe called for and really how could I resist trying these?! Its like a chocolate dipped strawberry in a cookie! I used Pillsbury box mix and Hershey's special dark chips.

Strawberry Dark Chocolate Chip Cookies 
yields about 2 dozen cookies

1 box strawberry cake mix
halfway between 1/3 and 1/2 cup oil
2 eggs
1 cup dark chocolate chip cookies

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.
Mix cake mix, oil, and egg in a large bowl until smooth and without pieces of dry cake mix remains.
Stir in chocolate chips.
Scoop about 2 tbs of dough and roll into a ball.
Place on cookie sheet and make sure dough balls are about 2 inches apart.
Bake about 12 minutes until cookies are set and edges are turning a light brown.
Let cool on baking sheets for about 5 minutes before removing.

Red Velvet Cheesecake Brownies

Valentines Day is right around the corner! Less than a week as of today! Do you have special plans with the one you love? Valentines Day is always either my favorite holiday, or my second favorite holiday; depending on my relationship status. Once again I'm single for Valentines Day so it's my second favorite, coming after Halloween but I never let that stop me from celebrating! I know most of my peers think that Valentines Day is cheesy and pointless but being a hopeless romantic I love it! My favorite colors are red and pink and you can find those colors everywhere this time of year, best time to find decor for your house. If you have someone special in your life, you can go all out and be a cheesy as it pleases you, after all that's what February 14th is all about!
The best part of Valentines Day is baking. The only limit you have is your imagination! You can play with flavors like strawberry, raspberry, red velvet, chocolates milk, dark and white, the list goes on!
Check out my Recipe Index for so many more ideas to make for Valentines Day.
I've tried my fair share of different brownies, and these by far are my favorite. They are absolutely addicting. Soft, moist, full of flavor and not too rich. No matter who you make these for you will impress all, no question about it. I found this recipe at Confections from the Cody Kitchen.

Red Velvet Cheesecake Brownies

For the Brownies:
1/2 cup unsalted butter
2 oz dark chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 teaspoon red food coloring
2/3 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon salt

For the Cream Cheese Top:
8 oz cream cheese, (softened)
1/3 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla


Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Prepare 8 inch square pan by greasing it and lining with parchment paper.
In small heat proof bowl, microwave butter and chocolate until melted.
Stir and set aside.
In separate bowl, whisk together sugar, eggs, vanilla, and food coloring.
Add chocolate mixture and stir until smooth.
Add flour and salt and stir until fully incorporated.
Pour into prepared pan.
Beat cream cheese, sugar, egg, and vanilla together until smooth
Drop large dollops of cream cheese mixture over brownie mixture.
Use knife to make swirl pattern.
Bake 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Let cool completely before removing from pan.

Mini Pretzel Dogs

Happy Superbowl Sunday!

In honor of today I'm posting two recipes this week. WHAT? I know.
I wasn't sure of where I was going to be watching the game until Friday night so I didn't have a whole lot of time to plan what I was going to make. However, while I was searching the web for something amazing, (I like to wow on occasions like these. I.e. the buffalo bites or Bears cookies I made for the first game of the season.) my Grandmother reminded me that we had mini hotdogs in the freezer. I remembered that I had a recipe for pretzel dogs in my bookmarks and was so excited because I've been wanting to make pretzels ever since I got my Kitchen Aid mixer for my birthday. And really, wrapping mini hotdogs in croissants is so predictable. Delicious, but predictable.
The original recipe on Joy The Baker used normal sized hotdogs, cut in half but I already had the mini ones and I think that they work better for parties anyway.
After making the dough for the buffalo bites from scratch, I assumed that the pretzel dough would take forever but surprisingly you only have to let it rise for an hour and five minutes all together. Not too bad.
Using the mini hotdogs, I made 30 pretzel dogs, but really you could make a few more, maybe 35.
Not to mention they are delicious with mustard or just as is. But I mean, really, how could they not be? Its a pretzel hotdog.
Don't think it's too late to make these, you still can!

Mini Pretzel Dogs

1 1/2 cups warm water
1 tablespoon sugar
1 package active dry yeast
4 1/2 cups flour
2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons butter, (melted and cooled)
14 cups of water
1 cup baking soda
8 hotdogs
1 large egg, (beaten with a splash of water)
salt & pepper for topping

In the bowl of your electric mixer fitted with a dough hooks, combine warm water and sugar.
Sprinkle yeast on top.
Set aside for 5 minutes.
Mixture will begin to foam and froth. If it doesn't, dump out the mixture and make a new one.
Add the flour, salt, and butter.
Mix on low speed until well combined.
Increase speed to medium and knead dough until smooth and pulls away from the sides of the bowl in a ball, about 4 minutes.
Remove dough.
Scrape bowl of any residue.
Coat bowl with vegetable oil.
Return dough to bowl.
Sprinkle flour on top of the dough.
Cover and let sit for about one hour in a warm place to rise double its size.
Place oven racks to the middle and upper 1/3 of the oven.
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and lightly brush paper with oil.
Combine water and baking soda in a large saucepan and bring to a boil.
While the water comes to a boil, turn the dough onto a clean, slightly oiled work surface.
Divide dough into 8 or 16 pieces, depending on how large you'd like your pretzel dogs. (8 for a whole hot dog and 16 for half hotdogs.)
Start to roll each piece of dough in the middle with both hands, moving your hands outward as you go to make a rope.
Roll the dough until the dough is about twice the size of the hotdog you will be using.
Wrap dough around hotdog, sealing the ends.
When the water has come to a boil, gently lower each hotdog in the saucepan.
Boil each pretzel dog for 30 seconds and remove with a flat, slotted spatula.
Place on prepared baking sheet.
Brush pretzel dogs with the beaten egg.
Top with sprinkles of salt and pepper.
Bake until deeply golden brown, about 12-20 minutes.
Transfer to a cooling rack for a few minutes before serving warm.
If you're not going to serve all of them, double wrap in plastic wrap and store in freezer.
When ready to serve, take them out of plastic and wrap in foil.
Bake in 350 degreed for 12 minutes.

Chorizo, Eggs, y Papas

WARNING: This meal will make your kitchen smell amazing. Cook with care.

Chorizo and eggs is something that my Grandma Garcia would always make and then my Mother learned to make. My Mom taught me in high school and since I moved out I make it all the time. It's really easy to make and is my absolute favorite breafast meal. Period. 

A lot a people don't know what chorizo is, It's a spiced pork that you can buy at pretty much at any grocery store. It comes in a plastic tube and is with the sausages typically. 

You can customize this however you want, sometimes I make it without potatoes with potatoes, with or without onions. You can eat it with a tortilla, as a taco or add refried beans and make it a burrito, or in a bowl by itself. It's very versatile. 

Chorizo, Eggs, y Papas

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 red potatoes

1/2 yellow onion

1/2 a tube chorizo

2 eggs

Chop your onion and potatoes.

Heat up a frying pan on medium heat.

Add the olive oil, potatoes, and onions.

Pepper the potatoes and onions to taste. 

When the potatoes and onions are tender, which will depend on the size of how you cut them, add the chorizo.

Using a wooden spoon, chop the chorizo and let it cook until its slightly crumbly and mix it with the potatoes and onions while its cooking so that the flavor of the chorizo soaks in with the vegetables. 

When the chorizo is about done, add the eggs and scramble them with everything else until the eggs are fully cooked.

Enjoy!

Best of 2012

Can you believe another year has come and gone already?
Well that means it's time to look back and see what my favorite post of last year were!
It wasn't hard to pick my favorites, I must admit. 2012 was such a great year for me friendship wise and career wise, because I was promoted to full-time this year!
Learn As You Go also has a twitter now, (@LearnAsYouGo_) and I've also started using instagram to promote this site.
Okay, enough chit chat. Drumroll please......

Top 10 Posts of 2012

#10 7th Place Award Winning Ribs

I love this recipe for ribs, for a first timer making ribs, it was super easy to follow and the ribs were just bursting with flavor. I must admit, I liked them better when they were cooked on a slow cooker versus in the oven, you really just can't beat the slow cooker. 

#9 Cake Batter Bars

These bars were delicious. I took them to work and my co workers devoured them. They were soft, sweet, and perfect for any birthday.


#8 Strawberry White Chocolate Brownies

The perfect switch-up to you normal, every day brownies are these. White Chocolate with strawberries you can't go wrong. They were moist and pretty amazing.


#7 Loaded Baked Potato Grilled Cheese

I loveee paninis, grilled cheese, and mashed potatoes with all the fixings. This literally combines the best of all worlds. Eat them with soup or by themselves either way you will be very happy you made them.


#6 Bears Cookies

These cookies combined two of my posts from 2011, but they turned out so cute and so good; I mean come on how can you not make these every year for football season or for any sport or even. The spiced cookies are perfect to use when sick of the every day sugar cookies and the royal frosting takes your cookies from the norm to bakery quality.

#5 Pecan Pie Cookies

I don't even like pecans. But everyone loved them and I loved how easy they were to make. The cookies were a simple brown sugar thumbprint cookie and the filling had only a few ingredients. Pop them in the oven and you have an easy, original, fall or Thanksgiving treat.


#4 Red Velvet Blossoms 

These are a delicious twist to the typical peanut butter blossoms. How can you go wrong with red velvet? Don't think these are just for Valentines Day! You can make these during the winter holidays or Fourth of July too!


#3 Dark Chocolate Cupcakes with Raspberry Buttercream

The star of this post was the raspberry buttercream. Maybe I'm biased because I'm slightly raspberry obsessed but this is the best tasting frosting I've ever made, possibly ever tasted, even. Yes that good. Go, spread the word.


#2 Buffalo Chicken Bites

WHA? Something that isn't a sweet baked-good in the top 5?! Oh yes. These buffalo bites were so much fun to make, (maybe it was just me but making something completely new is the most interesting thing to me), and so worth the time it takes to let the dough rise, unless you use pre made dough. Perfect for tailgating, parties, or anytime you want to make an appetizer that will impress all.


#1 Chocolate Espresso Sandwich Cookies

Ugh, I love these cookies! My favorite post of the year was not hard to pick. In fact, this was the easiest one to pick! The chocolate with the coffee flavor is devine. They require a bit of time, but these grown up cookies are so worth the effort. Just try not to eat them all yourself at once, or indulge and do. ;)


Alright! That's all of them! What did you think? Did you favorite post of last year make the cut? What do you want to try or what have you tried already? I can't wait for another year of delicious blogging and thank you all for reading! Don't forget to follow my page on the sidebar to the right and tell your friends on twitter, pintrest, instagram and facebook if you like my site!

Raspberry Cinnamon Biscuits

This meal is all things amazing you don't get much better than raspberries, biscuits and cinnamon/sugar. I made these while my parents were here visiting and they loved them. The only comment I would make really is don't be shy with your cinnamon/sugar. You can't have too much! Recipe from Coupon Clipping Cook.
I hope everyone is having an amazing 2013! Look for my best of 2012 post coming soon. What were you favorite posts of last year?

Raspberry Cinnamon Biscuits
serves 6

for the biscuits:
2 cups sifted flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup butter
3/4 cup milk

for the filing:
1/2 cup whole raspberries
3 tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons butter

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.
Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a medium size bowl.
Add the butter to the sifted ingredients.
Using a fork, cut the butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture looks like coarse crumbs.
Make a well in the mixture of dry ingredients.
Add the milk to the well an mix it quickly with a fork until the dough sticks together.
Sprinkle some flour onto a large cutting board.
Add the dough to the cutting board and knead it gently about ten times.
Add a bit of flour to a rolling pin and roll the dough until its about 1/2 inch thick.
Using a biscuit cutter (or the top of a glass),  cut the dough into 6 circles.
Add those circles to an ungreased cookie sheet.
Brush some softened butter on the top of the biscuits.
Mix the sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle it over the top of the buttered biscuits.
Cut the raspberries in half lengthwise.
Top each biscuits with 4 to 6 raspberry halves depending on the size of the berries.
Sprinkle some cinnamon sugar on the top of the raspberries.
Roll the remaining dough, and cut it into another 6 circles.
Top each raspberry biscuit with one of the remaining dough circles, like a sandwich.
Spread some softened butter on top of each biscuit.
Then top with more cinnamon and sugar.
Bake for about 12 minutes or until the golden.
Serve warm.

Apple Cider Caramel Cookies

As if these pictures weren't self explanatory let me say that out of the three new cookies I tired this year, I defiantly saved the best for last. They taste just like a caramel apple. I've made 3 carmel apple cookies before, one was with the Jiffy apple muffin mix, there was the Carmel Apple Surprise Cookies, and these. I think that these may be my favorite. I'd never herd of Alpine instant cider before, maybe because up north, at least in Chicago, fall is all about fresh cider. However, after tasting these cookies, it might be something to try.
On my first attempt at putting the carmel in the dough, I put the dough on the cookie sheet and put the carmel on top and tried to fold the dough over but that was way too messy. The best way is to scoop the dough with a tablespoon, but the dough in one hand, and with the other put the carmel in the middle and in your hands seal the caramel with the dough so that its completely covered and then put it on the cookie sheet. It makes more sense when you're making them.
I don't know if this will be a Christmas cookie regular for me but it defiantly will be a new go-to fall cookie.
Recipe from The Six Sisters





Apple Cider Caramel Cookies

1 cup unsalted butter, nearly melted
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 7.4 ounce box Alpine Spiced Apple Cider Instant Original Drink Mix, (not sugar free)
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder 
3 cups flour
1 14 ounce bag Kraft Caramels

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.
In a stand mixer, cream together butter, sugar, salt, and all 10 packets of apple cider mix until smooth and fluffy.
Beat in eggs and vanilla, then mix in the baking soda and baking powder.
Add flour and mix until just combined.
With a standard cookie scoop, scoop the dough scrapping off the excess as you go up the bowl.
Flatten the dough slightly in your hand and place caramel in the center.
Work the dough amount the caramel sealing well.
Placing the cookies two inches apart on the sheets.
Bake 12-14 minutes or until golden brown around edges.
After baking, carefully slide the parchment with the cookies onto the counter.
Let cool until the are no longer soft but slightly warm.
Twist gently to remove, and cool the rest of the way upside down on the parchment or on a cooking rack.