Gingerbread Cookies

SO IT'S ALMOST CHRISTMAS.

AND IT STILL HASN'T SNOWED AT MY HOUSE.

OOOUUUUTTTRAAAGGGGGEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm kind of frustrated with that, if you couldn't tell. What makes me super duper sad is that we didn't have snow for Christmas LAST year either!! SADS. SO MUCH SADS.

:(

Anyway, since it doesn't FEEL like Christmas, I thought that maybe some very Christmas-y cookies would get me more in the holiday spirit.

Also I had all of the ingredients for this on hand so I didn't have to put effort into going to the store.

GINGERBREAD COOKIES YEAH;

Ingredients

4 cups flour

1 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp pumpkin spice

2 tsp ground ginger

2 sticks butter, room temperature

1 cup sugar

1 cup molasses

1 egg

So for these cookies I used a stand mixer (thanks grandma for letting me borrow yours). You don't HAVE to use one, but it made it a lot easier.

Just a tip;

Make sure it's turned off before you plug it in. I got punched in the stomach by a mixing machine. 

Let's get started *cracks knuckles dramatically*.

First thing you're going to do is mix the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and spices together in a big bowl. These are going to make a TON of cookies, FYI. So be prepared. 

Next put the sugar and butter in a bowl and cream them together.

Add the molasses and egg into the sugar and butter mixture. Be careful, I found out that molasses is a lot more runny than I thought it was. I may or may not have spilled a little.

Or a lot. Don't judge.

But seriously, am I the only one who thinks that that stuff looks like poison? 

I just want to point out that once this stuff is all mixed together it looks really weird.. Like a science experiment. Do not fret, it looks more edible once you put the flour mixture in. Which is what you're going to do next.

Mix it until it's just combined, then cover it and out it in the fridge for an hour. 

*One hour later*

*Hopefully you read that in the Spongebob voice*

OKAY. Preheat your oven to 350 and cover some baking sheets with wax paper. 

Get out that cookie dough. GENEROUSLY flour your countertop or table or floor or wherever you want to roll out these cookies. Also generously flour your rolling pin. 

Then start rolling the dough. I suggest doing it in sections. You'll want the cookies to be pretty thin, but it doesn't really matter how thick they are as long as they're not ridiculous. The thicker ones will take longer to cool.

Once they're rolled out, cut them into Christmas-y shapes. I chose cute little trees.

Put them on the baking sheets and put them in the oven for 10 minutes, and turn them at the 5 minute mark.

You won't get to see them decorated, maily because I'm an idiot. I tried to melt the fosting just a little to make it softer, but I overheated it and it melted.

Jeez, frosting. I only heated you for 45 seconds, no need to have a MELTDOWN.

(My sincerest apologies for that joke.)

 This is how many cookies I got out of this recipe. I know, that's a lot of cookies. Thankfully it's Christmas so I can dump some of these off to other people so it's their problem. 

YAY CHRISTMAS.

Simple, not too mess, and festive. Checkmate, Christmas.

MACKENZIE'S FIRST ANNUAL BAKING SPECTACULAR

GET PUMPED.

GET EXCITED.

YOU MIGHT AS WELL TAKE YOUR SOCKS OFF NOW BECAUSE THEY'LL BE KNOCKED OFF OF YOU IN A MINUTE ANYWAY.

BECAUSE IT'S TIME FOR MACKENZIE'S FIRST ANNUAL CHRISTMAS BAKING SPECTACULAR!!!!!!

I am about to give not one, not two, but THREE recipes for things that every one will love. Seriously. Unless you have no soul, you will love these. 

SHALL WE BEGIN?

Let's start off with the Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Cupcakes.

Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Cupcakes;

Ingredients

1 cup white sugar

1 egg

1/2 cup milk

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1 tsps vanilla extract

3/4 cup flour

1/4 cup cocoa

3/4 tsps baking soda

3/4 tsps baking powder

1/2 tsps salt

1/2 cup boiling water

This peanut butter frosting that will change your life;

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter, room temperature

1 cup peanut butter

2 cups powdered sugar

4 tbsp milk

DIRECTIONS;

Go and get your butter. Put it on the counter and go occupy yourself for 30-45 minutes. I don't know, go watch Modern Family or something.

After that preheat your oven to 350 and get some bowls. A couple of them. Using a wooden spoon/spatula/utensil you're going to mix the sugar, egg, milk, vegetable oil, and vanilla. The best part about this recipe is that it's super simple. 

Next mix your dry ingredients together. Then add your mixed dry ingredients to your wet ingredients and mix well. 

Next your going to want to boil your water. Once it's boiling, add it to the mixture. Your batter is going to be very thin, but don't sweat it, yo (I can't think of anything really funny to say right meow) (oh wait I just said something kind of funny) (lol).

 

See? Very thin.

 

Get yourself some muffin cups and a muffin pan. Line the muffin pan with the muffin cups, then pour the batter in. Fill it about 2/3 of the way full, and then bake them for 25 minutes.

While that's going on, you can make this frosting. Warning; this frosting may cause you to:

-Faint

-Scream

-Cry

-Sing

-Dance

BECAUSE IT IS THAT GOOD.

Directions for le frosting;

Put your peanut butter in a bowl. Start adding the powdered sugar and milk a little at a time, until it's all mixed in.

PUT IT ON YOUR CUPCAKES.

Put a little Reese's cup on there for added fanciness. 

 DONE.

EAT IT NOW BEFORE YOUR FAMILY COMES HOME AND TAKES IT ALL.

Recipe #2

Crockpot Apple Butter

WHAT WHAT DELICIOUSNESS IN THE HOUSE.

What what 48 hours of hard work and 24 apples for one and a half small jars of apple butter also in the house. 

:(

It's still really good though. So I guess I'll give it to you. But I don't suggest making this unless the Apple King decided to give you a share of his fortune. 

Ingredients;

Like a ton of apples. I would say 12 really big ones or 24 small ones. I used small ones.

1/2 cup water

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 tsps pumpkin spice

Also a crockpot

First you're going to peel and core the apples. 

Then, chop them up SUPER TINY. LIKE SUPER DUPER TINY.

Then mix the apples in the sugar and spices (that was really fun to say) and put it in the crockpot. Pour in the water, then turn your crockpot on high and leave it overnight. Then (and this worked best for me), prop the lid of the crockpot open with a wooden spoon and turn the crockpot on low for a few more hours.

Then, if you want it to be extra smooooooooth, put it in a blender and, you know, blend it for a minute. It's super delicious, but time consuming and takes a whole 'lotta apples. So if you happen to have a bunch of apples and you don't know what to do with them, this recipe is for you!

Recipe # 3

BANANA BREAD!

This recipe is for a MINI loaf of banana bread. For when, you know, you want banana bread,  but you just want like two slices. Not the whole loaf.

Yeah. Happens all the time.

Ingredients;

1 really ripe banana 

3 tbsp of butter at room temperature

3 tbsp sugar

2 tbsp honey

1 egg yolk

1/2 cup flour

1 tbsp wheat germ (new vocabulary word)

1/4 and 1/8 tsps baking soda

Directions;

Preheat your oven to 350 and grease a really tiny bread pan. I don't have a teeny tiny bread pan, so I decided to make cupcakes instead and just greased some muffin cup liners.

Next you want to use a fork to mash your banana up. Mash that thing REALLY well. 

Then, add the butter, sugar, and honey to the banana and mix well. 

Stir in the egg yolk.

Add in the flour and wheat germ, and then the baking soda and salt.

Pour into your bread pan/muffin cups and bake for 37 minutes. 

VOILA! Delicious. 

These are some of the most delicious things I've ever made. No joke. REALLY super good.

Make them and eat them and thank me later.

Maple-y Yummy Bars of Goodness

I know, I know, I missed a week. My best friend took me to a surprise concert last Sunday, where I saw my future husband, Hunter Hayes.

Anyway, concert was awesome, but I missed a week. I have good news, though!!

I DIDN'T MESS THIS ONE UP!!!!!

I made this maple bar things the right way without somehow messing it up along the way!!! GO ME!

As I'm writing this the maple bars are cooling because I am irresponsible and busy (lazy). Usually I have about four or five recipes I've taken pictures of and done on hand to write my blog every week, but lately I've been super busy with school (Pinterest), and my friends (my dogs) have been wanting to hang out with me a bunch lately. 

So again, I apologize.

ON WITH THE FESTIVITIES.

What you need for deliciousness;

FOR THE BREAD STUFF

1 1/2 cup milk

1/3 cup shortening

2 tbsp graulated sugar

2 tsps salt

1/4 cup lukewarm water

2 (1/4) envelopes yeast

2 eggs

4 cups flour

as much cinnamon as your heart desires

FOR THE CREAMY STUFF THAT GOES ON TOP OF THE BREAD STUFF

1 cup packed brown sugar

1/4 cup milk

Tentatively 1 1/2 cup powdered sugar

2 tsps syrup if you have it (I didn't, it didn't really matter)

So, first thing we're going to work on is the bread. What you're going to do is get a suacepan and pour the milk into it. "Scald" the milk (if you're in on the baking lingo, which I'm not, you'll know what that means), and I'm supposing tis is fancy speak for get the milk hot. Really hot. I figured it was ready when this started happening;

So if you stick your spoon in it and that happens, you know it's ready.

After you "scald" the milk, add the shortening, 3 tbsp granulated sugar, and salt. Mix it together in the saucepan and then set it aside until it's lukewarm.

Now take your yeast and lukewarm water and mix those together in a different bowl. Make sure the water is not hot or else it will kill the yeast, and then you're left with a mess. Add 1 tbsp of granulated sugar to the yeast water and mix t until well combined. Then set it aside for five minutes or so. 

While that's happening mix the flour and cinnamon together in a big bowl. I used a lot of cinnamon partly because I like cinnamon and partly because the cinnamon container fell out of my hand and into the bowl. But the recipe called for 2 tsps.

After mixing the cinnamon and flour together add two beaten eggs to the yeast and water.

Once the milk/shortening/sugar/salt stuff is cool mix it with the yeast/water/egg stuff until it's well combined. Then you can add the flour/cinnamon slowly. 

While mixing the flour stuff with everything else you may find that a whisk will not work anymore. This is when you must bring in some elbow grease.

START KNEADING THAT PUPPY WITH YOUR HANDS.

(Just kidding, no puppies were harmed in the making of these maple bars.)

That will take a while. A little tip I shall share with you is to break it into smaller junks and knead it. Then when all of the smaller junks are knead you can knead them together. 

If it seems too sticky to knead, add some more flour. But you still want it to be a little bit sticky.

Once you have kneaded all of the smaller junks together, knead it for 3-5 minutes, then spray a bowl with non-stick spray and put the now-kneaded dough in the bowl. Let it sit for an hour on the counter.

Wow. I said the word 'knead' a lot in that section.

 *1 hour later*

Now roll the dough out on the counter with a rolling pin until it's about one inch thick. Then cut it (I suggest with a pizza cutter) into sections. It doesn't really matter how big it what shape the chunks are. I just cut mine into squares.

Spray a cookie sheet or two with non-stick spray and put your chunks onto it. Let them sit on the cookie sheet for half an hour, as you make the frosting stuff that goes on top.

FROSTING STUFF;

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees in the meantime.

In a suace pan, mix the butter, milk, and brown sugar and bring to a boil. Once it's at a boil, turn it down to a simmer and simmer it for 3 minutes. Then turn your stove off and let it stand for 15 minutes.

After that you can add the powdered sugar and maple syrup. I might have barely gotten a cup of powdered sugar in there, because I ran out, so if you don't want to add the 1/2 cup that was left you don't have to. 

The recipe said you needed something called "mapeline", but I didn't even know that was a thing. I was just going to use syrup, until I saw that we didn't have any. Whatevs. I didn't see a difference.

Once the dough has sat for 30 minutes and your oven is preheated and ready, put the bars in for 7-8 minutes. Once they're done, let them cool for a few minutes and put the frosting on them.

They should look as awesome as this.

Oh my goodness, yum. 

How can they NOT taste good!?!

Ugly Yet Yummy Pumpkin Cake

My family had an early Thanksgiving dinner this year, because unfortunately most everyone had to work on Thanksgiving. I know, it sucks. But at least we get a feast a little earlier then everyone else!

So anyway, I didn't want to make a pumpkin pie for dessert because a) everyone makes pumpkin pie and b) I've already made like three pumpkin pies this year. Luckily, I found this recipe online and it tasted like Heaven.

Unfortunately I must have done something wrong because it looked nothing like the picture.

Pumpkin Cake with Cream Cheese Filling;

Filling;

2 eight ounce packages of cream cheese, softened

1/4 cup sugar

1 egg

1 tbsp milk

1 tsps syrup

Cake Part;

3 cups sugar

1 3/4 cup of pureed pumpkin

1 cup canola oil

1 cup water

4 eggs

4 ccups flour

4 tsps pumpkin spice

2 tsps baking powder

1 tsps ground cinnamon

1/4 tsps ground nutmeg

1 tsps salt

1/4 tsps ground cloves (?)

nuts of a sort

raisins or something like that if you want

I'm gonna tell you up front that I did not use almost all of those spices. I just used cinnamon for everything. First of all, what in the world is a clove!?! And nutmeg!?!

Anyway, here's what you do.

For the filling;

Beat the cream cheese, egg, sugar, and milk in a bowl until smooth and creamy. Now, to soften the cream cheese, you're going to want to put it in the microwave or something. I left it out on my counter for like an hour and it barely softened. This caused it to instead take on a cottage cheese like texture.

  But whatevs.

Beat in the syrup and set that stuff aside.

For the cake part;

Beat the sugar, pumpkin, oil, water and eggs together. Now, another thing I might have done wrong was not add canola oil. To be quite honest, I don't even know what that is. So I put vegetable oil instead, and when I ran out of that (at about 1/2 a cup) I put in olive oil. Oops.

In a different bowl mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices. Once you mix those together, slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix together.

Stir in your nuts or whatever you decided to put into this cake. The website asked for walnuts and craisins, but a) my mom hates walnuts and b) craisins are extremely expensive and I like raisins better anyways.

So I chose peanuts and raisins.

I was way too tired to even bash those to "chopped" that night, as you can see. I think it was like 1:30 in the morning when I was doing this. 

ANYWAY.

Spray a casserole dish with cooking spray and then dust it with flour. Pour half of the cake mix in, then gently smear the cream cheese stuff onto it. All I really had to do for mine was pour it because I am a failure. 

After that pour the rest of the cake mix on top and out it in the oven at 350 for 50 minutes and hopefully it will look better than this.

Before baking;

 

After baking;

GORGEOUS. 

BUT I fixed it with some AMAZING FROSTING. YES, THAT'S RIGHT! I FINALLY MADE MY OWN FROSTING!!!! 

My Aunt Theresa gave me a recipe for some frosting and it tasted AWESOME. 

Frosting;

For every 1/3 cup sugar, you need 2 teaspoons Crisco. Mix those together well (you'll probably have to use your hands) and then add 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract, and mix again! DONE. Now, if you want the frosting to be creamier, all you have to do is add more vanilla! It's great!!! 

THANKS AUNT THERESA!!!

 

Awesome Sugar Cookies (extremely awesome)

I know, I know, I missed a week. Last weekend I went away to a church camp thing and meant to write this post on sunday night, but inevitably I got SUPER lazy and have basically done absolutely nothing this whole week.

But I promise I'm going to make it up to you, because I am about to gift you with the BEST sugar cookies you will ever make. Best part? I had everything I needed. I didn't have to hunt around for unicorn tears or the blood of a saber-toothed tiger to make these.

AND they're delicious. Does it get any better? Let me answer that, no, it doesn't.

So strap on your excited helmets because it's about to get awesome over in this corner of the Internet.

FIRST YOU WILL NEED;

NOW WAIT. Go get 2 sticks of butter. Put them on your counter and wait for like 30 minutes.

WHERE WAS I, OH RIGHT;

6 cups of flour

1 tsps baking soda

1 tsps baking powder

2 sticks butter, room temperture (see? I had reason for making you put your butter on the couter)

2 cups granulated sugar

3 eggs

1 1/2 sour cream

NOW HOLD THE PHONE, BECAUSE THIS RECIPE ALSO COMES WITH IT'S OWN FROSTING. HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF YOUR MIND BEING BLOWN.

FROSTING;

1 cup butter, room temperature

1 tsps vanilla extract

4 cups powdered sugar

6 tbsp heavy cream

food coloring (optional)

sprinkles (also optional)

Now, lets get started on our magical journey to Delicious Cookieville.

First, get yourself a medium sized bowl and mix 5 cups of your flour, baking soda, and baking powder in that bowl. Set it aside, it's purpose will come later on.

If you have a stand mixer, which I think is a giant bowl with a whisky thingy attached to a machine and something that my grandma used to make mashed potatoes in, get that out. I do not have one of those. So I had to improvise.

 You want to cream the butter and granullated sugar together until 'light and fluffy'. I tried just about everything I could to cream them together and in the end I just used my hands to mash them together like Play-doh. It all worked out in the end. 

It was still a little crumbly, but whad'ya gonna' do.

Next add the eggs in, one at a time, beating until it's mixed in well after each one.

Add the sour cream and vanilla until well mixed, too.

I kind of ran out of sour cream around half a cup and so I had to use these things, which I'm pretty sure haven't seen the light of day since 2009.

 

But nobody threw up or had to be taken to the emergency room so I'm sure they were fine.

I also seriously doubt I got even a cup of sour cream in there, even with those little packets. It didn't seem to affect it much in the end, but maybe if I had had the full 1 1/2 cups the cookies would have been even MORE epic. 

Here it is after everything liquidy was added.

So then, add the flour stuff to the liquidy stuff and mix until it's combined. It needs to be thick enough to roll, so you can add more flour, 1/4 cup at a time, until you get to 1 cup. So, again, only add one more cup, 1/4 cup at a time, and only until you think it's thick enough to roll out. You don't have to add the full cup.

 

 Anyway, after you get that all mixed up and ready for rolling, divide it into two sections and roll it until it's about 1 1/2 inch thick. Wrap in plastic wrap, and chill it overnight.

*The next day*

Okay, now, preheat your oven to 425 degrees and line a couple of baking sheets with wax paper. 

Flour a working area to prepare for rolling. Do not be stingy with that flour, trust me. Put it on EVERYTHING that will be touching that cookie dough. The rolling pin, the counter, the cookie cutters, YOURSELF. EVERYTHING. 

Now roll out one of your sections until it's about 1/4 inch thick. Get your cookie cutters, cut out some shapes, and pop them in the oven for 7-8 minutes!

Cool, right?! Wait, let me answer that for you. 

YES.

They tasted better after sitting a while in the fridge, though (don't ask me why). 

And I liked the frosting, but it kinda made the cookies look less cool.

But boy, was it GOOD.

Frosting;

Cream together butter and vanilla, then slowly beat in powdred sugar. Once smooth, add cream in a tablespoon at a time, until ready to spread onto cookies. If you want, add some food coloring :)

So, was that worth the wait?! I think it was. Make them, and you'll be convinced, too. 

 

A Failure's Frosting

Grr. Frosting :/ 

It makes cupcakes prettier. And it tastes good. It's like a cupcakes lip stick.

Also like lip stick, you shouldn't try to make your own. At least I shouldn't (I'm talking about frosting now.)

Because I can not make frosting. Just can't. As was evident in my latest adventure, frosting.

The picture on the recipe's page showed a fluffy, light textured creation that sat atop the cupcake like a crown.

It was obviously a picture filled with deceit and lies.

Maybe you'll do better than I did. I don't know. I'm too depressed about this frosting to give hopeful comments.

Might as well get on with this (sigh).

Things you'll need (for failure);

4 large egg whites

1 cup granulated sugar

1 pinch of salt

1 tsps vanilla

First thing you'll obviously want to do is get those egg whites. My mom's friend showed me a handy trick where you use an empty water bottle to suction cup the yolk up out of the white (go check it out on Youtube!), but the water bottles were all the way upstairs and I was downstairs and this whole shin dig with the frosting was kind of on a whim so I just said "ENOUGH OF THAT SILLINESS. I'M TALENTED ENOUGH BY NOW TO DO THIS MYSELF!"

Not so. 

Maybe this is where I went wrong, but there were some yolk in the whites :/ BUT ONLY A LITTLE! And I didn't stress out too much about it because I didn't think it was enough to damage anything.

But anyway, egg whites. Make sure there isn't any yolk.

Then mix those with everything except the vanilla in a metal bowl. You're going to have to place the mixed contents in a bowl over a pot of simmering water, so that's why I say metal.

Put the mixed stuff in the bowl over a pot of simmering water and CONSTANTLY whisk it. You must do thins until it is hot to the touch.

Maybe this was another point where I went wrong. I had been whisking this thing for 15 minutes before I said "YOU KNOW WHAT, THAT, DEAR SIR, IS AS HOT AS I'M LETTING THIS MIXTURE GET."

My arms were about ready to fall off!

So then you're supposed to put the mixture into a bowl and beat it with an electric mixture for 3 minutes, adding the vanilla in the process.

At the end of three minutes, it was supposed to look like marshmallow frosting.

Mmm-hmm.

Fluffy as a newborn kitten.

And that's after 5 minutes of beating.

I was really frustrated, so I just put them on some store brand peanut butter cookies (we didn't have anything to make cupcakes) and called it a day. I also made it purple, in an attempt to cheer myself up. It didn't really work :/

 

That felt good, though.

At least I got some peanut butter cookies out of this disappointment! 

 

So yeah.  My advice is to not always trust Pinterest wholeheartedly and try to make the best out of a sucky situation by turning it purple.

 

Pineapple Every Which Way Cake

As I said in my previous post, my mom's birthday was yesterday. 

(HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!)

Anyway, I told her she could have anything she wanted. At first she was just like,

"Oh, sweetie, I'll love whatever you make me."

That didn't give me a lot to build off of.

Finally I got her to give me something. A pineapple upside down cake.

After searching through COUNTLESS cookbooks (okay, 23), I couldn't find ONE pineapple upside down cake.

So I turned to the Internet and found a decent one. 

I advise you read this entire post before making this.

Here's what you need.

1/4 cup butter

2/3 cup brown sugar

9 slices pineapple in juice

9 maraschino cherries

1 1/3 cup flour

1 cup granulated sugar

1/3 cup shortening

1 1/2 tsps baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup milk

1 egg

I was really excited to be making this for my mom. I had a perfect vision in my head of a pristine pineapple upside down cake that could have been in a cooking magazine. The pineapple upside down cake in my head was gorgeous. 

My pineapple upside down cake was not this cake.

My pineapple upside down cake was the king of all disappointment. I cried for this cake.

Anyway, might as well get on with this thing.

First, get yourself a 9 x 13 inch pan and put the butter in it. Preheat your oven to 350mand melt the butter in there.

Pull the pan out once butter is melted and sprinkle the brown sugar all over the pan.

 Then, take your pineapple slices and arrange them in rows in the pan. 

Now for the batter.

Beat with electric mixer the rest of the ingredients in a bowl for three minutes, scraping the bowl the whole time. 

Pour the batter over the pineapples and cherries and pop the whole thing in the oven for 50-55 minutes. 

I did this and I was ecstatic because so far everything had gone great! I set the timer, turned around, and just as I was patting myself on the back, saw the shortening on the counter. 

Unopened.

 I crumbled to the floor. I shook my fist in the air.

I got so angry with myself that I yanked the stupid thing out of the oven and angrily threw the whole thing back into the bowl.

I threw the required shortening into the mess and angrily smashed everything up.

I poured it back into the pan, threw it into the oven, and cooked it for 50 minutes.

This is what came out.

I will say, it looks like something that came out of a dogs stomach, but it tasted darn good. Maybe a real pineapple upside down cake would have tasted better, but I've never had one, so I can't say.

Happy birthday, mom!

PLEASE STAND BY

Hey there fellas.

It's my moms birthday, so unfortunately you will have to wait until tomorrow for my blog post.

Don't worry, it will be worth the wait.

Peanut Butter Fudge

A few weeks ago my grandmother found out I was writing a baking blog and gave me probably about 30 cookbooks. Everything you could ever imagine is in those books, and I've been meaning to do something from them for the past few weeks, but I just got caught up with the pies and Pinterest had such good looking food on it that I got sidetracked. 

But this week I resolved to doing one of the cookbook recipes. I picked a random book, opened it up to the third page, and found what I was going to do. 

They're the ones on the far left.

These were also REALLY simple and I had everything I needed in the house already. 

I originally had a picture I took of the recipe from the cookbook, and was rejoicing because typing out all of the ingredients is my least favorite part.

Somewhere along the lines, though, it got lost.

Sigh.

You'll need;
3/4 cup smooth peanut butter
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsps vanilla extract
1 1/2 cup flour
1 1/2 tsps baking powder
1/8 tsps salt
1/2 cup chopped peanuts

Preheat your oven to 375.

First thing you'll need to do is get yourself a nice big bowl. Then, acquire some peanut butter. About 3/4 of a cup.

It hurt my heart a little bit to offer up that much peanut butter for this recipe. Peanut butter is my most favorite thing in the whole universe. I think I love peanut butter more than I love my guinea pig (and my guinea pig is dang cute).

 

*sniffle*

Next, get yourself some brown sugar. Put that on top of the peanut butter.

I will admit to wanting to make a sand castle out of that stuff.

Soften some butter, slab it on there.

Now, mix that all up until combined.

Add your eggs and vanilla.

Mix that up nice and good.

Get a separate bowl.

Combine baking powder, flour and salt in said bowl.

This was another instance of  "Is this cookbook messing with me?".

Seriously. 1/8 of a teaspoon of salt. What is the purpose of that salt?! EXPLAIN TO ME.

But I was worried that if I didn't add it the whole thing would either explode or spontaneously com-bust. So I just did it.

Once you mix the dry stuff together, throw it into the peanut butter stuff and mix until well combined.

Next, get yourself a pan (it says a 9 x 13 inch pan, but I never measure), and line it aluminum foil. The foil should cover the edges, too. Spray the foil with cooking spray.

Then, start scooping the mixture into the pan.

.

Note; you'll probably want to use your hands to pat the mixture down to make it even.

Then, get some peanuts.

The recipe called for chopped peanuts. Pfft. Ain't nobody got time fo dat (and yes, I did just use that).

.

Sprinkle "chopped" peanuts onto stuff.

Concentrated face.

Pop it in the oven for 17 minutes at 375 and make sure you're around when it's done.

Or else that happens.

Connor thought it was awesome.

It was gone within 2 days. I call this a success.