Peanut Butter Nutella Brownies

I'm sorry for sharing this recipe with you.
I'm truly, truly sorry.
It's okay, you can just like...not make it or something...
No...you really need to make this...
Gah...
Don't...you'll regret it...

These things were seriously deadly to me. When I had them in front of me I was afraid for my health. They were so, so, so, so sososo good. I made them with my friends Ning and Marrisa while some friends were over and LUCKILY I had other people to dump them on, but they were so good. Wow. Just make them. Anything with peanut butter and nutella...wow.

Peanut Butter Nutella Brownies
Recipe from foodbuzz

1 cp. unsalted butter
2 cps. sugar
2 tsp. vanilla
4 eggs
1 cp. flour
3/4 cp. cocoa powder
1/2 tsp. baking powder
dash of salt
1/2 cp. Nutella
1/2 cp. Smooth Peanut Butter

Melt the butter. Add the sugar and mix. Add the vanilla and one egg at a time.

Sift the flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt in a different bowl.

Slowly add to the wet mixture and combine. Do not over mix. Add the Nutella and Peanut butter. Once again, do not over mix.

Add to a 9x13 greased pan and cook on 350 for about 50 minutes. When a tooth pick is inserted into the brownies and comes out clean.

Almond Milk Pancakes

I don't remember when I made these, but I was feeling like pancakes, and I made them, and they were delicious, and easy, and worth it, so worth it. Plus relatively healthy for pancakes because seriously there's like 40 calories in a cup of almond milk and I definitely didn't eat all of them. Soo good. I just had the plain pancakes with unfrozen strawberries on top, but fresh fruit would have been deliciousss or really anything. I don't eat maple syrup...is that weird? I can't stand it. Like juice. Too sweet. And yet I have a crazy sweet tooth and love to bake and would totally eat an entire cake if I could without getting fat or getting diabetes or feeling sick to my stomach afterwards haha.

Almond Milk Pancakes
Recipe from About.com

1 cup all-purpose flour
3 T. sugar
2 t. baking powder
½ t. salt
1 cup unsweetened plain almond milk or other non-dairy milk
1 large whole egg, lightly beaten
1 large egg yolk, lightly beaten
1 ½ t. canola oil

In a medium-sized mixing bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt, making a well in the center.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the almond milk, whole egg, egg yolk and canola oil until well combined. Add to the well in the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. (Batter should still have some lumps.)

Lightly oil a heavy-bottomed skillet or griddle and heat over medium heat. Once hot, add the batter to the pan, about ¼ cup at a time, flipping when bubbles begin to form on the surface of the pancakes and the edges begin to rise. Cook the other side of the pancakes for about 1-2 minutes more, or until golden brown. Repeat until all of the batter is used, keeping the pancakes warm either on a plate beneath a towel or in a 200 F. oven. Serve with toppings of choice.

Pizza Eyecandy

I made this here and then again here. That does not mean you can't look at this. Yum. So good. This time I stir-fried the mushrooms til they were soft before putting them on the pizza, and it turned out so...perfect...make this now.

Vanilla-Rich Chocolate Chip Cookies

Yes, I do already have a favorite chocolate chip cookie. But when my mom visited me over about a month ago, she brought me a huge, costco-sized bottle of vanilla extract...so what was I going to do? Find recipes that call for a LOT of vanilla.

And I found this recipe.

So I tried it, despite already having a favorite CCC. My favorite didn't change, but these are definitely a good one to try! They aren't as big but they're very flavorful. Crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside. They were also very easy to make! If you want a new CCC recipe to try, these are easy and tasty to make!

Vanilla-Rich Chocolate Chip Cookies
Recipe by My Tasty Treasures
Found on Ice Cream Before Dinner

3¼ cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
¾ teaspoon salt
1⅓ cups butter, softened
1¼ cups granulated sugar
1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
2 eggs
4 teaspoons Pure Vanilla Extract
1 package (12 ounces) semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375°F. Mix flour, baking soda and salt in medium bowl. Set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat butter and sugars in large bowl on medium speed until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla; mix well. Gradually beat in the flour mixture on low speed until well mixed. Stir in chocolate chips.

Drop by rounded tablespoons (I used a 1 1/2 Tablespoon cookie scoop) about 2 inches apart onto parchment-lined baking sheets.

Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until barely beginning to brown at the edges. Cool on baking sheets 1 minute. Remove to wire racks; cool completely.

New Blogger Shoutout...

I know pretty much the only people who look at my blog are my friends who are mostly just hungry, but if any of you are interested in checking out different kinds of blogs, my friend Kerri just started Kerri's Claws, where she plans on blogging everything beauty related (mainly nail polish). She's pretty much pro at nail painting, so if you're interested, check it out! She only has an introductory post up so far but I encourage anyone interested to follow it--I'm sure she'll be posting cool stuff soon!

A few summers ago, she even water marbled my nails:

White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies (again!)

Yes, I've made these before. But I made them again. To stress the importance of how good these are.

This time I used a dark brown sugar because that's all I had, and salted macadamia nuts because that was also all I had, and I didn't increase the quality of the white chocolate chips and there were definitely a lot of them. But either way, they were just as good as the ones I made last year, so make these! This year I made them for my friend Sophie's birthday and they are so good!

Banana Cake that you HAVE to make!

If you can, please make this, right now. It's a cake that comes together VERY easily. I made this for my birthday party on the 10th. I'd been planning on making this cake for months, actually, but I didn't know that this cake would be as amazing as it was. I'm used to making chocolate cakes for my friends, and so I chose to make myself a banana cake for my birthday, because I don't really like chocolate cake. So I picked this recipe out because it seemed like an easy choice. I wanted to make a small cake in case people didn't like it (my mom ended up buying me a second cake...so people could have Red Velvet (delicious) if they didn't like banana). Everybody loved it.

I made a few changes to the original frosting recipe. I doubled it so that I could remove the cake from the pan (I took it out of the pan about a half-hour after I took it out of the oven, and poured the batter into a pan lined with parchment paper to make that easy--I also used a 9-in square pan), and instead of using vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste or doubling the vanilla at all, I replaced that with the seeds of one vanilla bean, which made it taste absolutely amazing. It was really sweet and complemented the banana cake perfectly--well, at least I think so. Yum! Don't hesitate to make this!

Banana Cake with Vanilla Bean Frosting
Recipe from ButterYum
Frosting Recipe adapted by me

Cake:
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup sour cream
1 egg
2 tablespoons butter, softened
2 mashed super ripe bananas (about 3/4 cup)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Frosting:
4 tablespoons butter, softened
1/2 cup heavy cream
Seeds of one vanilla bean
3 cups confectioner's sugar

To make cake (easily mixed by hand):
Preheat the oven to 375F (see note below). Cream together sugar, sour cream, egg, and 2 tablespoons softened butter. Add mashed bananas and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract. Add flour, salt, and baking soda; mix well. Pour into greased pan. Bake at 375F for 20-25 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool completely before frosting.

To make frosting:
Cream butter and confectioner's sugar together until smooth. Slowly add the heavy cream; stir until smooth. Stir in the vanilla bean paste until fully incorporated. Spread on cooled cake.

Note - Bake at 350F if using a glass pan. Recipe doubles well (9x13 pan).

Yellow Cake with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting and Mousse Filling

I can't remember what book this recipe is from, but I made it for my mom's bookgroup get-together. It's a pretty basic yellow cake with pretty basic chocolate buttercream, and then because I wanted to use my new cake pan (which you can buy on Amazon), I made a basic mousse center. It was pretty good!

Nutella Thumbprint Cookies

I didn't get to try any of these either! You can probably tell we had a lot of nutella when I was at home this winter...I made these for, not my mom's this time, but my dad's work. They finished it all so they must have been good! I can't imagine they wouldn't be...basically a chocolate chip thumbprint cookie base with nutella swirled in the middle? Mmm. These were easy to make, too!

Nutella Thumbprint Cookies
Recipe from Eyes Bigger than my Stomach

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 large yolk
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup plus 2tbsp flour
1/3 cup chopped chocolate
Nutella for filling

Cream butter and sugar until fluffy

Add egg yolk, vanilla, salt and mix

Add flour and beat on low speed

Add chocolate

At this point, you can freeze the dough for up to a month if you want

Form dough into balls

Place on parchment paper or a silpat baking sheet

Make a “thumbprint” depression and fill with Nutella

Place in freezer for 15 minutes

Bake at 350 for 12-15 minutes

Peanut Butter Nutella Cookies

While I was still at home, I made these for my mom to take to work. I didn't try any but apparently they were a big hit! The nutella was hard to mix in, though. I think I added more than the recipe called for, and some cookies got more nutella than others. The nutella also made it hard to do the criss-cross fork pattern...but other than that they were pretty easy to make!

Peanut Butter Nutella Cookies
Recipe from Delightful Bitefuls
Found on Lovin' in the Oven

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup smooth peanut butter
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
Approx. 1/4 cup Nutella

Preheat oven to 350° F.

Cream together butter, peanut butter, sugars, egg, and vanilla. Gradually add the flour, baking soda and salt. Drizzle Nutella on top of the dough then swirl it through the dough with a butter knife.

Refrigerate the dough for 15 minutes. Roll the dough into tablespoon sized balls and use a fork to gently flatten the balls and create a criss-cross pattern. P

Bake for 7-10 minutes.