Peanut Butter Butterscotch Cookies

So when I get super stressed out at work and don't want do anything except bake, I sometimes go looking for recipes. I know it's not the best thing to do, but 15 minutes and I'm back to work and much more concentrated. With stresses coming up soon with a whole bunch of deadlines, there will be a lot more baking on, unless I start having 12+ hour days again. Then it's just sleep when I get to my apartment.

Anyways, I promised that I would help a friend in any way that I could. Farah is a friend from high school. We met in sophomore year and to be honest we've never been super great friends, but we've always been there for the other person. We went to different colleges and have grown into our own. She has decided to be a producer for a great documentary coming out soon. I know this may mean nothing to you, but being an Asian American, I can see that her documentary meaning a lot to people who are in the same boat as I am.

I made some brownies and decided to decorate one with her logo, to the best of my abilities. It didn't turn out so well, but I'll do better next time. Actually, next time I would make sugar cookies and decorate using royal icing. Back to the cookies, they were super delicious. They were like peanut butter cookies and I added some butterscotch chips. The added chips gave the cookies a great dimension that I didn't think would be amazing.

Recipe:
(adapted from here)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup (6-ounce package) butterscotch morsels


Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
In a large bowl, combine sugar, brown sugar and butter. Beat with an electric hand mixer until fluffy.
Add the peanut butter, vanilla and egg, blend well. Add the flour, baking soda and salt to dough mixture and mix well.
With a wooden spoon or rubber spatula, stir in butterscotch chips. Take a tablespoon of dough and shape, with your hands.
Flatten the balls lightly with the fork in a crisscross pattern (like you would with a peanut butter cookie).
Bake cookies for 10-12 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove cookies from cookie sheet immediately and place on wire racks to cool thoroughly.

Brownie Hearts

Ever since the summer before my senior year in college, I was participating in Yelp! and writing reviews constantly. Ever since I made it to the elite club, I've met some amazing people so interested in food and everything related to food. One of those people is James. He decided to start a website dedicated to food called FoodSocialist. I'll be posting items up there that I make here too. The ones there will probably have the super nice pictures that he takes.

Anyways, I made these hearts because it's close to Valentines day and everyone gets into the lovey dovey spirit. The hearts, the red and pink, and LOOOOOOVE.

I figured that for my first post, I won't post something TOO complicated on there. Since I don't know what kind of people will be reading, I wanted to make sure it was easy enough for a first time baker. In addition, there will be posts about food in SF and the Bay Area, and hopefully someday all over the place. 

Recipe (from Joy of Baking):
5 ounces (about 3/4 cup and 1 Tablespoon) semisweet or bittersweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 cup granulated white sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3 large eggs
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt


Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C) and place the rack in the center of the oven. Butter (or spray with a nonstick cooking spray) an 8 inch (20 cm) square pan, and line the bottom of the pan with parchment or wax paper.
Melt the chocolate and butter in a large stainless steel bowl placed over a saucepan of simmering water. Remove from heat and stir in the cocoa powder and sugar . Next, whisk in the vanilla extract and eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Finally, stir in the flour and salt.
Pour into the prepared pan and bake for about 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with a little batter and a few moist clumps clinging to it. Do not over bake. Remove from oven and let cool on a wire rack. Use a cookie cutter and cut out hearts. You’ll have the corners to eat yourself! It’s a delicious recipe.

Chocolate Lava Muffins

Numero two of the romantic desserts together. Whenever we go and get dinner, I almost always order something with chocolate and if I see the chocolate lava cake, I always order it. It's bad, I know, but I enjoy the nice lush center and the cake-like outside. I've always wanted to make it myself, but just never had the nerve to really.

This recipe from Alton Brown was nice and fluffy and apparently the "right amount of sweetness" in a dessert for my boyfriend. To me, I wanted to add the ice cream to make it sweeter. This recipe was really easy to put together and even easier to bake. We made 1/4 of the recipe and ended up with 2 ramekins. We had one together the first night and the next night I had mine with vanilla ice cream and cherries.

Speculaas [Club Baked]

You know when the writers wrote that they loved the Delta cookies, I remembered how much I enjoyed those cookies on my trip to New York almost 2 years ago. My dad had free flights so my brother and I were able to go to New York City for the first time. I had such a great time with my brother - how weird right?

Anyways, these cookies brought me back to my flight. That 5 hour cross country flight was not the most fun flight, but you know what? The cookies were the best part of it. I'm so glad that I was able to learn how to make these.

As I eat these cookies, I remember all the great time I had in New York - watching my first Broadway show...on Broadway. The top of the Empire State Building and Rockerfeller Center. Brooklyn. Central Park. Wall Street. Ground Zero. My goal is to be there once for New Years Eve and stay in a hotel room facing Times Square, where I stayed last time with my dad and brother, and watch the ball drop from my room and be able to celebrate with my friends in the room. That way, I can be there, but also be warm and be able to use the bathroom. I MUST GO BACK SOON.

The flavors are great. I can taste all the spices and they go great with my morning drink from Starbucks (Soy Earl Gray Latte). I can just munch on these cookies all day. Love! I made mine in very little batches because I know if I make big batches I end up giving most of them to my boyfriend and as much as I love him, I love these cookies for myself. I've been baking about a sheet or two. I have about 1/4 of the dough left. I'll be able to eat these cookies for next couple of days.

Check out the recipe here and other bakers here.

Fresh Cherry Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Fresh cherries on sale for $1.99 at Safeway? I grabbed a couple of bags at first thinking that they are bad either taste wise or they were moldy, but when I got home and ate a handful, they were sweet and tangy and actually really good. The next time the boy went to Safeway, I asked him to pick me up a couple of bags again so I could bake with fresh cherries.

Damn, was that a good idea or what? I sat down and pitted all those cherries. Actually, my boyfriend did. He used a straw from Starbucks and just pitted them. It probably wasn't the most efficient way to do it, but it did pit the cherries pretty well, better than if we tried to cut them and pit them. Definitely cheaper than a cherry pitter.

The cupcake itself is a bit dense, but out of the oven, it's soft and delicious. It's not too sweet, but the cherries running through the batter provide a great little point of sweetness. I decided to top these with a cream cheese frosting - it's my favorite type! I found a great little recipe that makes just enough for about 12-15 cupcakes.

Recipe:
Fresh Cherry Cupcakes
(adapted from How Sweet It Is)
makes 12-15 cupcakes
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups flour
1 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup chopped cherries
1-2 tablespoons milk, if needed


Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Beat butter and sugar together in the bowl of an electric mixer until fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. Add eggs and vanilla extract and mix until combined. Add flour, baking powder and salt with the mixer on low speed, then gradually increase speed. Add in chopped cherries and mix until combined. At this point, the cherries most likely have enough liquid that you don’t need to add any milk to the batter. If you batter seems dry and is not like typical cake batter, then add milk 1-2 tablespoons at a time, beating until incorporated.

Pour into cupcake liners, approximately 2 heaping tablespoons worth, and bake for 20-25 minutes or until cake is set. Let cool, then frost.


Cream Cheese Frosting:
(from Food Network)

4 ounces unsalted butter, softened
4 ounces cream cheese, softened
2 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract


In a large bowl, beat together the butter and cream cheese with an electric mixer. With the mixer on low speed, add the powdered sugar a cup at a time until smooth and creamy. Beat in the vanilla extract.

To put the whole cupcake together, pipe the frosting onto the cupcake after it has cooled. I used a 1M frosting tip from Wilton, but any will do. Afterwards, decorate using some whole cherries with their stem still on.