Santa’s Cookie Plate: Item #3 — Peanut Butter Balls (Buckeyes)

FYI: Santa loves peanut butter and chocolate

Okay okay, I know this post is late.  You’re thinking, “you expect me to do my last minute shopping, wrap gifts, stuff stockings, AND make Santa’s treats all on Christmas Eve?!”  Yes, I do.  The jolly man deserves fresh treats.  He especially deserves these treats.  These peanut butter balls provide an incomparable combination of smooth, creamy peanut buttery goodness with a crisp layer of chocolate that all melts in your mouth.  It’s NOT Christmas in our house if these treats don’t make an appearance.  And, Santa loves them, I promise.  I mean, come on, if the guy has to stuff himself down your chimney, magically morph through your front door, squeeze through the dogie door, repel from the roof of your high rise to come through a window in your 17th floor condo, or get into your home in whatever other bizarre Santa arrival  method you have come up with to convince your kids that he will not forego your house, all because you lack a chimney…if he can do any of that, then give the man some peanut butter balls.

Peanut Butter Balls

• 1, 18 ounce jar of good quality peanut butter
• 2 sticks butter at room temperature
• 1 and 1/2 pounds powdered sugar
• 1, 12 ounce bag of semi sweet chocolate chips
• Paraffin wax or 2 tablespoons of vegetable shortening

Peanut Butter Balls

With a stand or hand mixer, cream together butter and peanut butter until fluffy and smooth.  Gradually add all of the powdered sugar.  Refrigerate mixture until firm enough to roll into small balls (refrigerate for at least one hour, but the mixture can be left in the refrigerator for a few days if making ahead). 

Roll the peanut butter mixture into small balls (truffle size).  Place on a wax paper lined cookie sheet.  Refrigerate the balls for at least one hour.

In a double boiler, melt the chocolate chips with either a small amount of paraffin wax or 2 tablespoons of vegetable shortening.  Melt and mix together until completely smooth.  Tip: If you do not have a double boiler, there are two options…1. Put a glass bowl over a small saucepan and boil about 2 inches of water in the saucepan (be careful of steam coming up the sides of the bow.  OR, even easier…2. Use the microwave.  Microwave for 3 minutes at 50% power, mix and continue to microwave in 30 second intervals until chocolate mixture is smooth. 

Using a long toothpick or skewer, dip each peanut butter ball into the chocolate.  Place back onto wax paper lined cookie sheet.  Refrigerate to let chocolate set. 

Enjoy!

Store in refrigerator.

Santa’s Cookie Plate: Item # 2 – Chocolate Fudge

I always felt like the second and third items on Santa’s Cookie Plate in our house were secret weapons.  I felt like we were one-upping all of the other houses by giving Santa something a little different, a little more high class, a little, well, hmmm…not a cookie.  I always thought that if I were Santa, I would be really excited about getting to the house with the fudge, especially this fudge, which, in my opinion, is pretty darn good.  I don’t know that there is anything about this particular fudge recipe that is so different or special than other fudge recipes.  But, it’s fudge — a holiday STAPLE. 

Chocolate Fudge

• 1/2 lb unsalted butter (2 sticks)
• 2 12 oz bags of semisweet chocolate chips (I recommend Ghiradelli semisweet chips)
• 1 lb powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla 

Tip: You need a good, strong wooden spoon for mixing fudge.  If you have a strong wooden spatula with a straight edge, that will work even better.

In a medium microwave safe bowl, melt butter and chocolate.  Start with 3 minutes at 50% power, stir.  Continue microwaving in 30 second intervals at 50% power until completely smooth.

Stir powdered sugar and vanilla into melted chocolate mix.  This will become very difficult to mix, but use your arm strength and push through!  Mix until there are no more specks of powdered sugar — see picture of fully mixed fudge. 

Press mixture into a pan (I use a 9×13 jelly roll pan) and let set for a few hours.  Cut into small rectangles or cubes.  Enjoy!

Santa’s Cookie Plate: Item #1 – Chocolate Chip Butter Cookies

Everyone has holiday favorites. A treat, or many treats, that make this time of year feel complete. For me, there are three. The absence of these three special treats in the month of December would be the holidays gone seriously wrong—seriously. These treats are my Mom’s holiday specialties and they are the treats that went on Santa’s plate of cookies every year and will again when my brothers and I have kiddies of our own. This is the first in my series of three “Santa’s Cookie Plate” blog posts. I’m starting with my least favorite of the three and that doesn’t mean much, because I still love them. I would simply put this one as my third choice if forced to choose between the three. The title “Chocolate Chip Butter Cookies” is deceiving – don’t all chocolate chip cookies (ccc, as I refer to them) call for some form of butter? Yes, at least, any ccc I have ever made does. The real difference in this recipe is the sugar. These babies call for powdered (10X, confectioners, whatever you prefer to call it) sugar. This difference changes the cookies from the ooey gooey toll house kind (also a favorite of mine) to a super sweet and crumbly cookie with just the right amount of chocolate that goes perfectly with a glass of cold milk. My only suggestion is that you make more than one batch, because all the Santa Clauses in your life are going to devour these babies.

Chocolate Chip Butter Cookies

• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 and ½ cups sifted 10X sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 and ½ cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon cream of tartar
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 bag of semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cream butter in a stand mixer or with a hand mixer. Gradually add 10X sugar to butter and cream until fluffy. Add unbeaten egg and vanilla. Beat mixture well. Sift together flour, baking soda, cream of tartar and salt into a separate bowl and then add gradually to cream mixture. Stir in chocolate chips.Drop tablespoon size dollops onto cookie sheets and bake for 8-10 minutes.

Santa will love this cookie!

Tip: I only put one sheet into the oven at a time. Make sure it goes into the center of the oven. I’ve tried putting two in and rotating racks halfway through baking, but the bottoms always get brown. Because of the powered sugar, the cookies will stay lighter in color even when done so, watch the bottoms and if they start to get dark, they’re done! A golden brown bottom is preferred.

Pumpkin Pie Crumb Cake

Is there a better time of year to start a baking & cooking blog than during the holiday season? I think not! Trust me, I can come up with a reason to bake any week of the year – it’s your birthday? Well, you need a chocolate cake with butter cream frosting! You’re having a baby? Then you must have a raspberry cream cheese crumb cake! You went to the dentist? That calls for some outrageous cookies! You found your long lost brother? Enter me, with pound cake! You just walked 10 miles? Well, I can easily make you feel better with chocolate chip cookie-filled cupcakes! Unfortunately, the mood for fall flavors does not span the entire year — Cinnamon! Apple! Pumpkin! Brown Sugar! Sweet Potatoes! Peppermint! and the list could go on. So, we’ve got to jam pack these couple of months with all the warm flavors we love so that we are so sick of them that we can wait another 9 months for their return. Please don’t worry though, because I’ve got a notebook full of recipes to throw at you this season. I’m starting out with my favorite Pumpkin Pie Crumb Cake. It’s easy, quick, and best of all, goes perfectly with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream!

I have to admit, I have never been a huge fan of an iconic holiday favorite — pumpkin pie.  I know, I know.  People look at me like I’m crazy when I share that secret.  In fact, I just made my first pumpkin pie this Thanksgiving.  It was definitely a gesture to please the masses.  While you won’t find any recipes for pumpkin pie on my blog, I am not a pumpkin hater, and I certainly have some really tasty pumpkin recipes in my repertoire.  This Pumpkin Pie Crumb Cake recipe is one of my favorites and is perfect for sharing with a cup of coffee on any late fall morning.

Pumpkin Pie Crumb Cake

Cake

• 1/4 cup vegetable or canola oil
• 1/2 stick unsalted butter – melted
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup half and half or cream
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 2 1/4 cups flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 9×13 baking pan and set aside.

Bowl 1: Combine oil, butter, egg, half and half, and vanilla. Whisk well.

Bowl 2: Combine flour, sugar, and salt. Stir together.

Fold dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until you have a sticky ball of dough. Spread the dough in the greased and floured baking pan. You will have a thin layer of dough and may need to washyour hands and use your fingers to get the dough to cover the entire pan without holes.

Cream Cheese Mixture

• 8oz cream cheese
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Mix all of the ingredients together using an electric hand or stand mixer. Spoon the cream cheese mixture in lines over the cake dough. I usually make four or five thick stripes down the width of the pan. It will seem like you have a lot of cream cheese mixture — just keep piling it on, it makes the cake super tasty!

Pumpkin Mixture

• 1 can pumpkin
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

Mix ingredients together and spoon onto cake dough in lines between the cream cheese stripes. Take a fork and run it back and forth through the pumpkin and cream cheese stripes until well swirled together. Be careful not to dig the fork into the cake dough.

Note: if you like your pumpkin a little less sweet, reduce the sugar to 1/4 cup.

Crumb Topping

• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1/2 stick unsalted butter – melted

 Mix ingredients until combined and you have a crumb like consistency. Crumble over pumpkin and cream cheese swirl as desired.

 Bake for 30 minutes.

 Cool pan on a wire rack. Once cooled, cute into squares and enjoy!

 These crumb cake squares will last 2-3 days if sealed in an air tight container.