Peanut Butter and Nutella Chocolate Bar Recipe

I had some peanut butter I wanted to use so I searched for a good peanut butter chocolate bar recipe, but then I didn't have enough peanut butter so I had to add some Nutella.  I played around with the recipe and this is what I came up with! 

Prep time: 15 minutes

Makes: ~16 pieces

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup peanut butter
• 3/4 cup Nutella
• 3/8 cup butter
• 3/8 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 2 cups chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Combine peanut butter, Nutella, butter, and brown sugar in a microwavable bowl.
2. Microwave for around 30 seconds or until the butter is more or less melted. Combine well.
3. Add powdered sugar, 1/4th of cup a time until well combine.
4. Put in a 9X9 by glass pan.
5. In a separate bowl microwave chocolate chips for 30 seconds until melted. Mix well.
6. Add chocolate mixture on top of the peanut butter mixture. 
7. Cool in fridge or at room temperature. 

*Note: Once it solidifies, it makes it harder to cut the pieces. I would allow it set for a little, cut the pieces, then refrigerate to become even more solid. 

Next time, I think I might make this in minicupcake form. 

Enjoy 

Pumpkin Cheesecake

I think my favorite season is fall for two reasons.
1. The beautiful weather.
2. Pumpkin flavored food and drinks.

I have tried layered pumpkin cheesecake and just regular mixed pumpkin cheesecake, but I wanted to try a new recipe this time. I decided to try Paula Deen's recipe.

Ingredients:

• Crust
• 1 3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs
• 3 tbsps. light brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1 stick melted butter
• Filling
• 3 (8 oz) packages cream cheese, at  room temperature
• 1 (15 ounce) can pureed pumpkin
• 3 eggs plus  egg yolk
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/8 fresh nutmeg (I subs. with an equal amount of cloves)
• 1/8 tsp. ground cloves
• 2 tbsps. all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract

A few things about the ingredients:

• They now sell graham cracker crumbs (not crusts!) crumbs at the grocery store. I highly recommend them. They are good for 3 nine inch pies. You can also add stuff to the crust to add some flavoring. 
• The more at room temperature the cream cheese is, the easier it is to work with.

Directions:

1. Pre-heat oven to 350F.
2. Mix all dry crust ingredients. Then add melted butter. Press down flat in pan. I used a 9-inch springform pan. 
3. Beat cream cheese until it is smooth.
4. Add remaining ingredients, in order of list above.
5. Beat until smooth.
6. Pour into pan.
7. Bake for 1 hour.

So, I am still getting used to my new oven at home. The cheesecake did not crack the whole baking time! I made the mistake of opening the oven too early and it cracked.  :-(

The trick to cheesecakes is to allow them to cool very slowly. I didn't do this, this time, but next time I would suggest

1. After baking for 1 hour, turn off oven and leave cheesecake in until the oven temperature completely cools back to normal.
2. Remove cheesecake and allow it to cool.
3. Place in fridge :-)

Enjoy!

Uno Leche Cake

Hello!
Long time no blog! I apologize for the hiatus in posting. I have made plenty of food, but have not taken pictures!

So on Saturday I had a dinner party and my mom asked me to make something. I was at my parents house so I had to make do with what they had. And to my avail they only had boxed cakes! I was going to settle for just making that, when a good friend said I "was no longer the person she used to know." So I had to improvise. Upon the amazing search tool on all-recipes I found a recipe and improvised a bit. Or a lot.

The name comes slightly from the ingredients and a play on tres leches cake.

Ingredients

• 1 package Devil's food cake (I used gluten-free cake) + required ingredients on package
• 1 can (14 ounce) of sweetened condensed milk
• 6 ounces caramel topping
• 1 (8oz) container whipped topping
• 1/2 bag of peanut butter chips (or more)

Directions:

1. Bake cake according to directions on package, except use only half the amount of butter.
2. When cake is cooked put wholes in the cake using the end of your spatula. Try to not go all the way down. I just made rows of holes.
3. Pour condensed milk over cake such that it goes through the holes.
4. Heat up the caramel and do the same.
5. Allow to slightly cool then add whipped cream.
6. Sprinkle peanut butter chips on top. ENJOY.

Nutella Self Frosting Cupcakes

I love Nutella so what is not better than nutella cupcakes? Better yet, self frosting cupcakes.
I found this recipe online.

Ingredients:

• 10 tbsps. butter, softened (I used vegetable oil, next time I would stick to butter)
• 3/4 cup white sugar 
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla
• 1 3/4 cups flour
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 2 tsp. baking powder.
• Nutella (around 1/3 cup)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325F. Line the cupcake pan with liners.
2. Cream butter and sugar.
3. Add eggs one at a time. Add vanilla.
4. Stir in flour, salt, and baking powder.
5. Fill each liner 3/4th the way. 
6. Top each cupcake with around 1 tsp. Nutella (more if you would like). Swirl Nutella with toothpick.
7. Bake for 20 minutes or until the toothpick comes out clean (from batter). I needed a little bit more time.

Enjoy! If anyone has any other ideas of what to bake using Nutella please post them here!

Double Peanut Butter Paisley Brownies

Had peanut butter chips. Wanted something sweet. This was the product.
I found the recipe on the bag.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 cups flour
• 2 tsps. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1 10 oz. pkg. peanut butter chips
• 1/2 cup chocolate syrup

1. Heat oven to 350F.
2. Grease 13X9in baking pan. (I used a smaller pan, so the brownies were thicker and took longer to cook).
3. Beat butter and peanut butter. Add sugar and brown sugar, beat well. 
4. Add eggs. Beat well.
5. Blend in vanilla.
6. Add in flour, baking powder, and salt.
7. Stir in peanut butter chips.
8. Add half the batter to the pan. Squeeze out like to the right -->
9. Add remaining batter. Swirl around with knife.
10. Cook for 35-40 minutes or until lightly browned. I cooked for an additional 10 or so minutes because I used a smaller pan.
11. Enjoy :-)

Peanut Butter Cookies

As you may have noticed I have been on a cookie baking binge. I adapted the recipe found here.


Ingredients

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup peanut butter (creamy or chunky, depending on your taste)
• 1/2 cup butter,softened (take it out ahead of time, DON'T melt it in the microwave)
• 1 egg
• 1 1/4 cup flour
• 3/4 tsp. baking soda
• 1/3 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. vanilla

Directions

1. Heat oven to 375F
2. Mix sugars, peanut butter, butter, and egg in large bowl.
3. Stir in remaining ingredients.
4. Cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
5. Shape dough into 1 inch balls.
6. Place on greased cookie sheet and flatten with fork.
7. Bake for 9-10 minutes or until light golden brown. 

Just a note! There is a great way to control spreading of your cookies. The firmer the cookie, the less they will spread.  A good way to keep a dough firm is by refrigerating the dough. 

There is actually a lot more factors that go into this: type and amount of fat, type and amount of flour, and type and amount of liquid.

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

When you are in the mood for something sweet, but want something slightly on the healthy side oatmeal raisin cookies are the best way to go. I got this recipe from the oats box. I did halved the recipe because I didn't want to make too many cookies. 

Ingredients:

• 4 oz butter (1 stick)
• 5/8 cup brown sugar
• 3/8 cup sugar
• 1/4 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1 egg
• 3/4 cup flour
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract (or lemon juice if you dont have vanilla extract)
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 2 cups raisins
• 1.5 cups quick oats 

Directions:

1. Pre-heat oven to 350F.
2. Beat butter, sugars, and vanilla until creamy. (Side note: the cookies will be softer if you take out the butter ahead of time).
3. Add in remaining ingredients until well blended.
4. Refrigerate dough for at least 30 minutes. Again, this allows for the cookies to be soft and chewy. 
5. Form dough into 2-inch balls. Place on greased pan or cookie sheet.
6. Bake 16-18 minutes or until edges are golden.

 Also, if you don't want to make raisin cookies you can substitute with other ingredients. Just don't add the cinnamon and the raisins. Just make sure you add roughly around two cups.

-Chocolate chips
-White chocolate chips and dried cranberries
-Coconut flakes
-Nothing :-) Just an oatmeal cookie

 <- cookies will also hold their form better if you allow them to cool.

Once cookies are slightly cooled, eat and enjoy :-)

Chocolate Chip Cookies- Update

I posted a recipe a few months back of chocolate chip cookies, but didn't have any pictures. I made some more recently and took pictures!

I know, I know. They are probably the simplest thing to make, but they are so good to eat!

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cups brown sugar
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1/4 cup melted butter
• 2 tbsp. milk
• 1 tbsp. vanilla
• 1 egg
• 1 3/4 cups flour
• 1 tsp. salt
• 3/4 tsp. baking soda
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips (or more! ;-))

See if I had different types of chocolate chips I would add them. 

Directions:

1. Pre-heat oven to 375F.
2. Combine sugar, vegetable oil, butter, milk, and vanilla in a large bowl. Beat until well belnded.
3. Beat in egg.
4. Combine flour, salt, and baking soda in separate bowl. Mix into sugar mixture.
5. Stir in chocolate chip cookies. 
6. Drop by the tablespoonfuls onto pan.
7. Bake for 8 minutes.

Nutella Cookies

We just had our annual holiday party at work and I decided to make cookies.
Found the recipe here.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 cups flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 2 tsps. vanilla
• 1/3 cup Nutella
• 1/3 cup milk

Directions:

1. Mix flour, cocoa powder, and baking powder. Set aside.
2. Beat butter, sugar, and brown sugar until smooth. Add in extracts, then Nutella.
3. Add flour mixture in parts.
4. Add milk.
5. Cover and refrigerate dough for at least 30 minutes (or overnight).
6. Pre-heat oven to 325F.
7. Take out the dough and roll into balls.
8. Lightly press down the dough balls on a greased pan.
9. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until they are starting to set.

Enjoy.

Pumpkin Cake

Had enough of pumpkin? Haha

Ingredients:

• 3/4 stick butter (3/8 cup)
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup pumpkin
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• Optional: walnuts with cinnamon and brown sugar. Like the mixture here.

Directions:

1. Pre-heat oven to 350F
2. Mix butter and sugar.
3. Blend in everything else including nut mixture.
4. Sprinkle some of the nut mixture on top if you want.
5. Pour into small pan and bake for 30-35 minutes.

Pumpkin Cheesecake

It is the season of pumpkins.
So here you go. I got this from the food network, but 2/3rd the recipe. I also put in whipping cream as opposed to sour cream. Also, as I was mixing I added differing amounts of the items to get a nice consistency.

Ingredients

• 2 graham cracker crusts
• 2-8oz cream cheese
• 1 1/3 cup pumpkin filling
• 2 eggs
• 1/3 cup whipping cream
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cinnamon
• 1 tbsp. flour
• 1 tsp vanilla

Directions:

1. Pre-heat oven to 300F 
2. Beat cream cheese and sugar.
3. Add in the rest of the ingredients.
4. Pour mixture into crust.
5. Bake for 2 hours.
6. Turn off oven and open door. Leave cheesecake in for 30 minutes.
7. Then leave outside of oven until completely cooled.
8. Place in fridge.

I also added some toffee to one of the cheesecakes. You can also add walnuts or pecans. Basically anything you want.

Enjoy. :-)

Pumpkin-Layered Toffee Cheesecake

I like pumpkin pie. I like cheesecake. Here you go:

I found the recipe here, but halved it and changed some stuff. 

Ingredients

• Gharam-Cracker crust
• 1-8 oz Cream Cheese
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup toffee
• 7/8 cup pumpkin filling (12.5 oz)
• 3/8 cup of whipping cream (1/3 cup butter + 3/4 cup milk --> 1 cup whipping cream)
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/4 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp. ginger
• 2 eggs
• Dash of salt

Instructions

1. Pre-heat oven to 300F.
2. Blend cream cheese and 1/4 cup sugar. Mix in 1/2 tsp. vanilla, 1 egg, and 1/2 cup toffee. Pour into crust.
3. Mix remaining ingredients. Pour gently on top of cream cheese.
4. Bake for 2 hours and or until mostly set.
5. Turn off oven and open door. Leave pie in for 30 minutes.
6. Take out and leave outside for 1 hour.
7. Put in fridge for a few hours and serve!

Look at how beautiful those layers are! 

S'mores Cheesecake

My co-worker came up to me one day and told me I should make a s'mores cheesecake. So I did.

:-)

Oh! And it is egg-less.

Ingredients

• 2 graham cracker crust
• 3 8-oz cream cheese packages
• 1 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tbsp. cornstarch 
• 1tbsp + 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 pt. sour cream
• Chocolate Bar
• Marshmallow Fluff (opt out if you don't want eggs)
• Chocolate Syrup

Directions:

1. Mix cream cheese, sugar, cornstarch, sour cream, vanilla.
2. I also broke up a chocolate bar and added it to the batter.
3. Pour into graham cracker crust.
4. Bake at 350F for 40 minutes or until is not so fluid.
5. Turn off heat and leave cheesecake in oven. Don't open the door.
6. Once the sides start to brown, take cheesecake out of the oven. Let it cool completely to room temperature. (this will reduce cracking)
7. I coated the cheesecake with a thin layer of chocolate. (To help the chocolate stick).
8. Break up two chocolate bars and sprinkled the top of the cheesecake. 
9. I then attempted to pipette the fluff but that didn't work out. So I just tried to add it in bits.
10. Cool cheesecake in fridge.

Enjoy!

Baklwa (Baklava) Recipe

A week or so was Eid, which is a Muslim holiday that celebrates the end of Ramadan. Ramadan is a month in which Muslims fast from sunrise until sunset.
So for Eid I decided to make baklava for my family.
This was the first time I made this recipe and was kind of scared, but it turned out to pretty good!

Ingredients:

• 1 package phyllo dough
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1 lb. ground walnuts
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup butter, melt as needed
• syrup

So I used a 9X13 glass pan. The width of the phyllo dough fit into the length of the pan. So what happened was you had to fold over some of the dough into the pan. This makes it a bit thicker. If you don't want it puffy like mine, use a bigger pan.

Directions

1. Thaw phyllo dough. It takes a couple of hours to really thaw.
2. Mix ground walnuts, cinnamon, and brown sugar.
3. Melt 1/4 cup butter.
4. Butter the pan before you start using it. Add a layer of dough. See how it hangs over the side? And add butter. I used this brush I have.

5. Fold over the other side of the dough.

6. Keep brushing with butter. Add 6 or so layers. Also, you will want to alternate which side you put the dough on. You want to put it all the way to the left onetime, then all the way to the right onetime. This way you cover all of the nut mixture. You also want to alternate between which side has the double of the dough. If you see above how I flipped over the extra piece onto the pan. You want to do it such that the extra piece is not always hanging off the same side (like in the above picture).

7. Next, add the nut mixture. You want about a 1/2 cm layer of the recipe. You will have some mixture leftover. 

8. Add rest of phyllo dough, as described above. Try to push it down as you keep adding layers. This helps it puff out a bit. 

9. Cut in whatever you would like (squares, diamonds).

10. Bake at 350F for 50 minutes or until golden. Pour desired amount of syrup on top of it.

Yummm

Chocolate Sheet Cake

I was fasting and felt like baking so of course I would bake a chocolate cake. I found the recipe here.

Cake Ingredients:

• 2 cups flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 2 sticks butter
• 4 tablespoons cocoa (don't be stingy, heaping spoonfuls!)
• 1 cup boiling water
• 1/2 cup buttermilk (I didn't have any so I made a cup by putting 1 tablespoon lemon juice and added 1 cup of milk, cake turned out well!)
• 2 whole beaten eggs
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. vanilla

Directions

1. Pre-heat oven to 350F.
2. Put some on water on the stove to boil.
3. In a mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar and salt.
4. In a saucepan, melt butter. Add cocoa and stir. So at this point I accidentally added the baking soda. the cake seemed okay, but you probably shouldn't add it here.
5. Add boiling water. Allow mixture to boil for 30 seconds. Then turn off heat.
6. Add to flour mixture and stir. Keep saucepan to use later for the frosting!
7. In a small bowl, add eggs and beat. Add buttermilk, baking soda, and vanilla. Stir.
8. Add buttermilk mixture into chocolate mixture.
9. Pour into cake into a 18X13 sheet cake pan.
10. Bake for 20 minutes!

Now on to the frosting! It takes just about 20 minutes, so you can pour it right on the cake as it comes out.

Frosting Ingredients

• I used 1/4 cup ground pecans.
• I really didn't feel like chopping pecans so I put it in the coffee grinder and ground them up. There were some big pieces.
• 10.5 tbsps. butter
• 3 tablespoons cocoa (don't be stingy!)
• 4 tablespoons milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 3 cups powdered sugar

Directions:

1. Grind pecans.
2. melt butter in sauce pan, add cocoa and stir. Turn off heat.
3. In bowl mix milk, vanilla, powdered sugar, and cocoa mixture. Stir.
4. Pour over warm cake.

Enjoy :-)

Fudge Brownie Cake

Baking makes me happy :-)

Ingredients 

• 2 eggs
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup Cocoa
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions

1. Pre-heat oven to 350F.
2. Grease 8-inch pie pan.
3. Beat eggs and blend in sugar and melted butter.
4. Add in flour, cocoa, and salt.
5. Stir in vanilla. Add in nuts if you want.
6. Pour into pie plate.
7. I also added chocolate chips on top.
8. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until set.
9. Eat with ice cream :-)

Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Cheesecake

I like Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and I like cheesecake.
So why not mix them together and make something awesome?
This is kind of my own recipe. I merged a bunch into what I thought was best.

Ingredients
Crust

• 3 cups crushed Oreo cookies
• 1 cup crushed roasted peanuts (unsalted)
• 1/2 cup melted butter

Filling

• 3 8 oz. packages of cream cheese
• 1/2 sugar
• 1/2 brown sugar
• 1.5 tsp. vanilla extract
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup sour cream
• 24 Reese's mini Peanut butter cups, cut up into pieces

Topping

• Reese's Mini Peanut Butter Cups
• 1 cup chocolate chips
• 1/4 cup sour cream 

Instructions

1. Pre-heat oven to 275 F.
2. Heat up some water for the water bath.
3. Crush up peanuts and Oreos. If you have  a grinder, grind some of them. 
4. Mix the Oreo/peanut mixture with the melted butter. Pat the mixture into the pans and up the sides.
5. Beat cream cheese and sugars in bowl until creamy. 
6. Beat in eggs and vanilla. 
7. Beat in sour cream.
8. Mix in cut up Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.
9. Pour filling into pan. *I used a springform pan and would recommend using one otherwise it will be hard to get the cheesecake out without breaking it.
10. Wrap tin foil around the bottom of the pan and sides. Make sure to not cover top.
11. Put in a bigger a pan. Pour in warmed water.
12. Place in oven and bake for 1-1.5 hours or until set.
13. Once baked, turn off oven and leave cheesecake in oven for another hour or two. This will help prevent cracks from happening.
14. Remove from oven and allow to cool for a little bit.
15. Heat up chocolate chips and sour cream on the stove.
16. Once melted, start adding the mixture on top of the cheesecake. Use a silicone spatula to spread over the whole top of the cheesecake.
17. Decorate with mini peanut butter cups. Push down slightly into cheesecake.

Enjoy :-)