Magic in the Middle Cookies

These are magic cookies...
They look like they're just chocolate on the outside.
But when you take a bite you get the best surprise of your life.
They are filled with peanut butter!

Let's start assembling these suckers!
Take a heaping tablespoon of dough and make a big indentation with your thumb

 Now place a peanut butter ball in the center of the dough

Work the sides of the dough over the peanut butter until it is completely covered. 

Roll the dough in your palms until it comes into a ball.

 

Here's the process in motion!

We roll them in sugar and squish down with a glass before baking

Surprises are the best. Especially when there's peanut butter involved.

Magic in the Middles

from: The King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion Cookbook

Ingredients:

Dough
1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened natural cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup granulated sugar (and extra for dipping)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
1/4 cup smooth peanut butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large egg

Filling
3/4 cup smooth peanut butter
3/4 cup confectioners' sugar

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Lightly grease (or line with parchment) two baking sheets.

Dough
In a medium-sized mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt. In another medium-sized mixing bowl, beat together the sugars, butter, and peanut butter until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla and the egg, beating to combine, then stir in the dry ingredients, blending well.

Filling
In a small bowl, stir together the peanut butter and confectioners' sugar until smooth. You can use your hands and kind of knead it in to help incorporate all the sugar. Roll the filling into 26 one-inch balls.

Assembly
Break off about 1 tablespoon of the chocolate dough, make an indentation in the center with your finger, and press one of the peanut butter balls into the indentation. Bring the dough up and over the filling, pressing it closed; roll the cookie in the palms of your hand to smooth it out. Repeat with the remaining dough and filling.
Dip the top of each cookie in granulated sugar and place on a baking sheet about 2 inches apart. Grease the bottom of a drinking glass and use it to flatten each cookie to about 1/2 inch thick.

Bake cookies for 7 to 9 minutes, until they're set. Remove them from the oven and cool on a rack.

Peach Crisp

It's summer so it's necessary to make all sorts of desserts with juicy fruits, and peaches are ripe and delicious now, so the equation is simple:
Summer + Ripe Fruit = Crisp
 and the resulting equation:  You + Crisp= Happiness :)

 First we need to blanch the peaches in boiling water so the skins come off easily.
They only need about 30 seconds to a minute until they're loose and ready

These peaches are juiccyyyy
We mix them with lemon zest, juice, and sugar to up the flavor

 Crisp is best served warm out of the oven.
And it's incredible with vanilla ice cream. Mhm!

 Peaches are for summer. So put them in a crisp and share it with friends!

Peach Crisp

from: Baking Illustrated Cookbook

Ingredients:

Topping
6 Tablespoons unbleached all purpose flour
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
5 Tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
3/4 cup coarsely chopped nuts (almonds, pecans, walnuts)

Filling
6 medium peaches, peeled, pitted, cut into 1/3-inch wedges
1/2 teaspoon grated lemon zest
1 1/2 Tablespoons juice from 1 lemon
1/4 cup granulated sugar

Directions:

Topping
Place flour, sugars, spices, and salt in food processor and process briefly to combine. Add the butter and pulse 10 times, about 4 seconds for each pulse. The mixture will first look like dry sand, with large lumps of butter, then like coarse cornmeal. Add the nuts, then process again, four or five 1-second pulses. The topping should look like slightly clumpy wet sand. Be sure not to overmix or the mixture will become too wet and homogeneous. Refrigerate the topping while preparing the fruit, at least 15 minutes
 Adjust the oven rack to the lower-middle position and heat the oven to 375 degrees F

Filling
With a paring knife, score a small X at the base of each peach. Lower the peaches into a pan of boiling water with a slotted spoon. Turn the peaches occasionally and simmer until their skins loosen, 30 seconds to 1 minute. Transfer the peaches to a bowl of ice water. Let stand to stop the cooking process, about 1 minute and cool. Starting from the scored X, peel each peach. Using a paring knife to lift the skin from the flesh and pull the skin off in strips.
Cut the peaches into 1/3-inch wedges.
Toss the peaches, zest, juice, and sugar in a medium bowl. Scape the fruit mixture with a rubber spatula into an 8-inch square baking dish or a 9-inch deep-dish pie pan.

Assembly
Distribute the chilled topping evenly over the fruit. Bake for 40 minutes. Increase the oven temp to 400 degrees and continue baking until the fruit is bubbling and the topping turns deep golden brown, about 5 minutes more. Serve warm. (The crisp can be set aside at room temperature for a few hours and reheated in a warm oven just before serving.)
 

Marbled Blueberry Bundt Cake

Ya know how in regular blueberry cake or muffins there's always big pockets of bluberries and big empty, lonely spaces of batter that totally miss out on blueberry flavor?

It's the worst right?

Well this cake fixes all that and more.

First off, we blend the blubs up until they're smooth and mix with some warmed sugar and pectin to make it like a runny jelly consistency.

Pectin is basically this stuff you can buy at your local supermarket that acts as a thickener when you make jams and jellies. It's just like this magic powder in a box that turns fruit into jelly!

Anyway, we're gonna use a really cool technique to swirl the berry filling into the cake batter.

  You pour half of the cake batter into the bundt pan, then make a well in the batter with the back of a spoon and fill it with half of the berry filling. Then using a butter knife you swirl the berry into the batter. And then repeat with remaining batter and filling.

This ensures that we get an even berry flavor in every bite of the cake!

And you end up with a really pretty swirl design. Bonus!

 It's a sea of blueberry swirl. I'll take a swim now please.

 Time to flip. Hold your breath!

 

It's always such a sense of accomplishment when a bundt comes out clean.

I'm king of the bundts!

 I like big bundts.

 Marbled Blueberry Bundt Cake

from: Cook's Illustrated May & June 2013
Serves 12

Ingredients:

Cake
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 cup buttermilk
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
3 Tablespoons lemon juice
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 large eggs plus 1 large yolk, room temperature
18 Tablespoons (2 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
2 cups sugar

Filling
3/4 cup sugar
3 Tablespoons low- or no-sugar-needed fruit pectin*
pinch salt
10 ounces (2 cups) fresh or thawed frozen blueberries
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
1 Tablespoon lemon juice

 * Cook's Illustrated recommends both Sure-Jell for Less or No Sugar Needed Recipes and Ball RealFruit Low or No-Sugar Needed Pectin

Directions:

Cake
Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees F. Heavily spray 12-up nonstick Bundt pan with baking spray and sprinkle with flour. Tap out excess.
Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon together in large bowl. Whisk buttermilk, lemon zest and juice, and vanilla together in medium bowl. Gently whisk eggs and yolk together in another small bowl.

Using stand mixer fitted with paddle, beat butter and sugar on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Reduce speed to medium and beat in half of eggs until incorporated, about 15 seconds. Repeat with remaining eggs, scraping down bowl after incorporating. Reduce speed to low and add one-third of flour mixture, followed by half of buttermilk mixture, mixing until just incorporated after each addition, about 5 seconds. Repeat using half of remaining flour mixture and all of remaining buttermilk mixture. Scrape down bowl, add remaining flour mixture, and mix at medium-low speed until batter is thoroughly combined, about 15 seconds. Remove bowl from mixer and fold batter once or twice with rubber spatula to incorporate any remaining flour. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and set aside while preparing filling (batter will inflate a bit).

Filling
Whisk sugar, pectin, and salt together in small saucepan. Process blueberries in blender until mostly smooth, about 1 minute. Transfer 1/4 cup puree and lemon zest to saucepan with sugar mixture and stir to thoroughly combine. Heat sugar-blueberry mixture over medium heat until just simmering, about 3 minutes, stirring frequently to dissolve sugar and pectin. Transfer mixture to medium bowl and let cool for 5 minutes. Add remaining puree and lemon juice to cooled mixture and whisk to combine. Let sit until slightly set, about 8 minutes.

Spoon half of batter into prepared pan and smooth top. Using back of spoon, create 1/2-inch-deep channel in center of batter. Spoon half of filling into channel. Using butter knife or small offset spatula, thoroughly swirl filling into batter (there should be no large pockets of filling remaining.) Repeat swirling step with remaining batter and filling.

Bake until top is golden brown and skewer inserted in center comes out with no crumbs attached, 60 to 70 minutes. Let cake cool in pan on wire rack for 10 minutes, then invert cake directly onto wire rack. Let cake cool for at least 3 hours before serving.

Banana Coconut Cream Pie

 This pie is like a beautiful combination of banana cream pie and coconut cream pie. So you don't have to ever choose between them. So you can have it all. So life is perfect. Because of this pie.

 This pie was a HUGE hit in my house. There was barely any of it left for me to photograph in the morning!

If you have tried my coconut cream pie, you know it's a slice of heaven. It's even been claimed as my father's favorite pie. However...this banana coconut cream pie is an improved version of that pie. Dad says it was even better than his old favorite. Dad says, so it's fact.

It's a sweet coconutty combination that makes choosing between two wonderful pies a little easier. Making decisions can be simple with this pie on a pretty plate with a cup of coffee.

Banana Coconut Cream Pie

from: Joy the Baker Cookbook

Ingredients  

Crust
¼ cup toasted shredded coconut  
1½ cups vanilla wafers or graham crackers
¼ cup granulated sugar 
1/3cup unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled

Filling
1½ cups heavy cream
1½ cups milk
½ cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup cornstarch
¼ teaspoon salt
3 large egg yolks
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 Tablespoons unsalted butter
1¼ cups toasted shredded coconut
2 ripe bananas, sliced

Topping

1½ cups heavy cream 

¼ cup powdered sugar 
½ cup toasted shredded coconut
1 ripe banana, sliced

Directions

Place rack in center of the oven and preheat oven to 350 degrees F. To toast the coconut; spread 3 cups coconut on a cookie sheet and bake for 5 minutes. Remove from the oven and toss coconut with a spoon to ensure that the edges of the coconut don't burn. Cook coconut for another 3 minutes, then remove from the oven to toss. Repeat until coconut is evenly toasted. Remove from oven and let cool, keep oven on.

Crust
Crush vanilla wafers or graham crackers in a zip-lock bag with a rolling pin (I gave them a quick whirl in my food processor instead). In a medium bowl, mix together the crushed cookies, sugar, toasted coconut. Pour the melted butter over the dry mixture and toss with a fork, making sure to evenly moisten all the dry ingredients. Pour mixture into a 9-inch pie plate and use your fingers to press the crust into the plate and up the sides. Bake for 12 minutes, or until slightly browned. Remove from the oven and let cool completely before filling.

To make the filling; in a medium saucepan, whisk together cream and milk over medium heat and bring to a simmer. In a medium bowl, whisk together the sugar, cornstarch, salt and egg yolks. In a steady stream, add a cup of the warmed milk mixture into the egg yolk mixture, whisking constantly. This will help warm the egg mixture and ready it for stovetop cooking.

Pour the warmed egg and milk mixture back into the saucepan and cook over medium heat, whisking constantly. The mixture will thicken and boil. You may also want to use a spatula to scrape the edges of the pan as the mixture thickens so none gets stuck and burned. Whisk until bubbly and very thick, watch it closely and when you stop stirring for a few seconds the mixture should make large popping bubbles that break the surface, it will be about 4 to 6 minutes. Remove from the heat. Add a vanilla and butter, and whisk until butter is melted.

Pour thickened milk mixture into a large mesh strainer fit over a bowl. Use a spatula to pass the mixture through the strainer, removing any nasty lumps. Place a piece of plastic wrap directly on top of the custard and place in the fridge to cool completely, about 2 hours.

Once the custard is cool, remove from the fridge and fold in toasted coconut and banana slices. Pour the custard into the cooled pie crust and prepare the topping.

To make the topping; use the bowl of an electric stand mixer fit with whisk attachment. Whip cream and powdered sugar to stiff but slightly soft peaks. Dollop whipped cream on top of the pie, using a butter knife to make it pretty. Top with the coconut. Refrigerate until ready to serve. Top with fresh banana just before pie is served (Bananas get brown if exposed to air too long). This pie is best eaten within 2 days.

Lemon and Honey Tart with Walnut Crust and Honeyed Figs

 

 

Lemon and Honey Tart with Walnut Crust and Honeyed Figs

from: Bon Appétit Desserts Cookbook

Ingredients:

Crust
1 1/3 cup all purpose flour
1/3 cup walnuts
2 Tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1 large egg yolk
1 1/2 Tablespoons (or more) ice water

Filling
3/4 cup buttermilk
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
2 large eggs
2 Tablespoons all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon finely grated lemon peel
1/2 cup honey

Topping
6 fresh figs, cut crosswise (or pitted plums, cut lengthwise) into 1/4-inch slices
1 Tablespoon honey
1/4 cup walnuts, toasted, chopped

Directions:

Crust
Mix flour, walnuts, sugar, and salt in processor. Add butter, pulsing until mixture resembles coarse meal. Whisk egg yolk and 1 1/2 tablespoons ice water in small bowl to blend; add to dry ingredients and process just until moist clumps form, adding more ice water by teaspoonfuls if mixture is too dry. Gather dough into ball, flatten into disk. Wrap in plastic and chill at least 1 hour.

Butter and flour 9-inch-diameter tart pan with removable bottom. Roll out dough disk on floured surface 1/8-inch-thick round. Transfer to tart pan. Press crust onto bottom and up sides of pan. Trim edges, reserve trimmings. Freeze crust 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line crust with foil; fill with dried beans or pie weights. Bake until crust is set, about 12 minutes. Remove foil and beans. Continue to bake until crust is golden, about 20-25 minutes longer. Repair any cracks in crust with reserved dough. Cool crust. Maintain oven temperature.

Filling
Whisk buttermilk, lemon juice, eggs, flour, and lemon peel in bowl. Add honey and stir until dissolved. Pour into crust. Bake until filling is set, about 30 minutes. Cool tart in pan on rack. Chill until cold.

Topping
Arrange figs atop tart. Drizzle with honey and sprinkle with walnuts.