Chewy Chocolate Cookie with Peanut Butter Chips

Ingredients
2 cups butter, softened
4 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 3.9 oz (4 serving) instant chocolate pudding
4T unsweetened cocoa
5 cups flour
2t baking soda
2t salt
10z package peanut butter chips

Directions
Preheat oven to 375

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  One at a time, add eggs and beat well with each addition.  Add pudding, cocoa, soda, salt and mix.  Add flouur one cup at a time.  Mix in peanut butter chips.

Use a small cookie scoop and place on ungreased cookie sheet.  Bake for 12 - 14 minutes or until tops are cracked.  Remove and cool completely on cookie sheet.

ENJOY!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Bread

What goes better together than chocolate and peanut butter?  This twist of an old-fashioned favorite banana bread is a heavenly delight.  Very moist and rich and great for a treat, dessert bread anytime of year.  This recipe past the test of my kids, and everyone at work!

Ingredients

4 1/2 cups flour

2t baking powder

2t baking soda

1t salt

1 bag chocolate chips

5 medium bananas, mashed

1 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

1 cup sugar

1 cup packed brown sugar

4 large eggs

3t vanilla

1 cup milk

1/2 cup cocoa powder

Directions

Preheat oven to 350.  Grease bottom of 2 9in loaf pans

In medium sized bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda, baking powder, baking soda, salt and chocolate chips.

In large bowl, mix together peanut butter and bananas until creamy.  On medium speed this takes about a minute.

Add in the egg and vanilla until just blended.

On low, slowly add the flour mixture and alternate with the milk until well blended.

Remove half of the batter from the mixing bowl.  Add the cocoa to the batter left in the bowl and mix.

Place batter in the pans in alternating spoonfuls, then swirl with a knife to marble.

Bake for a good 70-80 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean. 

This is great for muffins, mini loaves or other treats!

Thursday's Sweet Confection

This *to be named*  dessert came about after I happened upon a bag of caramel Hershey Kisses.  They begged to be made into a sweet treet.  And not just ANY sweet treat or cookie - something special.  So, this is what I came up with.

6 egg whites *

1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar

Pinch salt

1 3/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup baking cocoa
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon peppermint extract
1 bag of caramel kisses, unwrapped

*a trick I learned years ago when trying to beat egg whites, they will work much better if they are at room temperature!

In a mixing bowl, beat egg whites until foamy. Sprinkle with cream of tartar and salt; beat until soft peaks form.

Gradually add sugar, cocoa, vanilla and peppermint extract, beating until stiff peaks form, about 5-8 minutes.

Line mini muffin tins with liners, place a spoonfull of mix in each tin, add 1 unwrapped kiss in each.  Then cover with another spoonful.  Do not fill all the way, as they will rise.

Bake in a pre-heated oven at 275 degrees for 50-60 minutes, or until firm and hollow when tapped.

Makes apx 48

These sweet delights need a name!  Hop on over to my facebook fan page, become a fan and enter a name!  Winner will be announced on Friday, March 26th.

Chocolate Banana Waffles

My kids love frozen waffles for breakfast.  But, with the Waffle Shortage this year, I figured we may need to come up with a new alternative.

I made one batch of these, and it make apx 14 regular sized waffles.  My daughter rated the dinner with 10 A+'s, and they quickly gobbled them up.   I will be making them next with whole wheat flour, doubling (or more) the batch and freezing them.

They do come out kind of soft right out of the waffle maker, but can be taken out of the freezer and tossed into the toaster! 


1 ½ cups all-purpose flour

3 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup white sugar
¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup milk
2 eggs
2 tablespoons butter, melted
2 bananas, mashed
1 cup mini chocolate chips

Preheat waffle iron. In a large mixing bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, salt, sugar and cocoa. Blend in milk, eggs and butter and bananas until mixture is smooth. Stir in chocolate chips.

Spray preheated waffle iron with non-stick cooking spray. Pour mix onto hot waffle iron. Cook until golden brown or your waffle iron turns off.

I served with butter, powdered sugar, sliced strawberries, whipped cream and some chocolate chips.

*PS.  To my dear friend Jannet who can't eat chocolate.  I bet you could substitute the cocoa with white chocolate powder, carob powder, or whatever. :D

Chocolate Rabbit Zucchini Chili

No, this is not your typical homemade chili with a leftover chocolate Easter bunny tossed in for extra flavor. This is a good, old-fashioned chili with home raised rabbit meat. We have been raising rabbits in our little suburban farm. Rabbit is a very tender white meat that can be used in place of chicken in any recipe.

For this chili, if you don’t want to use rabbit, feel free to replace it with ground turkey, chicken, ground beef or leave out any meat for a vegetarian version.

Ingredients
1lb bag of black beans
3T olive oil
2lbs rabbit (or meat of choice)
1 large onion, diced
2 zucchinis, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
6T cocoa powder
2T chili powder
1T ground cumin
1t Oregano
½t Salt
½t Pepper
3 (28oz) cans diced tomatoes with liquid

Directions

1) Place bag of beans in a sauce pan and bring to a boil. Once boiling, drain and rinse. Place back into pan and bring to a boil. Once boiling, reduce heat and simmer for about an hour until beans are tender.
2) While beans are simmering, slow boil meat so it’s slightly cooked and you can debone the rabbit (or chicken).
3) Heat oil in large skillet, add diced onions, zucchini and garlic. Cook over medium heat until onions are clear.
4) Drain beans and rinse, place in crock pot. Debone meat, shred/dice and place over beans.
5) Add seasonings, cocoa powder and 1 can of tomatoes. Stir and simmer about 2 minutes.
6) Dump contents of skillet into crock pot, add other two cans of tomatoes. Mix everything together.
7) Cook on high for 1 hour. Simmer on low for 6-8 hours.

This produces a lot, so you will need a good sized crock pot! You can also simmer on the stove for about 2 hours if you’d prefer.

I took this to work one day and was surprised that the entire thing was gone! I hope you enjoy it as much as they all did.