Christmas Cookies 2014 -- Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Chocolate Chocolate Chip

I generally only get someone a present if I find something perfect for them, which is usually by accident.  I usually just give them that present if I do find it, I am really bad at keeping something like that under my hat for however long it takes for a present giving opportunity. There is one except to this -- consumables.

I have a theory that people love to eat more sweets this time a year and there are many occasions for people to share them with others.  There are also many occasions that recipients might be overwhelmed with the quantity of sweet they receive that might go stale before they get to savour them.  The solution to this is to make cookie dough and freeze it so that the cookies can be cooked up fresh when needed/wanted or just eaten frozen from the freezer.

The first cookies that I made this year are a Yin/Yang cookie.  Half the cookie is a Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip cookie dough and the other half is a Chocolate Chocolate Chip cookie dough.

I found the recipe for this cookie at Sally's Baking Addiction, I did change how I put them together since I was trying to stream line the production to aid in freezing these puppies up.  

Yin Yang Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Chocolate Chocolate Chip
Original recipe created by  Sally's Baking Addiction

	Chocolate/Chocolate		Peanut Butter
Ingredients	Single Batch	Double Batch	Single Batch	Double Batch
Butter	1/2 c	1 c	1/2 c	1 c
Sugar	1/2 c	1 c	1/2 c	1 c
Brown Sugar	1/2 c	1 c	1/2 c	1 c
Egg	1	2	1	2
Peanut Butter	-	-	3/4 c	1 1/2 c
Vanilla	1 tsp	2 tsp	1 tsp	2 tsp
Flour	1 c (125g)	2 c (250g)	1 1/4 c (156g)	2 1/2 c (312g)
Cocoa	1/2 c + 2 tbsp	1 1/4 c	-	-
Baking Soda	1 tsp	2 tsp	1/2 tsp	1 tsp
Salt	1/2 tsp	1 tsp	1/4 tsp	1/2 tsp
Milk	2 tbsp	1/4 c	-	-
Chocolate Chips	1 c	2 c	1 c	1 c

I made this chart to help me keep track of the ingredients when I doubled the batch.  Pick the set of columns either single batch or double batch, then make both types of cookie dough.  

Both cookies go together in the same way.

~Cream Butter and then add sugar.  Beat until fluffy.  Add Eggs one at a time and Vanilla.  Add the peanut butter for the peanut butter cookies.

~In another bowl combine all the dry ingredients, except the chocolate chips which you will mix in after mixing the dry ingredients in to the wet.  

~Combine dry ingredients slowly into the wet until just combined.  Then add chocolate chips.

~Form each dough into a log shape, wrap in plastic and refrigerate at least 1 hour but 2 would be better.  If making a double batch shape into 2 logs for ease of handling.   

~Once chilled, remove both doughs from the fridge.  Using a knife or a bench scraper, cut the chocolate/chocolate log lengthwise and then into cut each side of the cut log into 12 pieces.  You want a total of 24 pieces of each single batch of dough, or 48 for a double batch.  Repeat with the Peanut butter dough.  

~Then take a piece of each dough and put them together and roll between your hands to form a dough ball.  The peanut butter dough will be softer, so try to make sure that you have an even amount of each type of dough visible.  That way your friends will be in awe of your wicked skills.

~Now you can either place on a cookie sheet freeze and then bag up these little (enormous) cookies.  These do make a very large cookie :)  -OR- you can bake these bad boys at 350F for 10-12 minutes.  They will look under cooked but leave them on the cookie sheets to cool and they will gain a bit of structural integrity while still being soft.

Not very visually appealing in this form but there is something wonderful about frozen cookie dough right out of the freezer.  

Enjoy!
K.

No Bake

Yesterday I wanted to make something and I didn't really want to spend too much time baking or cleaning up afterwards.  Here enters the no bake cookies.  So not so healthy for you, so I might have to fiddle with the recipe to make it more nutritious, but currently this is a sometimes food.  (I just need to make sometimes foods happen less often)

No Bake Cookies

2 cups Sugar

1/2 cup Butter

1/4 cup Cocoa

Pinch Salt

1/2 cup Milk

4 cups Quick Oats

1/2 cup Peanut Butter

1 tsp Vanilla

*In a sauce pan add Sugar, Butter, Cocoa, Salt and Milk.  Bring to a boil

*Remove from heat and add Oats, Peanut Butter and Vanilla.

*Spoon on to parchment and let cool.

All boiled up and ready to go.

Oats are added to the cooked mixture.

It makes this gooey chocolaty oaty peanut buttery goodness.

I used a disher to form the balls, which are a bit deformed.  I used to use a plastic coffee scoop and they came out great, although I think that I might have sprayed the scoop with oil first.

The last lonely ball left to pack away (I thing this one might not have made it to the container)

My day went really well, but that might be due to the kids being with their dad most of the day.  I got to clean off the junk counter since it had started to grow and multiply I decided that it was time to decluter the counter.

Dinner was a bit of left overs mixed with the bounty of my garden.  Swiss Chard, Zucchini, Onions, Garlic and Green Beans all from my garden topped with a bit of left over Satay covered in peanut sauce and some Mmmm Sauce and the last of the goat cheese.  It was so good that I had something similar with lunch today although it didn't have the chicken and sauce but it did have some corn cut from a cob.

Meltdowns by Proxy

Wednesday was an interesting day for melt downs.  We started with Rosie fulling stepping into a Terrible Two Tantrum which is nice since she is 2 1/2.  It just means we are on that side of 2 1/2 and that tantrums will be a new part of our lives where she is concerned.  30+ minutes of tantrums left a very tired kid who fell asleep at 10am.  I managed to get her home and in bed and she slept until 12pm, which left us the rest of the day to do stuff, fabu.

We had gone out for lunch at Baan Thai, and the girls eat quite well and since it was mostly veggies, I was okay with a less veggie filled dinner (more on that later :)   Ladybug spent the afternoon with J doing errands and we got together at 3 so I could pick up the girls to try out their new bikes.  Rosie's was still too big so I opted for the tricycle rather then a bit that is too big.  I wanted Ladybug to try out her new GyroWheel, which didn't turn out as I had hoped.  Ladybugs friend AJ did have a great time on the bike but L was too concerned about falling over that she wouldn't even try.  "I WANT TRAINING WHEELS," so she stole Rosie's tricycle and off she went.  Once the batteries ran out on the Gyrowheel, I resorted to the Scooters.   AJ wanted to ride them too but neither of the girls wanted to share which led to A having a fuss.  While I was trying to ask L to leave A alone while she calms down, ladybug erupts in her own set of meltdown and so it was time to leave.

I was fine with this until L started kicking and hitting me and then started kicking my new car.  So I took her boots off and she continued.  I will admit to falling into the blind hand of justice, which just shows that I was over the edge too.  So I made sure that L knew that we would  both be taking a time out when we got home, although she was trying to yell at me that she was calm and didn't have to have a time out  now.  "Unfortunately sweetheart, it is not about your actions now that I am concerned about.  You wouldn't listen and were kicking my car which lead to me telling you to stop or you'll have a time out when we get home.  you continued to kick so you now have a time out. Next time try to listen and know that I will follow through on the consequences if you don't listen."  Not fun for everyone.  I am not claiming that was the best situation or that I handled that well, but I handled it.

Earlier I had gone shopping for some milk and I, of course, came home with a few extra goodies.  Including a package of Indonesian Satay marinate.  I was interested to see if the kids would like this, since they last time I made chicken on a stick it went over very well for the 4+ crowd since it was a little spicy the 2 year old thought it was too spicy.  This claims it is mild, so I thought I would give it a try.

It was quite easy, mix 1lb of chicken although I used almost 2 lbs, add some oil.  I decided to add some ginger and some garlic, it made it smell really good.

I soaked the skewers and then threaded the chicken chunks onto it.  Then I barbequed them until they were cooked with a little colour.  Ladybug doesn't like the deliciousness of the slightly crunchy bits.

Don't they look delicious

Here is Rosie's dinner.  She didn't eat that much but did eat both skewers and some corn.

This is the Peanut sauce, that Ladybug help me make but didn't want to eat any of.

Peanut Sauce

1 1/4 cup Coconut Milk

1/4+ cup Peanut Butter

1 tbsp Fish Sauce

2 tbsp Lime Juice

Blend together until it is delicious.

For dessert I made myself a root beer float.  Some double churned vanilla bean ice cream and some nice A&W root beer.  Made a a lovely creamy float, so good I had another.

I have already taken some of the foam off.  It was great.