Puffy Peanut Butter, Chocolate Chip and Golden Oreo Cookies

Lemme tell you something about these cookies.They're great! So great that ...

1) They have turned mere mortals into baking converts! I first made these with Susan (She's obsessed with peanut butter, carrot cake and thinks she is amazing ;p). She wanted a total peanut butter hit so we put peanut butter chips, peanut M&Ms and Reese's Pieces in them (That's another great thing about these cookies, feel free to swap the chocolate chips and Oreos for other things - smarties, m&ms, chunks of your favourite bar of chocolate, anything!).
They were so simple to make that when they were all ready and in the oven, she kept saying: "But that can't be it. We can't be finished already". But that was it. We really were finished. They really are that simple! Half an hour after you start, you've got hot cookies!

And FYI, Susan has gone on to bake white chocolate and macadamia nut cookies, peanut butter banana bread and a French yogurt cake. All because of these cookies ;p

2) God himself endorses these cookies! Well, I like to think He endorses everything I bake but I made these for Church and got a text from the Pastor's wife (Monica) that evening saying how good they were. And then a couple of days later, the Pastor himself (Mark) texted to say he really enjoyed them. I don't think Mark has eaten any of my baking before and I just assumed he didn't have a sweet tooth but a couple of weeks later, Monica asked for the recipe as Mark had been hassling her to make them.

So there you have it. Make these cookies!

Quick aside - Isnt' it funny how in this post, I was lamenting my genetic inability to bake cookies and muffins and now I'm like the cookie queen! Cookie queen is a title I'm trying on for size and I really like it!

Adapted from How Sweet It Is

Makes about 20 cookies

2 cups plain flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
113g butter
6 tablespoons of creamy peanut butter (I bought crunchy by mistake and I like to think it gave it a little sumthin' sumthin')
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup caster sugar
1 egg + 1 egg yolk, at room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup milk chocolate chips
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
1/2 cup Golden Oreos broken into bits. Regular Oreos would work too.

1 - Preheat oven to 170C / Gas Mark 3 / 325F. Line your baking trays with grease proof paper.
2 - Add peanut butter and butter to a microwave safe bowl, then heat in 30 second increments until melted. Let cool completely.

3 - Mix the flour and baking soda in a bowl and set aside.
4 - In another bowl, mix the the cooled butter/peanut butter and sugars until they are combined. Add the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla and stir until mixed.

Gradually add flour and mix until a dough forms - it will look crumbly at first, but it will come together. Use your hands to bring it all together if you want.
5 - Fold in chocolate chips and Oreo bits.

6 - Shape the dough into balls the size of a golf ball.

Place on your baking tray two inches apart and bake for 10-12 minutes or until the edges are slightly brown. The centres should be soft and puffy. Do not over bake. Let cool completely.

Oreo-stuffed brownies and a fairytale.

It all started with a brownie!

If my baking story were a fairytale, this is how it would go...


Once upon a time, in a land far far away (okay so Birmingham is physically only a couple of hours away, but in every other way, it's like a whole other universe!) There lived a young woman who had moved back home with her mama and baba and sister after university. Despite a history of baking with their grandmother occasionally, neither girl baked much.


Until one day, the sister; Christiana decided to bake brownies and found this wonderful looking recipe. The brownies were a bit too oily, very sweet, and so gooey that it was impossible to cut them into squares but as neither sister knew any better, they thought they were amazing!


And so they started to make these brownies all the time; for every event they were invited to and for every pot luck lunch organised at work. Over time, they reduced the amount of butter, and increased the amount of chocolate. They started to bake them in a bigger pan, toned down the sugar content a notch and replaced caster sugar with brown sugar. 
And so, our signature brownie was born! I love these brownies! And I always compare other brownies to this one. After making them oh, about a hundred times, I decided to try my hand at a few other recipes and that, my friends, is how my love of baking was born.


There is so much that can be done with brownies so it's about to get very browni-exciting up on this blog! Ha ha, like what I did there?


First off are these Oreo stuffed brownies. These are nice and simple.


Ingredients


1 portion of this brownie recipe (minus the white and milk chocolate chunks). Also, reduce the flour to 150g.
As many Oreo cookies as you need - I used 24 (almost two packs).


1 - Make brownie batter as per recipe (minus the last step which is folding in the milk and white chocolate chunks) and spread half of the batter on the bottom on your baking tin
2 - Arrange the Oreos over the brownie batter side-by-side and in one layer

3 - Pour the remaining brownie batter over the cookies and spread in an even layer to cover the cookies.
4 - Bake in a pre-heated 170C/ Gas Mark 3 / 325F oven for about 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

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Triple Layer Oreo Cake (Warning: You might put on weight just LOOKING at this cake)

It was my mum's *cough* 40th *cough* birthday on the 27th of May and as I told you in this post, she's LOVES chocolate. So I knew I had to make her a cake that was loaded with chocolate. This cake came to mind pretty quickly because it was love at first sight as soon as I saw it but as it's such a big cake, I wanted to save it for a special occasion. And what better occasion than my amazing mum's birthday eh?


This recipe has been adapted slightly from Beantown Baker's. She's one of my favourite baking bloggers and I want to make layer cakes like her when I grow up!


I won't lie to you - this is a very involved cake. It took me about 7 hours to make but it is totally worth it in the end! I also had a few issues with the chocolate layers - my cake mixture was too watery and they rose unevenly making for very ugly uneven cakes; I'm amazed at the multitude of sins I was able to hide with the frosting! I've adapted the recipe slightly to try and resolve the issues I had but I haven't tested it yet. I'll update you guys when I do.


However, the time it takes is totally worth it. Even with their problems, the chocolate cake layers were wonderfully moist cake - I think they might be my favourite chocolate cake recipe (after Guinness chocolate cake) and the Oreo filling ... wow. It's creamy and vanilla-ey and not too sweet but still full of flavour. Yum. Yum. Yum. I'm using it to frost every cake I ever make EVER! Well. Okay. That is an exaggeration but this filling is that good! The whole cake is rich and decadent and incredible. It's just an amazing cake! And I'll stop now because I'm gushing. But you try it and see if you don't gush too!

Steps it takes to put this cake together
1 - Bake the cake layers. The cake layers can be made in advance and refrigerated or frozen. Layers should be completely cooled prior to assembling the cake
2 - Make the Oreo filling
3 - Stack the cake - Place 1 chocolate layer, flat side up, on a flat plate or cake pedestal. With a knife or spatula, spread the top with half of the Oreo filling. Place the Oreo cake layer on top and spread with the remaining Oreo filling. Place the last chocolate cake layer on top.
4 - Make the chocolate frosting
5 - Frost and decorate the cake. Spread frosting evenly on the top and sides of the cake and decorate with Oreo cookies and reserved filling. I used mini cookies.

Chocolate Cake Layers
Butter for greasing the cake tins
1 3/4 cups flour
2 cups sugar
3/4 cups cocoa powder
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs, at room temperature
2 tsps vanilla
1/2 cup freshly brewed hot coffee (I used instant)
1 1/2 packs of Oreos (about 21 cookies), cut  into quarters


1 - Preheat oven to 180C/Gas Mark 4/350F.Grease and flour 2 (8 inch) round cake pans
2 - Combine the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt
3 - In another bowl, combine the buttermilk, oil, eggs and vanilla
4 - With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry. With the mixer still on low, add the coffee and stir just to combine, scraping the sides and bottom of the bowl to make sure it is all combined
5 - Stir in the Oreo chunks and pour the batter into the prepared pans and bake for 35-40 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.
6 - Cool in the pans for 30 minutes and then turn them out onto a cooling rack and cool completely


Oreo Cake Layer
57g unsalted butter, at room temp
1/2 cup milk
2 tsps vanilla extract
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2/3 cup + 2 tbsp + 2 tsp sugar
1 1/2 egg whites, at room temp
1 pack Oreos (14 cookies), cut into quarters


1 - Preheat oven to 180C/Gas Mark 4/350F.Grease and flour 1 (8 inch) round cake pan
2 - In a large bowl cream the butter until lighter and fluffy, about 3 - 5 minutes. Add the sugar and beat for another two minutes. Add the vanilla and beat until combined.
3 - In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt
4 - Add the dry ingredients in three batches, alternating with the milk. Start and end with the flour mix. Each time, beat only just combined
5 - Add the egg whites and beat for one more minute
6 - Fold in the quartered cookies, pour batter into prepared cake tin and bake for 25 - 30 minutes or until an inserted skewer comes out clean. 
7 - Allow to cool in the tin for about 10 minutes then turn out onto a rack and allow to cool completely


Oreo Filling
113g cream cheese, at room temp
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup icing sugar
1 cup whipping or double cream
7 Oreos, cut into quarters


1 - Using an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese, vanilla and icing sugar until light and creamy. 
2 - Add half of the cream and beat until smooth. Add the rest of the cream and beat until it has the consistency of whipped cream.
3 - Reserve 1/2 cup to use to decorate top of cake (I forgot to do this) and place the rest in the fridge until ready to use
4 - When ready to use, stir in the Oreo chunks


Chocolate Frosting
170g dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids)
227g unsalted butter, at room temp
1 egg yolk, at room temp
1 tsp pure vanilla extract

1 tbsp instant coffee


1 - Chop the chocolate and place it in a heat-proof bowl set over a pan of simmering water. Stir until just melted and set aside until cooled to room temperature.
2 - Using an electric mixer, beat butter on medium high speed until lighter and fluffy, about 4 minutes
3 - Add the egg yolk and vanilla and continue beating for 3 minutes
4 - Stir in the icing sugar (so that it doesn't go everywhere) and then beat until smooth and creamy, scraping down the bowl as necessary
5 - Dissolve the coffee in 2 teaspoons of very hot tap water. On low speed, add the chocolate and coffee to the butter mixture and mix until blended. Spread immediately on the  cooled cake

My New Toy and Cookies and Cream Brownies

I promise that one day, I'll bore you with an ENTIRE post on my kitchen gadget wish list, but for now, you'll have to make do with my exciting news that I've added the Breville SHM2 Twin Hand and Stand Mixer to my kitchen! 

This is my pretty new mixer! It is not quite the Kitchenaid mixer in a variety of beautiful pastel colours that I'm constantly lusting after but it's a definite step up from my crappy Sainsbury's mixer. They say you shouldn't speak ill of the dead so in defence of my (now dead) mixer, it mostly did the job. For several good months. Except for when I was making buttercream frosting. It didn't matter how long I stood over my bowl of butter and icing sugar, it didn't matter how numb my hand managed to get, it wouldn't reach that creamy perfection I was after. But now, I can just dump my butter and sugar into my free-standing mixer and go off to read a few more pages of 'Emma' while letting it work it's magic. Whoop whoop! I can't wait to make buttercream! And bread, because it has dough hooks. Can I get another whoop?

Now on to something that doesn't require a mixer; brownies! This is another recipe from Lorraine Pascal's 'Baking made easy' and it is an interesting one because it only contains two tablespoons of flour.  This is a nice, fudgy brownie recipe but I think it lacks a certain je nais c'est quois (I bet I've just spelt that completely wrong! French has never been my strong suit).  I think it's almost too light. For me, the perfect brownie is one where one square fulfills all my carnal chocolate desires. One square, and even me, the ultimate chocoholic, is sated. This wasn't that brownie. I know I said this when I made these cheesecake brownies but the more brownies I eat and the more brownie recipes I try, the more convinced I am that my original brownie recipe is one of the best there is. And I know I always say I'll share it but this time I mean it, as I'll be baking them for a work Valentines Day bake sale. I'll also try my recipe with Oreos in in so watch out for a 2nd take on these brownies. 

Till then, enjoy! Because while my overly critical self might not be 100% happy with these, they are nice brownies and as with all brownies, pretty easy to make but amazingly rewarding to eat.

Ingredients

165g butter, plus extra for greasing

200g dark chocolate

3 free-range eggs

2 free-range egg yolks

2 tsp vanilla extract

165g soft light brown sugar

2 tbsp plain flour

1 tbsp cocoa powder

pinch salt

154g pack Oreo Cookies

1 - Preheat oven to 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4.

2 - Grease and flour a 20cm/8in square baking tin

3 - Melt the butter and chocolate together in a bain marie. Alternatively melt the butter in a pan over a medium heat. When the butter has melted, remove the pan from the heat and add the grated (or chopped) chocolate. Leave to stand for a few minutes, or until the chocolate melts, and then stir together. 

Another alternative is to put the chocolate and butter in a bowl and melt in the microwave in 25-second blasts, stirring well each time.

4 - Whisk the eggs, egg yolks and vanilla together in a large bowl until the eggs begin to get light and fluffy. 

5 - Add the sugar in two additions, whisking between each. Pour it around the side of the egg mix so as not to knock out the air that has been whisked in. Keep whisking until the mixture becomes stiffer. 

6 - Once the egg mixture is ready, pour the chocolate into it - again around the sides so as knock the air out.

7 - Add the flour, cocoa powder, salt and a third of the biscuits and stir until fully combined, then pour the mixture into the prepared tin.

8 - Scatter the remaining biscuits over the top, pressing them in slightly. 

9 - Bake on the middle shelf of the oven for 25-30 minutes. The middle should be ever so slightly gooey. Leave the brownies to cool in the tin - the top will sink and crack a little.

10 - Cut into squares and serve

Jen's Cookies and Cream Cupcakes

I seem to be turning my blog into a bit of a confessional - it's just as well not too many people read it! See here for my addiction admission, and here for my geek declaration. As three is my lucky number, I thought "why not make it a hat trick?", after all, third time's the charm ;p So here's another confession ... wait for it ... okay, here goes:

While in life generally, I'm more of a delayed gratification kind of gal, when it comes to food, I'm pretty greedy. I want everything I like, all together, and I want it now!! Don't judge me!

So words like ‘Oreo cupcake’ are music to my ears. It can only be a WIN-WIN ... I love Oreo cookies and I love cake; it's a no-brainer really. 

However I have had some disappointing experiences with Oreo cupcakes at a London cupcakery. Biscuits are dry so with the wrong recipe, you can end up with a rather dry cake with dry bits in it making for a pretty dry experience. Oreos are also very sweet so when you combine them with a really sweet buttercream - it can make for a rather sickingly sweet cake and trust me, there is such a thing as too sweet.

This is where my newest baking blog crush (yeah yeah I know I'm turning into a bit of a chef whore ;p) comes in. I first happened across this recipe on Annie's Eats and since then, I've pretty much stalked ahem, I mean researched her archives and come up with no less than 15 recipes that I want to try!

This recipe is genius. First of all it has half an Oreo (the half with the cream) in the bottom of the cupcake liner, chunks of Oreos all the way through and it is topped with half an Oreo. It also has a cream cheese frosting which balances out the sweetness of the cake and biscuits really well. Everybody  LOVED these cookies so try them if you're trying to impress! It's quite a dense cake rather than light and fluffy but that works really well and the textures of the cake with the cookie at the bottom and all the way through are pretty amazing! My friend described it as a "fusion of textures" and another friend promptly demanded the recipe to make them the very next weekend.


I just realised that this recipe is originally from another one of my blog baking idols; Beantown Baker! Sorry Jen for mis-assigning credit for this. And I just have to say that every time I have made these, I have received compliments like 'The best cupcake I have ever eaten', 'divine' etc. Every. Single. Time. So thank you for an incredible recipe!

A couple of notes:

 - The recipe calls for 3 egg whites and when I asked Annie why not use whole eggs; she wasn't sure but thought it might have something to do with keeping the cake a nice white colour. I suspect the addition of whole eggs rather than just the whites would make the cake lighter and fluffier so it's worth a try. I'm definitely making these again so I'll let you know how it goes using whole eggs.

 - I had some Golden Oreos left over from my last visit to the States so I mixed them in with the regular Oreos but I think these would taste really amazing made entirely of golden Oreos so you lucky people who live in the US, give them a go with Golden Oreos. And make sure you let me know how they turn out!!

24 cupcakes

Ingredients

For the cupcakes:
24 Oreo halves, with cream filling attached
2¼ cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
8 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 2/3 cup sugar
3 large egg whites, at room temperature
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup milk
20 Oreo cookies, coarsely chopped (I quarter them)

For the frosting
226g cream cheese, at room temperature
6 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 tbsp. vanilla extract
4 cups icing sugar
2 tbsp. double cream

For garnish
Oreo cookie crumbs
24 Oreo cookie halves

1 - Preheat the oven to 180˚ C/Gas Mark 4.  Line the wells of two cupcake pans with 24 paper liners.  Place an Oreo halve in the bottom of each liner, cream side up.

2 - In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt; stir together with a fork to blend and set aside.  

3 - In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the butter and sugar and beat together on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.  

4 - Blend in the egg whites one at a time, beating well after each addition.  

5 - Blend in the vanilla extract.  

6 - With the mixer on low speed, beat in half of the dry ingredients just until incorporated.  Add the milk and beat just until combined, then mix in the remaining dry ingredients.  

7 - Gently fold in the chopped Oreos with a rubber spatula until evenly incorporated, being careful not to over-mix.

8 - Evenly divide the batter between the prepared cupcake liners.  Bake for 18-20 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through baking, until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.  

9 - Allow to cool in the pans 5-10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the frosting

1 - Combine the cream cheese and butter in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat on medium-high speed until smooth, about 1 minute.

2 - Blend in the vanilla extract.  Beat in the confectioners’ sugar until incorporated and smooth, 1-2 minutes.  

3 - Add the heavy cream to the bowl and beat on medium-low speed just until incorporated, then increase the speed to medium-high and whip for 4 minutes until light and fluffy, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.

Frost the cooled cupcakes as desired.  Sprinkle with Oreo crumbs and garnish with Oreo halves.

Cookies and Cream Cheesecakes AKA (by me) Oreo Cheesecake Cupcakes

These are the first recipe I have tried from my new favourite cupcake book; 'Martha Stewart's Cupcakes'.


RECIPE - This recipe apparently makes 30, but I made half the recipe and only got 12.


Ingredients
42 cream-filled chocolate sandwich cookies, such as Oreos, 30 left whole and 12 coarsely chopped
2 pounds of cream cheese, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (I used 2 teaspoons for half the recipe, I love vanilla!)
4 large eggs, room temperature, lightly beaten
1 cup sour cream
Pinch salt


1 - Preheat oven to 275ºF (140ºC). Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Place 1 whole cookie in the bottom of each lined cup.

2 - With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat cream cheese until smooth, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Gradually add sugar, and beat until combined. Beat in vanilla.

3 - Drizzle in eggs, a bit at a time, beating to combine and scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Beat in sour cream and salt. Stir in chopped cookies by hand.

4 - Divide batter evenly among cookie-filled cups, filling each almost to the top. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until filling is set, about 22 minutes. I needed another 4 minutes baking time. Transfer tins to wire racks to cool completely. Refrigerate (in tins) at least 4 hours (or up to overnight). Remove from tins just before serving.

These were lovely and different but on a scale from 1-10 of my favourite things I have baked, I'd give them a 6. However, they are incredibly easy to make. My mixer was broken but a wooden spoon did the job just fine!




 I decorated them with little silver chocolate hearts but next time, I might decorate with a mini oreo per cupcake or sprinkle crushed oreos instead. The only slight complication with that is I'd have to decorate just before I served them or the cookies would get soft.