Preheat oven to 375°
Cream together until well blended:
(If by hand, cream butter first then add others. If in a mixer, just add them all to the bowl & mix on medium w/ flat beater)
1c softened butter
3/4c packed brown sugar
1/2c evaporated cane juice
1/2c peanut butter (creamy or chunky depending on preference)

Add and mix to combine:
1 egg
1t vanilla

In separate bowl, sift together:
2c sifted flour
1t baking soda
1/2t salt

Add drys to butter mixture slowly and mix until just blended. Refrigerate.

To create the surprises, start with refrigerated peanut butter cookie dough, parchment lined cookie tray & small, room temperature peanut butter cups.

Sccop out one heaping tablespoon of dough.

Press the peanut butter cup into the dough.

Shape the dough so it’s thicker on top and bottom and even around the edges. Be sure to close it up completely, which may require a bit more cookie dough.

The dough balls should be consistently sized, spherical and spaced two inches apart.

Bake until golden on the edges and high points. They’ll be flat with a lumpy center hiding the melted peanut butter cup. Put the pan on the cooling rack and let them cool almost completely this way before transferring the cookies directly to the cooling rack. Otherwise, the melty peanut butter cup could squish out the bottom.

Shannon says these are great without the glaze so the last step is optional but I just love the extra chocolate.

In a bowl over boiling water (or a traditional double boiler) melt:
1t butter
1c chocolate (should match the chocolate of the cups – I use Trader Joe’s Pound Plus 70% because I prefer bittersweet)
2T peanut butter (ideally, creamy, cuz it’s a glaze but have at it!)

Stir to combine until the whole thing is a beautiful creamy consistency.

Now here’s where some patience is required. After spreading about one teaspoon on each cookie while the glaze is fresh and warm, you have to let the glaze set for a few hours. How long you have to wait depends on environmental factors like temperature & moisture. You could also try drizzling in an arty way, should you be so inclined.

ENJOY!

Purée dates in a food processor, after cutting them into pieces crossways, until they form a ball & remove.
Purée persimmons until liquified. Add dates back in and purée until consistent.
Scrape into mixing bowl & whisk in egg, melted butter, chai, vanilla & salt.
In separate bowl, sift pancake mix with pumpkin pie spice and then whisk into wet ingredients.
Scrape into buttered bowl that’s warming in its water bath.
We steamed it in a bowl inside this steamer. We filled the water up as high as the recipe recommends (2/3 of the way up the side of the bowl) and let it boil until the top cracked & a fork came out clean – appx 30 min.

This is what it looked like after we ate half of it…

It was delicious and super filling. This size recipe could be four servings with or without cream.
Happy Winter Baking!

Rena’s Corn Muffins
Slightly adapted
(I copied and pasted her recipe and directions and edited where I changed it)

Ingredients

* 2 1/3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
* 1/3 cup whole wheat flour
* 1 cup natural cane sugar
* 1 cup coarse cornmeal
* 2 tablespoons baking powder
* 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
* 1 1/4 cup whole milk
* 1/4 cup sour cream
* 1/2 pound (two sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
* 3 large eggs

Directions

- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
- Line 17 (I know, sorry) muffin cups with paper liners (or just grease the tin with some organic sunflower oil).
- Loosely measure the flours into your sifter and sift into a bowl.
- Spoon the sifted flour into your measuring cup and drag the back of a butter knife across the surface to measure (do not shake or this will increase the flour amount and make for denser muffins)
- Put the flour, sugar, cornmeal, baking powder, and salt into a largeish mixing bowl, and whisk with a loose whisk (meaning, lots of space between the wires – we’ll need this later) to incorporate.
- In a glass 4 cup measuring cup, measure out the milk.
- Add a dollop of sour cream to get the milk line up to the 1 1/2 mark.
- Whisk together well but don’t worry about the little bits of sour cream.
- In a separate bowl, combine this milk mixture and the cooled melted butter.
- Crack the eggs into a cup or small bowl (I used the glass measuring cup), and whisk until smooth.
- Add the eggs to the wet mixture, and whisk until combined.
- Pour the wet mixture into the dry (when I did this all in one pour, it made the cooled PFLOUP sound), and whisk (this is why we needed a loose whisk – it will be thick) until just blended.
- Use a 1/4 cup scoop to measure the batter into the paper liners (one scoop will fill each most of the way to the top).
- Bake for 30 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. (I actually pulled them out without testing because they looked SO FREAKING PERFECT at 30 min mark – perfectly curved on top, with little cracks and just golden brown enough)
- Cool slightly and remove from the pan.

The paper liners come off without trying – it’s amazing.
Shannon said, “I can’t help but think of Mr. Crick.”
I said, “Who’s Mr. Crick?”
“That guy in Stranger than Fiction. I feel like he did when he at that cookie.”

These are the best corn muffins ever! Thank you Rena!!
I didn’t have a second muffin pan so I put paper liners in some ramekins and they worked out just fine. You can see here that we got a little distracted before I remembered to take a picture for you!

While I was putting them together, I discovered some unused fresh egg pasta that I got at Lucca Ravioli last week and realized it needed to be cooked asap. I’ve had fresh pasta in a plastic bag in the fridge get mouldy within two weeks. This pasta was only in the paper they wrapped it in when I bought it so it got a little dried out.
To me, fettucini needs to have a cream sauce so I set about to make the following alfredo from scratch without a recipe. It turned out really well.

Addy’s Alfredo
2 T butter
2 T unbleached all purpose flour
1 c Half & Half
1 c stock (whatever kind you use, know that you will taste it a little bit. I used Low Sodium Organic Chicken stock)
1 1/2 c shredded mixed cheeses
I used – 1/4 c fresh parmesean, 1/4 c or 1 oz cream cheese, 1/2 c monterey jack & 1/2 c cheddar
1/2 t salt
1/2 t black pepper (or to taste)
1/8 t nutmeg

- Mix the half & half and stock together and take the chill off them. You can heat them or they can be room temp – I haven’t found it makes much difference as long as they’re not cold. Set aside.
- Make a roux with the butter & flour.
- I do this by melting the butter over medium heat until it’s foaming and, using a whisk and only ever a whisk, sprinkle the flour in slowly & uniformly, until the entire thing is uniform and foamy. It’s okay, and even recommended, to let it brown a touch, but it’s more important to get everything whisked together quickly and without lumps. And, by no means, will you let it burn!
- Still over medium heat, slowly and steadily add the stock mixture in a steady stream until it’s all incorporated. You should go slowly enough that you’re able to make a consistent paste that gets thinner and thinner as you add the stock. You’ll see what I mean as you’re doing it and if you’ve never made a roux before, it might take you a couple of tries before it makes sense. But it’s SO worth it – it’s the base of so many great sauces and is really easy once you know how to do it.
- Stir with the whisk for a few minutes still over medium heat. The sauce should thicken within 3-5 minutes.
- Once it’s got a nice thickness, take it off the heat and stir in the cheese until it’s incorporated. This will thicken the sauce a bit more.
- Mix in the salt, pepper and nutmeg.
- Pour onto thick, flat pasta like fettuccini or tagliarini and enjoy!

We had some left over grilled chicken so I chopped that up and added it with 1/2 a bag of frozen peas and it was quite a treat.