Gluten Free Peanut Butter Chocolate Cookies

1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking powder
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and lightly spray cookie sheet with cooking spray.
2. In an electric mixer, combine sugar, egg, vanilla and baking powder.  Mix 2-3 minutes on medium-high.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl.
3. Add peanut butter and mix until combined.  Again, scrape down the sides of the bowl.
4. Mix in by hand the chocolate chips.
5. Scoop 1 ½ inch balls of dough onto the cookie sheet using an ice cream scooper.
6. Press down on dough a crisscross pattern with a fork.
7. Bake 8-10 minutes.  Do not over bake.
8. Let cool on cookie sheet for 3-4 minutes until transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

These brownies are more like a blondie since they aren’t chocolate all the way through… although they are very chocolaty with the ganache on top.   They are very very very rich so you’ll definitely need a glass of milk for these!!! Below is the recipe from Smitten Kitchen.

Enjoy!

Peanut Butter Brownies
Adapted from Butterwood Desserts, West Falls, New York via Gourmet, October 2007

Makes 32 brownies, more or less, depending on how you cut them

These “brownies” are more blondie than cakey, with an excellent peanut butter-chocolate contrasts and fantastic edges, for those of you into that sort of thing. Have a glass of milk handy.

For brownies
2 sticks (1/2 pound) unsalted butter, softened
1 3/4 cups sugar
1 cup creamy peanut butter
2 large eggs plus 1 large yolk
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips (9 ounces)**
1/2 teaspoon salt, see note**

For ganache
1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips (9 ounces)**
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, softened

Make brownies: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F with rack in middle. Butter a 13- by 9- by 2-inch baking pan, then line bottom of pan with parchment paper and butter parchment.

Beat together butter and sugar with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until mixture is light and fluffy, then add peanut butter and beat until incorporated. Beat in whole eggs, egg yolk, and vanilla. Reduce mixer sped to low, then mix in flour until just combined.

Mix in chocolate chips (1 1/2 cups) then spread batter in baking pan, smoothing top. (It will be thick, almost like cookie batter.)

Bake until brownies are deep golden, puffed on top and a wooden pick inserted in center come out with some crumbs adhering, 40 to 45 minutes.

Cool completely in pan on a rack, about 1 1/2 hours.

Make ganache: Put chocolate chips (1 1/2 cups) in a heatproof bowl.

Bring cream to a boil in a small saucepan, then pour over chocolate chips and let mixture stand for one minute.

Gently whisk in butter until it is incorporated, chocolate is melted, and a smooth mixture forms.

Spread ganache on cooled brownies and let stand until set, about 15 minutes.

Brownies keep in one layer in an airtight container three days, and we hope much longer if hidden waaay in the back of the freezer.

For this Peanut Butter Chocolate Cupcake, I started with my recipe for super moist chocolate cupcakes and tweaked it just a little bit and they came out perfectly.  I have a feeling that this recipe might become a part of whatever my signature cupcake is.  I’ve got it pretty much perfected.

To top the cupcake, I wanted a peanut butter buttercream and this particular recipe came from Mermaid Sweets.  I did my thing, adapted it some and I think it came out pretty good… a bit sweeter than I had wanted, but it’s still pretty damn delicious!

Finally, I quartered mini Reese’s peanut butter cups to garnish the top.  They look like HEAVEN to me! But… seeing that it’s 2:30am, I should probably wait until tomorrow to try one.  Otherwise, I’ll be up ALL NIGHT.  hehe

Click on image for recipe!

Just about 20 minutes from The Strip in Vegas, Retro Bakery is located just off the highway in a quaint little shopping center. I was greeted by a super cute, super friendly bundle of joy named Kari. I had tweeted to her (@RetroBakery) earlier that morning that I was going to be stopping by that day, but I wasn’t sure if she had checked her Twitter or not, so I didn’t mention right away who I was. But… eventually it all came out who I was and how I came to land at the Retro Bakery that day!

Ok… now the cupcakes. I should have taken a picture of the display case. There were so many delicious cupcakes to choose from, it was very hard to pick. My husband and I decided we’d each pick two.

I chose the Peanut Butter Cup (Chocolate cake topped with peanut butter buttercream and dark chocolate shavings) and the Cinnamon Toast (vanilla cake topped with cinnamon buttercream dusted with cinnamon and sugar) cupcakes while my husband chose the Cotton Candy (Vanilla cake topped with pink cotton candy buttercream and blue glitter sugar) and the Creamsicle (Vanilla cake topped with a vanilla/orange swirl buttercream).

The tag line on the bakery’s business card is “It’s All About the Buttercream” and they aren’t kidding!! The buttercream on these cupcakes was TO. DIE. FOR. Creamy, flavorful, smooth… it just rolled across my tongue with each bite. Each buttercream flavor was distinctly the flavor it said it was going to be. So when I bit into the peanut butter… it actually tasted like peanut butter. Most suprpisingly, the cotton candy buttercream tasted exactly like cotton candy!!

As I look back, I wish I would have tired one more cupcake with a different base flavor. We had three with vanilla and one chocolate. The chocolate was so delish… most and chocolatey!! Yummm!! I gotta give it to the vanaill though… because it was by far the BEST vanilla cupcake I have EVER tasted! It was dense, but not mushy, springy and moist, full of flavor and baked PERFECTLY. I could have eaten those vanilla cupcakes alone if the buttercream had not been so heavenly!

So thank you to Kari for being so sweet when we came to visit!! And thank you to Retro Bakery for making such delicious cupcakes!! I can’t wait to get back to Las Vegas to try four more flavors!