Elvis Phyllo Cups

This recipe is really delicious and SO easy to make.  My brother found it in the newspaper a few Sundays ago and called me up to tell me about it.  He was SUPER excited that I immediately knew where he was going with this:

Me: do you want to make it together?
Josh: yes that would be so awesome!
Me: ok, I'll get the few things that we need, check your work schedule and let me know when you can come over.

You wanna know what I had to purchase?  A banana and some phyllo cups.  Oh, and I bought more peanut butter, mostly because I wasn't sure how much we had left and it was on sale when I was at the store. That's it.

At the store, I couldn't find the pre-made phyllo cups, but I was able to find phyllo dough which ended up being a better deal for me.  For probably the same price as what the cups would have cost, I was able to make them myself and now I have a ton of phyllo dough sheets left over.  I don't know what I'm going to do with them, but that's another story.  Actually, I'd love to try making baklava, but I think I'm the only person I know who eats it, so that's probably out.

I googled the crap out of it, but making the cups was super easy!  You have to work quickly but carefully to make sure the dough doesn't rip or get dried out, but it's pretty much impossible to ruin them.

As for preparing the "Elvis" part of these?  It was easy.  Easier for me, because I had Josh do it while I supervised.  I don't know if I've mentioned it, but we've been giving him cooking lessons so that when he doesn't have to survive on pizza delivery and McDonalds... or that if he does, it's by his own choice, not because he doesn't know what to do in the kitchen.  We've taught him fairly basic things so far: mashed potatoes, chop suey, shepherd's pie, cheeseburgers, pork chops, kielbasa.  He and I haven't gotten to do much baking, so I figured this was the perfect opportunity to help him read a recipe and put it all together.  I did make the cups ahead of time, but that's because I was planning on it being a lot more complicated than it really was.

The banana makes the cups soggy if they hang out for too long, so put them together right before you plan to serve.

For real, though, these little cups have everything you'd want in one little bite-sized dessert: crunchy, salty, sweet.  No wonder Elvis loved this combination!

Elvis Phyllo Cups

15 phyllo cups, pre-baked and cooled*

1/3 c. peanut butter
2 Tbsp. confectioner's sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1 banana, sliced
3 slices of bacon, cooked and cooled

*I was unable to find frozen phyllo cups at the grocery store, but I was able to find sheets of phyllo dough.

To make the cups:
4-5 sheets of phyllo dough
2 Tbsp melted butter
sugar

Lightly grease a muffin tin and set aside.  Preheat oven to 350°F.

Cover your work surface with aluminum foil or parchment paper.  Lay down one sheet of phyllo dough.  Lightly brush the sheet with a little bit of the melted butter.  Dust a little bit of sugar on top of the melted butter.  Top with a second sheet of phyllo dough.

Repeat until you have a stack of 4 or 5 sheets of phyllo dough.  Using a sharp knife (I used a paring knife), cut the sheets into squares that are slightly bigger than the muffin cavities.  Press each little stack of phyllo dough into the muffin tins.

Bake for 5-7 minutes, until lightly browned.  Babysit them, as they will cook quickly.

Remove from oven and let cool.

In a small bowl, stir together the peanut butter, sugar and vanilla.

Place 1 slice of banana into the bottom of each phyllo cup. Top the banana slice with 2 tsp. of the PB mixture and garnish with a chunk of bacon.

Serve immediately.

Peanut Butter Blossoms

You've probably seen these a million times recently, since lots of people make these for Christmas.  Hell, you've probably even made them yourself.  I, on the other hand, have made these exactly twice in my entire life.  The first time I made these, Joe still live in his dingy bachelor pad downtown.  I remember that I had to go out and specially purchase everything I needed - butter, peanut butter, cookie sheets, etc.  The man had the bare essentials and that was it.  He did have one cookie sheet, but it was questionable looking.  He had been talking about these and I remarked "are you kidding, those are so easy to make!" and then he asked me if I could make them for him.  I did, and then never made them again.

What a jerk.

See, it turns out that chocolate + peanut butter is Joe's favorite combination.  It also turns out that Hershey Kisses are my kryptonite.  You'd think that having to unwrap them in order to eat them would slow me down, but I think I see it as more of a challenge than anything else.  The tricky part with these cookies is that you have to unwrap the chocolates first, since you need to be able to press them into the cookies right away.  See the problem?

We were having some friends over and I hadn't made them in awhile (about 8 years, if you were wondering), so I decided it was about time to resurrect these babies.  Also... I really wanted some Hershey Kisses.

My self control paid off, since I had about a dozen chocolates left over that I could eat without feeling guilty (or giving myself a tummy ache) and everybody loved the cookies.  Also, Joe might have made a funny little shriek/squeal noise when he saw them cooling on the counter.

Peanut Butter Blossoms

48 Hershey Kisses, unwrapped
1/2 c. shortening
3/4 c. creamy peanut butter
1/3 c. granulated sugar
1/3 c. packed brown sugar
1 egg
2 Tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 c. flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

1/3 c. granulated sugar, for rolling

Preheat oven to 375°F.  Lightly grease cookie sheets and set aside.  Place the additional sugar on a small plate or in a bowl and set aside.

In a large bowl, beat shortening and peanut butter until well blended.  Add sugars and beat until fluffy.  Add egg, milk and vanilla; stir until incorporated.  Combine baking soda and flour and gradually beat into peanut butter mixture.

Shape dough into 1-inch balls and roll in sugar.  Place on baking sheet.  Bake 8-10 minutes, until lightly browned (I baked mine for 8 minutes).  Remove from oven and immediately press a chocolate into the center of each cookie.  The cookies will crack around the edges.  Let cool for a couple of minutes on the cookie sheet, then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

Peanut Butter Buckeyes

Joe is a big fan of college sports.  Which is to say, college basketball and college football.  His favorite college football team is Ohio State Buckeyes.  What you probably don't know is that in real life, buckeyes are an inedible nut that have light a brown inner circle with a glossy, darker brown outer shell.  These buckeyes look pretty similar, but are made with chocolate and peanut butter.

The best part is that they're easy to make and, like most candy, you spend more time waiting for them to harden than anything else.  And by waiting, I mean saying "oh that one broke, I better try it and make sure they taste okay."  The recipe says to work with only a few peanut butter balls at a time, and that's definitely true.  I ended up having to put mine back in the freezer a few times because they got a little too soft and started to fall apart once I stabbed them with a toothpick. 

I don't want to call these a fail because they definitely weren't, but they were also not as popular as I had hoped.  When I made them, Joe had a toothache that made it hard for him to eat anything, but especially sweets.  My mom and brother both though they were good, but that they were too peanut butter-y/not chocolatey enough - which, in retrospect, are pretty much the same complaint.  Joe's boss, who gave me recipe and requested I make them, also was pretty "meh" about them.

Me? I LOVED these.  The recipe makes about 3 dozen and I might have eaten 2 dozen or so all by myself.  Whatevs.  They were DELICIOUS!  They taste like an overstuffed Reese's peanut butter cup, only about a million times better. 

Peanut Butter Buckeyes
To print this recipe, click here

Ingredients
2 cups confectioners sugar
3/4 cup smooth peanut butter
4 Tbsp butter, melted
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
6 oz. dipping chocolate

Line a large cookie sheet with wax or parchment paper.

Combine sugar, peanut butter, butter and vanilla in a mixing bowl and beat well with a wooden spoon.  The dough will be thick and hard to stir, so you may need to use your hands. Roll the peanut butter mixture into 1" balls and place on the lined cookie sheet in a single layer.  Freeze until firm, about 20 minutes.

Melt chocolate according to package directions.

Working with about 6 peanut butter balls at a time, insert a toothpick into the center and dip about three-quarters of the ball into the chocolate.  You want to leave a circle of peanut butter visible in the middle.  Twirl off the excess chocolate and transfer to another lined cookie sheet, chocolate side down.  Repeat with remaining peanut butter balls, reheating chocolate as necessary. As chocolate starts to harden, smooth out the toothpick holes left in the peanut butter.

Freeze buckeyes until firm, about 1 hour.  Store in an airtight container in the fridge or freezer.

Yields about 36.

These are not edible

But these definitely are!

Peanut Butter Cup Brownies

It's National Peanut Butter day!  OK, so I didn't know that was actually a thing until this morning, but I figured that it was perfect timing for me to post the peanut butter cup brownies I made.

For Christmas, Joe's sister got us a huge thing of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.  I don't even know how to describe this to you, so I'll just show you a picture instead:



Can you see what it says on the package? That package has two HALF POUND peanut butter cups in it.  I bought Joe one of these for Christmas a couple years ago, and one peanut butter cup was still in the fridge.  He said it tasted amazing, but was basically impossible to eat.  ESPECIALLY because he's a genius and put it in the fridge in the first place (sarcasm). 

So, I had three of these things on hand and I wanted to do something with them.  I was originally thinking cookies, but then I decided that I hadn't made brownies in awhile, and there's not too many things that are better than a peanut butter brownie.  So, I chopped up one peanut butter cup and threw it in the brownie batter.  The result was just what I was looking for: a rich, chocolatey and chewy brownie with thick pockets of peanut butter throughout. They're sitting on the counter in the kitchen and I'm sitting here practically drooling as I write about them.

Peanut Butter Cup Brownies
Modified from Hershey's
To print this recipe, click here




3/4 c. Hershey's unsweetened cocoa
1/2 tsp. baking soda
2/3 c. butter, melted and divided
1/2 c. boiling water
2 c. sugar
2 eggs
1 1/3 c. flour
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/2 c. Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, chopped

Preheat oven to 350°F.  Grease a 13" x 9" baking pan.

In a large bowl, combine cocoa, baking soda and 1/3 cup butter.  Add boiling water and stir until mixture thickens.  Mix in sugar, eggs and remaining 1/3 cup butter; stir until smooth.  Add flour and vanilla and stir until thoroughly combined.  Fold in peanut butter cups.  Pour batter into prepared pan.

Bake 30-35 minutes, until top edges of brownies begin to pull away from the pan and a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Cool in pan on wire rack.  Cut into squares.  Yields about 36 brownies (depending on size).