stuffed

Peanut Butter Chocolate Pillows

By Love & Flour in Cookies 1 Comment Tags: , , ,

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All I could think about when I walked through the door this afternoon was my head hitting the pillow. I really wanted to take a nap, but instead I baked peanut butter chocolate pillows. Fair trade, I suppose.

When I think of peanut butter and chocolate, buckeyes naturally come to mind. However, unless it is a Saturday in November or the week before Christmas, I will never be found making buckeyes to satisfy a peanut butter and chocolate craving.

I would like to claim I simply eat a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup when the mood strikes. Instead, I stick a few chocolate chips on top of a spoonful of peanut butter. Never a proud moment.

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Fortunately, for the sake of my pride, I discovered this recipe over the weekend. At first glance, these cookies may sound complicated. They involve mixing dough and beating filling and wrapping them both together into a cookie.

In reality, the cookies really take very little time to prepare. I made these cookies, snapped their photos and washed the dishes in just one hour’s time. Which left plenty of time for a nap.

Chocolate and peanut butter not your favorite? Try stuffing chocolate cherry cookies with sweet cream cheese or snickerdoodles with dulce de coco instead. Enjoy!

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Peanut Butter Chocolate Pillows
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Ingredients
  • For the Dough
  • ½ cup canola oil
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • ¼ cup agave nectar (or maple syrup)
  • 3 tablespoons milk
  • ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • 1½ cups all purpose flour
  • ⅓ cup plus 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
  • ½ teaspoon baking soda
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • For the Filling
  • ¾ cup peanut butter
  • ⅔ cup powdered sugar
  • 2-3 tablespoons milk
  • ¼ teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Instructions
  1. Mix the canola oil, sugar, agave nectar (or maple syrup), milk and vanilla extract together in a large bowl until well combined.
  2. Sift in the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt and stir again until combined to form a moist dough.
  3. Pop the dough into the refrigerator to chill while you prepare the peanut butter filling.
  4. Prepare the filling by beating the peanut butter, powdered sugar, two tablespoons of the milk and the vanilla extract together until smooth. If the filling remains crumbly and will not come together, add the additional tablespoon of milk one teaspoon at a time until it holds its shape. Likewise, if the filling gets too runny, bring it back together with additional powdered sugar. The filling should be soft and moist but firm enough to hold together.
  5. Roll the filling into 24 small balls. Divide the dough in half, then divide those halves in half so you have four pieces of filling. Roll six balls from each filling quarter. I found this amounted to a heaping two tablespoons of filling per ball.
  6. Assemble to cookies by flattening about a tablespoon (maybe a little more) of chilled dough into the palm of your hand.
  7. Place a peanut butter ball on top of that disc of dough and wrap the dough up around it.
  8. Make sure the chocolate dough ball is well sealed around the peanut butter ball, then place on a parchment-lined baking sheet.
  9. Repeat until all of the dough and balls of filling are formed into cookies. I suggest working in batches and refrigerating both the chocolate cookie dough and the peanut butter balls during any down time (see note).
  10. Bake the cookies in a 350 degree F oven for 10 minutes.
  11. Enjoy fresh out of the oven or warm cooled cookies in a microwave for 10-12 seconds for a warm treat.

Notes
The original recipe did not call for chilling the dough or the filling, but I find this helps stuffed cookies hold their shape much better than baking room temperature dough and filling. The original recipe also called for maple syrup, but I used agave nectar instead.

 

Stuffed! Sweet Spiced Apples

By Love & Flour in Sides 4 Comments Tags: , ,

Stuffed Apples 021 Edited Stuffed! Sweet Spiced Apples

Though it is now well past Thanksgiving, I can’t help but leave November with one final Stuffed! recipe. It seems appropriate considering stuffed is how I, and I suspect many of you, felt about a week ago.

These stuffed apples are good for ridding the kitchen of a few lingering cranberries. They also make for a sweet and filling dessert that, aside from the brown sugar, is not all that unhealthy.

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The cranberries themselves add a nice tart pop to the sweet baked apple and spiced brown sugar. Though I did not garnish my stuffed apples, allowing a dollop of ice cream or cool whip to melt over their tops seems like a great idea. With just a few simple steps and a little bit of time, you too can enjoy sweet stuffed apples.

Another way to use up fresh cranberries is to sugar them. This creates a fun snack as well as a simple syrup good for flavoring sparkling water. Click here to view the recipe.  If cranberry sauce remains in your kitchen, a recipe for warm cranberry dip can solve your problems.

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So long, November. Hello, holiday baking…

5.0 from 1 reviews

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Sweet Spiced Apples
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Serves: 5
 

Ingredients
  • 5 medium apples
  • ⅓ cup fresh or frozen cranberries
  • ¼ cup packed brown sugar
  • 2 tablespoons chopped walnuts
  • ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • ⅛ teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • Whipped cream or vanilla ice cream, optional

Instructions
  1. Core or hollow out the centers of apples. Be sure to leave the bottoms fully intact.
  2. If desired, peel the top third of each apple.
  3. Combine the cranberries, brown sugar, walnuts, cinnamon and nutmeg.
  4. Spoon the mixture into the apples.
  5. Place in a slow cooker and cook on low for 4-5 hours or until tender.
  6. Garnish with whipped cream or ice cream if desired.

 

Stuffed! Artichokes

By Love & Flour in Sides 2 Comments Tags: ,

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Yesterday I tried something new. I prepared and served stuffed artichokes. Up until that point, my experience with eating artichokes extended to smothering their hearts with cheese and spinach in dip form. I can not say that these stuffed artichokes were better, but they certainly were different.

A stuffed artichokes recipe first caught my eye when I was researching Oktoberfest recipes on The Beeroness earlier this fall. When Daily Candy posted a video on just how to stuff an artichoke earlier this week, I knew I had my next “Stuffed!” recipe. If you are a first-time artichoke stuffer like me, checking out both links is definitely worth your while. The Beeroness provides great pictures, and the Daily Candy video brings those pictures to life.

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They may look odd, but stuffed artichokes are not at all difficult to prepare. To get the filling in between the petals, I found it easiest to place my artichoke right down into the bowl of stuffing mixture. I then spooned the stuffing mixture right over the artichoke itself, filling its petals almost like water running down a fountain.

Though they are easy to prepare, they are a mess to eat. I did not tear out the heart of my artichoke (sounds so cruel!) as seen on The Beeroness, and I am glad I did not. Taking a bite from the center felt like a reward after nibbling through all of the outer petals! Like the norm when eating shellfish at a beach restaurant, I wished I would have worn a plastic bib and placed a metal bucket nearby to discard the leaves. The point I am trying to make here is if you are considering making this recipe to impress a new date, I’d hold off a bit.

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After all of this talk of artichokes, is anyone wondering, just what is this plant? The spikes on the leaves were so sharp that I wondered if they were type of cactus. Since I am not a horticulturist, the best I can determine from the “highly accurate” internet is artichokes are a type of thistle that may or may not be in the same family as the daisy and sunflower. The heart that we most often eat will actually bloom over time. Lovely and delicious. Enjoy!

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Stuffed Artichokes
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Serves: 4
 

Ingredients
  • 4 artichokes
  • 1 cup Italian bread crumbs
  • ¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese
  • ¼ cup cooked and crumbled bacon
  • Olive oil for drizzling
  • 1 cup beer for steaming

Instructions
  1. Trim the artichokes by cutting one inch off the top removing the stem so the artichoke can sit upright.
  2. Use kitchen scissors to trim the pointy tips off each petal.
  3. Combine bread crumbs, Parmesan cheese, and bacon bits in a bowl.
  4. Loosen the petals of a choke from the center (so that it looks like a flower in bloom). Fill in each petal with a little of the bread crumb mixture.
  5. Drizzle lightly with olive oil.
  6. Place the artichokes (stems down) in a pot so that they fit snugly and remain upright.
  7. Fill the pot with an inch or two beer (or water) and place a lid over the top.
  8. Steam over medium heat for 40-60 minutes or until the petals can be pulled from the center of the vegetable without too much tugging.

 

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