Peanut Butter Caramel Cookies

These cookies are awesome. I stole the recipe from my mom's recipe book, I think she got the recipe from someone from church a long time ago. We only made them a couple of times, and they were unbelievably delicious every time. They look like boring drop cookies on the outside, but when you open them up, there is a delicious ooey-gooey treat in the middle.

Here is the original recipe as written by someone named Marlo Carter:
Peanut Butter Caramel Cookies
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/4 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
24 Rolo candies

Cream together butter, peanut butter, white and brown sugars, add egg and vanilla, beat until smooth. Mix in remaining ingredients. Chill dough at least 15-20 minutes before forming. This will give you time to unwrap the rolos and preheat the oven to 375.
Roll a tablespoon of dough around one Rolo, shape into a ball completely enclosing the candy, roll in white sugar if desired. Bake at 375 for 7-10 minutes. Makes 24 cookies.

Here's the amounts I used today to make a double batch:
1/2 cup butter
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
approx 1/8 cup milk
approx 50 Rolo candies
And I baked them for 11 minutes.

As you can see, I did not double the amount of butter, which is why I use a little milk - a trick I also borrowed from my mom. Add just barely enough milk to make it the correct consistency. The smidge less butter as well as the wheat flour are there to make you feel a smidge better about eating them, because you will eat a lot of these right out of the oven.
As I was forming the cookies, I was wondering if there is another way to form these, instead of wrapping it up entirely with dough, but then one of the cookies leaked while it was baking and I was glad that I did not experiment with different styles of cookie formation with a whole pan full.

Here's some more pictures to make you want to get door-bell ditched by me this Halloween.

Crepe Party

I made some crepes the other night, my crepe pan is well seasoned now and I have the technique down, so it was kind of a party. The savory crepes for dinner were delightful and surprisingly filling. I used the recipe for blintzes from Mark Bittman's "How to Cook Everything Vegetarian" and they were very sturdy and hefty, as you can see in this picture. You can use any tried and true crepe or blintz recipe.

Savory Crepes For Dinner

1 onion, finely chopped

about 10 mushrooms, finely chopped

1 clove garlic, finely chopped

1 10 oz. package frozen spinach, thawed and drained

3-4 oz. mozzerella cheese, shredded or diced

2.5 oz. parmesan cheese

salt and pepper to taste

10-12 crepes or blintzes, already cooked

Saute onion, mushrooms and garlic till soft, let cool somewhat. Mix with well drained spinach, cheese and spices. Place about 1/4 cup of filling on the crepe and roll it up burrito style. Place all of the rolled crepes in a casserole pan in a 350 F oven for 10-15 minutes, until the cheese is melty, then serve. Or you can just keep the filling very hot when you prepare it and everyone can roll up their own.

And I made sweet crepes for dessert/breakfast the next day with cottage cheese and berries and a dash of sugar. You don't really need a recipe for this one.

Pumpkin Bread

I made this pumpkin bread from Nancy Silverton's book "Bread from the La Brea Bakery." The book is very cool because all of the recipes use a sourdough starter, and that is just what I need. I will probably be purchasing this book, so I have more resources for keeping my starter, Harriet, occupied. Anyway, I thought I would share the pictures because it turned out so great. I don't think I can share the recipe, because that might be a copyright issue because I did not alter it at all, I'm not sure what the rules are. You can see the pumpkin seeds in it, and the lovely orange color of the mashed yams, and the way I even managed to score the top of the loaf in the manner indicated in the recipe. I don't usually follow the recipe this closely, so I'm quite pleased with myself.