Peanut Butter Cheesecake Truffles

There might be better peanut butter truffles out there, I am not sure, but there wont be easier. These come out creamy and packed with peanut butter flavor. This recipe is just a modification of the Oreo Cheesecake Truffle recipe.

Ingredients:
1/2 package Nutterbutter Cookies
1 (8 ounce) package Cream Cheese, softened
2 (8 ounce) packages BAKER'S Semi-Sweet Baking Chocolate or Chocolate Almond bark (what ever chocolate you want to use really)

Servings: ~30-40 truffles

Instructions:
Crush the heck out of ~36 cookies or so, your looking for about 3 cups of crushed nutterbutters. I did this with my little mini chopper, but you could easily do this with determination, a rolling pin and a bag. While the recipe is forgiving a few chunks are not so bad, you want the bulk of the cookies to be down to coarse sand size. Feel free to blitz a few extra cookies and set aside if you want to sprinkle the cookie bits on top.

With the ~3 cups of cookie sand, add in the 8 oz package of cream cheese and blend until smooth. I did this in my kitchen aid as blending it smooth with a spoon was proving unwieldy. You want this to be smooth, really smooth and well mixed. Don't worry about crushing the cookies more, get out the hand mixer or use the stand mixer and mix well but don't whip, no need to get air in there.

You should end up with something the consistency of play dough or a little thinner, this stuff should be thick (hence the difficult to mix). If it seems too thin to work with or your house is too hot, put it all in the fridge, covered and let it chill for a bit. Then take it out and roll it into balls. I used my 2 tsp cookie scoop* leveled (found this to be a good 2 bite truffle size) to measure out the "dough" and then rolled it into balls using my hands.

Once these are in ball form, chill them! Heck if you want freeze them. Your about to dunk them into melted chocolate and the colder they are the "cleaner" your chocolate will stay. So if you don't want crumbs in your chocolate, chilling is crucial and if you don't want a mess, it is still important.

Pop these in the fridge or freezer for an hour or two or over night. When your ready, bring the ~16 oz of your preferred chocolate up to temp in a double boiler**. Don't cheat and use the microwave your going to end up going back and forth warming and stirring and wasting a lot of time. Once the chocolate is melted, take some of the truffles out (do this in batches and keep the rest in the fridge or freezer).

Drop one truffle at a time into the melted chocolate, turn over gently to coat and then remove with a fork, tap the ball on the edge of the boiler to remove excess chocolate. Carefully use the edge of a knife (I used a fondue fork) to slide the ball onto waxed paper or a silicone sheet. If your going to sprinkle cookie bits on top, do it now before the chocolate cools. Repeat, for what seems like ever, with all of the cookie balls.

Refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour. Store leftover truffles, covered, in refrigerator.

Recipe From: I made it up, tried it out and found it to be satisfactory. Try it with any cream filled cookie and it should work out well.

Some notes
*I used to think people who used cookie scoops were Nancy pants who didn't like to get their hands dirty. I bought the set of 3 after seeing so many sites using them, and now feel I should kick myself for waiting so long. Well worth it, use them all the time now.

**I cannot stress enough the importance of the double boiler on a project like this. The microwave method is going to be a huge pain, don't skip this part. You have 30-40 of these to do. Just get a a medium sized pot and a glass bowl. Fill the put 1/4-1/3 full of water and place the bowl on top. The water should not touch the bowl. Turn the heat onto medium, you want the water to simmer. Toss all the chocolate on top and stir as it melts. This will keep your chocolate the perfect temperature. And don't spend money to buy one, glass bowl and pot work great and you already have them.

I thought these were easy and the best part, oven free. I wont say super quick, dipping all these guys took a bit of time though you get faster after your first few. Using a silpat was perfect and any extra chocolate around the base could easily be broken off after so don't worry about a little waste on the silicone.

Easy, almost no bake (only melted chocolate) and they had a strong peanut butter flavor while still being creamy and smooth.

Peanut Butter Banana Muffins

A quick tasty peanut butter banana muffin, with an option of adding a bit of nutella if your looking for an extra treat. Filling and not too sweet.

Ingredients:
3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup Whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup granulated sugar**
1/4 cup unsalted butter, soften
1/4 cup peanut butter
2 eggs
3 large bananas, mashed (1 cup mashed banana)
1 banana, sliced for garnish

**Replace with 1/4 cup and 2 tbsp Splenda 1/2 and 1/2

Servings: 12 Muffins

Instructions:
Preheat over to 350F. Grease muffin tin or line with muffin liners.
In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

In another bowl, cream together sugar and butter until fluffy, about 5 minutes. Beat in peanut butter. Add in the eggs, one at a time. Then mix in mashed banana.

With the mixer on low speed, beat in the flour mixture until just combined.

Evenly distribute batter into the muffin cups. Top with sliced banana. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until a tester comes out clean.

Nutritional Information: Peanut Butter Banana Muffins

Recipe From: LululuAtHome.com

I tried to make these muffins a bit healthier, but only shaved off a few calories in the end. But you wont notice the loss of those calories at all. Using a better peanut butter might also help shave off some calories and fat. I used Skippy Supper Chunky because that is what I had on hand (left over from making some cookies).

Now if you want to go indulgent I added about 1 tsp of nutella in the middle of half of them for Jason. However, he said it would have been just as good "frosted" on top instead of baked inside. When baked inside it came out like when you put a Hersey kiss inside a muffin, so nothing too special. I was hoping it would keep its creaminess inside, no joy.

Salted Peanut Chews

Fluff-a-nutter sandwiches in much improved dessert bar form! Salty and sweet, chewy but not too gooey, it will satisfy all of your cravings in one little square.

Ingredients:
For the Base:
1½ cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup light brown sugar
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon baking soda
½ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 egg yolks
3 cups miniature marshmallows

For the Topping:
2/3 cup light corn syrup
¼ cup unsalted butter
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 bag (10 ounces) peanut butter chips (1-2/3 cups)
2 cups crisp rice cereal
2 cups salted peanuts

Servings: 1 13x9 Pan (or in my case 2 8x8 Pans)

Instructions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. In a large bowl, beat all the base ingredients except the marshmallows with an electric mixer on low speed until crumbly. Press the mixture firmly in the bottom of an ungreased 9×13-inch pan.

2. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes or until light golden brown. Immediately sprinkle marshmallows over the base. Base 1 to 2 minutes longer or until marshmallows just begin to puff. Cool while preparing topping.

3. In a 3-quart saucepan, mix all topping ingredients except cereal and peanuts. Heat over low heat, stirring constantly, just until the chips are melted and mixture is smooth. Remove from heat. Stir in the cereal and peanuts. Immediately spoon the warm topping over marshmallows; spread to cover. Refrigerate until firm, about 45 minutes. Cut into 36 bars. Store in an airtight container at room temperature.

Nutritional Information:

Recipe From: http://www.browneyedbaker.com/2011/03/24/salted-peanut-chews/

I saw these and thought they would go great in a care package! When I whipped them up and tested one out I found that they tasted exactly like an improved fluff and peanut butter sandwich, or Fluff-a-nutter as I used to call it as a kid. These are a great little treat, both salty and sweet at the same time.

Nutterbutter Peanut Butter Cookies

Photo from Crepes of Wrath (I forgot to take a picture!)
Soft chewy peanut buttery goodness with bits of satisfying crunch from the Nutterbutters and peanut butter chips.

Ingredients:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup shortening
1 cup peanut butter (I like crunchy, but creamy works, too)
1 cup honey
2 eggs, room temperature
1 12 oz. bag peanut butter chips
15-20 crushed Nutterbutter cookies (not too crushed – it’s fun to have some big chunks of Nutterbutter in there)

Servings: 25-30 cookies

Instructions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. In a bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt, and set aside. Beat the shortening, peanut butter and honey together for 3-5 minutes, until smooth. Add in the eggs one at a time and mix well. Gradually add in the flour mixture, mixing until just moistened. You will be folding in your Nutterbutters and peanut butter chips later, so you can finish up any mixing at that point.

2. Fold in the Nutterbutter cookies and peanut butter chips. Roll the dough into balls and then pat down into disks and place on greased and/or lined baking sheet and bake for 9-11 minutes, until just barely golden (I like very soft, chewy peanut butter cookies). Remove from oven and let cool for a bit on your cookie sheets before removing and placing on another surface to finish cooling.

Nutritional Information:

Recipe From: http://crepesofwrath.net/2010/12/31/nutterbutter-peanut-butter-cookies/

If you want these cookies to be nice and soft, then really, remove them when they are just barely golden brown. They will seem soft, too soft. But let them cool for a bit on the cookie sheet, then carefully remove them and place them on a cooling rack. Once they are fully cooled, they will be just fine. If you prefer a harder cookie you can cook these guys a little more, but after having tried it both ways, the soft cookie is much better.

Also make sure you pat the cookies down a little bit, the original instructions left this out. I had rolled the cookies into a ball and tried to cook them that way, they will not flatten out and don't cook properly. Shape them close to what you want them, I went with big thick soft cookies!