peanut butter chips | Just About Baked

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Peanut Butter Intensity Bars

October 29, 2014
Mir
Bars n' Brownies
22 Comments

Hey, it’s been almost a week since I’ve posted a PB and chocolate recipe. In my world, that’s one week too long!

There are times when life gets a little intense, friends. This is one of those times. It’s been a rough month, and reading the newspaper really doesn’t help. I don’t understand how people can watch the news before they go to bed. Do they want to have nightmares? Lie awake in their beds imagining worst-case scenarios?

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Nutty Snickers Fudge

August 13, 2014
Mir
Candyland
22 Comments

Welcome back to Beach Week on Just About Baked! I’m celebrating the best of boardwalk treats with my own twists!

Have I mentioned that I didn’t grow up anywhere near the water? The closest we came was a three-hour drive to Lake Michigan. It was really beautiful, but I’m more of an ocean beach girl. Something about those crashing waves really gets me every time.

Today is fudge day. One of my priority stops in any beach town is the candy shop, which is usually stocked with thick slabs of fudge in different flavors. They usually have great deals, too, because fudge doesn’t last too long and they need to sell it. It’s a win for everybody!

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Boardwalk Bark

August 11, 2014
Mir
Candyland
8 Comments

It’s Beach Week! This week, I’ll be making beach-themed treats in honor of my adopted east coast culture.

You see, out here, people spend weeks or even the entire summer at the beach with family and friends. I first did that ten years ago and it was a banner time. My friend told me to consider dating the man who is now my husband. And the rest is really and truly my history!

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Skinnier PB Oreo Mini-Cheesecakes

August 10, 2014
Mir
Cupcakes and Cheesecakes, Healthier Indulgences
14 Comments

I love riddles. Really, they’re fun!

What do you do with a drunken sailor early in the morning? Um…I’ll get back to you.

Why do men only eat one bite of dessert and leave the rest? Because they’re from another planet. I think there’s a book about that.

Why don’t I sound like Idina Menzel when I sing Let it Go? Because I was never married to Taye Diggs.

What do you do with leftover cheesecake batter? Make these!

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Magic Middle Cookies

When I was in college, this really eccentric husband-wife team oversaw my dining hall. They looked like a sweet older couple, but he always made really dirty jokes and she would shoot you the evil eye forever if you so much as left a scrap of food on your plate. But they fed me, so I was grateful.

Every now and then, they’d serve the best slice and bake cookies in the universe. No, I’m not exaggerating, so leave me alone. They were really the best. And I’ve hunted them down for years without any luck. It’s so sad!

They were rich chocolate cookies, huge ones, with an amazing peanut butter center that reminded me of a Reese’s peanut butter cup. Can you wonder at all why these were my idea of perfection? Years later, I learned that this kind of cookie is called a Magic Middle. And while they are magical, they can take a while to make with both the cookie dough and the peanut butter center dough. So I made up a shortcut, a cheat, a whatever. And they taste even better than the labor-intensive ones!

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Peanut Butter Ganache Cookie Bars

So this week I went back to work for all-day leadership meetings. I’m a teacher, which means I get summers off, but I’m also the elected faculty representative for the other teachers in the building, so I work a bit here and there when my colleagues are off having beach time.

Anyway, I’ve come to a very important conclusion about going back to work.

It makes me more productive! I know, duh. But it makes me work better everywhere. The house is neater. My bills are paid. And I baked three different things today, all of which I’m so excited to share with you! And the first is this evil little puppy right here.

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Monster Cookie Dough Fudge Bars (Gluten-Free!)

My husband is very romantic, but not in the way people might consider stereotypical. He’s never stood outside my window with a giant boom box blasting “In Your Eyes,” nor has he borrowed his friend’s dad’s Ferrari to impress me as we cruise around downtown Chicago on a school day…

Wait. I’m confusing real life with John Hughes movies again.

Yesterday, my husband installed a much better spam filter for my site. You know, so I can stop getting comments like, “There are many women body types and depending on your shape, you will definitely get the best design that fits you perfectly.”

Say what? And that’s one that makes more sense than most. Most are not in English.

So yeah, my husband has filtered my Spam. And in return, I’ve made him another gluten-free treat. A really fun one, if I do say so myself!

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Peanut Butter Oreo Pie

June 20, 2014
Mir
Pie Day
4 Comments

Every now and then, a dessert comes along that is so darn special that you cut all the garbage and get right to the point.

This, my friends, is one of those times.

I was messing around this morning and wound up with this miracle of a pie. This can’t-stop-eating, peanut buttery cookies and cream madness of a pie. And it’s so ridiculously easy to make that I’m smacking myself for all the wasted years!

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Candy Bar Cheesecake

I’m on summer break now. Translation: Camp Mommy has started! We survived day one. My son, forever sick these days, spent the day snoozing at my parents’ house while I had adventures with the girls.

We went to a Mommy and Me at a local outdoor shopping square, and I have to be honest. It was pretty uneventful. There was a stage where a bunch of mothers were singing along to a CD player blaring “If You’re Happy and You Know It.” The rest of the square was littered with local vendors trying to lure us into their stores. That was slightly more appealing, but I couldn’t justify walking into adorable boutiques with breakable items while I was dragging sticky people around.

By the time we got home, I was having a major sugar craving. Luckily, this cheesecake was at the ready in my freezer. I made it a couple of weeks ago, served half of it to guests, ate a couple of slices, and froze the rest. And boy, has it been coming in handy for those hot tired days when you come home ready to collapse!

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Loaded Peanut Butter Banana Bread

June 2, 2014
Mir
Bread Basket, Dessert for Breakfast, Gluten-Free Goodness, Let Them Eat Cake
12 Comments

You know how much I love peanut butter by now, right? Because I really, really, reallyreally need that fix every day. Preferably in some kind of peanut butter cup, but I’ll take the stuff straight up as well. Stirred, not shaken. With a spoon!

Years ago, I was part of a tour group in a foreign country. We stopped in a grocery store, and there on the shelf was a jar of Peter Pan, imported and outrageously marked up in price. I bought it immediately and without any hesitation, despite the fact that everyone in my group was mocking me for spending so much on a jar of peanut butter.

Well, folks, the laugh was on them. I sat on the tour bus, opened the jar, inhaled the sweet aroma and looked up, only to realize that the entire bus was eyeing my Peter Pan with what can only be described as mad lust. And for the rest of the trip, people kept asking if they could have a taste. They missed it so much, you see, and I was the smart one. I was also nice and shared, but not after a whole lotta “I told you so” lectures.