Peanut Butter Tandy Cakes

Do you have Tastykake near you? If you don't, you're missing out. They're a bakery business based out of Philadelphia. I think they pretty much only distribute to the Tri-State area. One of my favorite Tastykake treats are the Peanut Butter Tandy Cakes. A couple of years ago I was introduced to the homemade variety. HOLY COW were these things good. I was addicted. They're so FRESH. Way better than the mass produced variety. But I think that's true with almost anything homemade.



I made my best friend get the recipe from her mom's best friend. I went and bought a jelly roll pan because I have to follow the rules. And I've made more than a dozen batches of these things for various occassions over the last year. This Christmas was the first time I brought them to my family's annual Christmas Eve party. And people were basically fighting over who was taking how many home (admittedly, I was one of those people).



So if you ever need a cake fix, chocolate fix, peanut butter fix, or all 3, then you need to try this recipe! You can find varying recipes on the internet with basically the same ingredients. I've had success with these ingredients and steps:



4 large eggs
2 cups sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 Tbsp oil (canola or vegetable)
1 cup milk
2 cups flour
scant 1 tsp baking powder
1 to 1- 1/2 cups creamy peanut butter
1 bag milk chocolate chips



1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour and baking powder. Set aside.
3. In a large bowl, beat together the eggs, sugar, vanilla and oil. Stir in the milk until incorporated.
4. Stir the flour mixture into the batter until blended in.
5. Grease and flour a 10 x 15 jelly roll pan. Pour batter into pan and transfer to preheated oven.
6. Bake for 20-30 minutes, depending on your oven (Mine have taken 23 minutes, other times 28 minutes), until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
7. While the cake is hot, plop on spoonfuls of the peanut butter and spread gently. This can be assisted by placing the cake with peanut butter on it into the turned off oven for a short minute. Spread the peanut butter all the way to the edges. Transfer to fridge to set.
8. When the peanut butter is set, melt your chocolate chips on the microwave for 2 minutes at high power, stirring at 30 second intervals. Pour melted chocolate over the cake and spread to the edges. Transfer to fridge to set.
TIP: When the chocolate has set up some, it is a good idea to score the chocolate where you will be making the slices so that the chocolate doesn't crack.

Just be sure that when you cut these up to serve that you set some aside for yourself to enjoy later!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip Cookies

One of my husband's favorite cookies to eat at Christmastime is chocolate peanut butter chip cookies. I had a problem with recipes I've tried in the past - they just weren't what I like in a cookie. I really only enjoy chewy cookies. So I went on the hunt for a recipe to try and came across this one on allrecipes.com. When I search for recipes there, I always look for recipes with 4-5 stars and a lot of reviews. So far, this method hasn't done me wrong.

I read the reviews for this 5 star cookie and adapted it based on what I read. Basically my only adaptions were using half white and half light brown sugar. I've learned that the brown sugar imparts a certain chewiness to a cookie. I also didn't add the called-for amount of chips, just because I dont love a lot of chips in them, but for appearances sake, after I dropped each ball of dough on the cookie sheet, I pressed in a few peanut butter chips just to make them look prettier. Also, I added a few regular chocolate chips in.

The hubs ended up loving this recipe, and I did, too - crispy on the outside, chewy on the inside. It's definitely going to be added to the yearly Christmas cookie list :)

CHOCOLATE PEANUT BUTTER CHIP COOKIES

Source: adapted from allrecipes.com

1 cup salted butter

3/4 cup granulated sugar

3/4 cup packed light brown sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 cups all-purpose flour

2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (I used dutch-processed)

3/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup peanut butter chips

1/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. In a medium bowl, add dry ingredients and whisk together.

3. In stand mixer, cream the butter and sugars.

4. Beat in the eggs and vanilla.

5. Add the dry ingredients to the creamed sugar mixture in 3 increments and stir until blended in.

6. Stir in peanut butter and chocolate chips.

7. Drop heaping teaspoons onto parchment lined baking sheet.

8. Bake 9-11 minutes or until set.

9. Remove from oven, let sit 1-2 minutes and remove to wire rack to cool completely.

Notes: I found that this recipe baked up nicely right after mixed, and right out of the fridge.

Hope you love it!

Peanut Butter Cookies

My husband loves all things peanut butter. So I decided to make a treat for him. But since we're trying to eat healthier, I decided to halve the recipe and make a small batch. But here's the recipe for the full batch.

1 cup sugar

1 stick butter, at room temperature

1 egg

1 cup smooth peanut butter

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 cups flour

1. Preheat oven to 375.

2. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.

3. Cream together the sugar and the butter.

4. Beat in egg.

5. Mix in peanut butter and vanilla until smooth and creamy.

6. Stir in dry ingredients until well combined.

7. Drop balls onto cookie sheet and flatten with fork (I dipped the fork in flour before each press).

8. Bake 12-15 minutes.