fudge-a-licious

Love and leftovers can make you do the darndest things. Cornelius loves ice cream. So much so that he once was tempted to officially change his middle name after his most favorite dessert. I'm so glad he didn't. I think we both would have died of embarassment at our wedding ceremony if the officiant had said, "Do you, Cornelius Ice Cream Bergen, take this woman to be your wife..." Indeed!

When it comes to ice cream, I'm more of a purist. I like my ice cream hard and icy without much fuss or muss. And while I appreciate the asthetic retro charm of a nicely composed sundae, I can do without the overly sweet sauce and day-glo cherry. Cornelius, on the other hand, keeps his sweet tooth at the ready all the time. So when I had a small amount of leftover whipping cream in the fridge, I figured I would do my best to meet his sweet tooth half way. Spying a recipe from Entertaining for a Veggie Planet, I figured I would do my best to make an ice cream topping worthy of the prettiest ice cream sundae. Although, I made a few changes to the recipe to cut down some of the fat and sugar, the recipe didn't suffer from the changes. Cornelius downed his first bowl in record time and while eating his second bowl of hot fudge topped ice cream, demanded that we buy larger bowls! Rich, sweet and guaranteed to satisfy any sweet tooth.

world's best peanut butter - hot fudge sauce
Recipe adapted from Didi Emmons' Entertaining for a Veggie Planet

1/4 c heavy cream
1/4 c milk
2 T unsalted butter, cut into small peices
1/4 c sugar
1/4 c brown sugar
1/2 c good quality cocoa powder
1/4 c natural crunchy peanut butter
pinch of salt

1. In a heavy saucepan, heat the cream and butter over medium heat. When the mixture simmers, add the sugars and stir until dissolved.

2. Reduce heat to low and add the cocoa powder, peanut butter and salt. Whisk until smooth. If you find it too thick, add some more milk and combine until smooth. Remove from heat. Serve immediately or keep warm.

This sauce can be kept for up to 3 weeks in the fridge. Reheat in microwave or in a heavy saucepan over low heat, adding water if too thick.

easy bake oven

Well, I've returned from our trip a little bumped and bruised and with a nasty case of road rash, but it was amazing and I'd do it again in a heartbeat. I had a bad spill down a 13% grade hill on Denman Island as I was going a bit too fast and lost control of my bike on a patch of gravel. I ended up skidding for 3 or 4 feet on the gravel and landing head-first into a concrete embankment. Lucky for me, I wore my helmet! An ambulance ride and a trip to the hospital later, I was as good as new (almost). The next morning we continued on with our trip without losing anytime with our original plans. Vancouver Island was beautiful, as were Denman and Hornby Islands. I have to admit I wasn't that keen on the Sunshine Coast but I'm sure that is because it was raining constantly (gah, Sunshine Coast, my ass!) and the roads had little to no shoulders and very poor visibility due to all the mountainous twists and turns along the highway. Touring by bike? I'm definitely doing it again.

When we arrived back to Vancouver, we revelled in all the comforts of home and watched movies and baked cookies. I had just received the Gourmet Cookbook before I left for my trip, so I was anxious to try out a recipe and the simplicity (just 4 ingredients!) of these flourless peanut butter cookies just seemed too good to resist. I'm glad I didn't resist. Light and delicious. Just make sure that you allow them to cool in the pan for a few minutes so that they don't crumble when you remove them to wire racks. Also, for this recipe, I used half processed (Kraft) peanut butter and half of the natural kind. If you go with all natural, the cookie won't be as lightly textured.

flourless peanut butter cookies
(adapted from the Gourmet Cookbook)

1 c peanut butter
1 c white sugar
1 t baking soda
1 egg, lightly beaten

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Combine peanut butter and sugar with an electric mixer for 2 minutes. Add the baking soda and egg and mix until well combined.

3. Drop by teaspoonfuls on cookie sheet. Use a fork to create a cross-hatch pattern on each cookie, pressing lightly. Bake for 8 - 12 minutes. Let cool on cookie sheet for 2 minutes before transferring to wire rack.

cookies au naturale

For quite a while now, I've been jonesing for some peanut butter cookies. It all started a couple of weeks ago when I had a fantastic peanut butter and chocolate cookie at the "Our Town Cafe" on E. Broadway. For the past week, I started looking for recipes but seeing that we only use natural peanut butter in this household, finding an exact recipe where I wouldn't have to make modifications became quite the chore. Tonight I settled on one that specifically called for natural peanut butter (a real rarity in peanut butter cookie land).

The cookies are in the oven as I type and they smell pretty damn delicious! The batter is pretty stiff and greasy. Depending on how these come out, I may half the amount of butter if I decided to make these again.

Natural Peanut Butter & Chocolate Chip Cookies

1/2 c butter
6 T brown sugar
6 T white sugar
1 egg
1 t vanilla extract
1 c natural peanut butter
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
3/4 c all-purpose flour
3/4 c semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Cream butter with brown and white sugars. Add egg and vanilla. Mix well. Stir in peanut butter, baking soda, and salt. Make sure it is well blended. Add flour and chocolate chips and mix to combine. Drop teaspoons of cookie dough then flatten with fork. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until it looks done. Don't overcook. Let cool on cookie sheet for 5 -10 minutes then transfer to cooling rack.

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Update: Well, the cookies turned out pretty good. They're quite filling and heavy but they are tasty. I'm interested to know of any great tried, tested and true natural peanut butter cookie recipes (or any other natural peanut butter baking recipes), so if you've got a favorite, please let me know!