Giant Peanut Butter Cup

So you may have noticed that I'm playing a little catch up.   I tried to post during the holidays and it was just a little busy.  I didn't post while we were gone on our trip, then we hit the ground running when we got back.  Big meeting coming up, which means I've been working, working, working.  I didn't take the little man to daycare since he's been busying himself pretty well, but I ended up working a good part of the evenings when Eli got home, over the weekend, and will have just a little more work to do Monday to finish preparing for Tuesday.
The biggest slow down has been the cold and the wind.  Upstairs is cozy and even a little warm, but down stairs is freezing!  It is too cold for me to work down there, which means trying to work down there with Isaac is a big no.  Having to work at the kitchen table isn't ideal and makes Isaac want to help me.  I also need to do some spray painting but it has been too windy to do that.  I did the small pieces the other day and it wasn't bad but ended up having to put the paint on too heavy in order to avoid having to go out and do another coat.  Hopefully it will stop tomorrow or I'll just have to hope I don't get myself too bad with the spray paint.
Anyways...on to the giant pb cup.  I got inspired for Eli's stocking stuffer and set my sights high.  He loves Reese's Peanut Butter Cups so I wanted to make him a giant one.  I began looking for recipes for pb cups and happened upon one for a giant one! What luck!...or so I thought.  The recipe left some to be desired.  It listed ingredients, then used different amounts in the recipe.  It came from a blog (not a bad thing) but the author incorporated her thoughts into the recipe too much, making it hard to follow.  I'm all for hearing the thoughts but don't like it when they get too jumbled in the recipe.  

This is the inspiration picture. I knew mine wouldn't look like that since I wanted to make it in a dish to be kept in the freezer while we were gone.

Here is the link to the orginal recipe: http://www.cutoutandkeep.net/projects/giant_reeses_peanut_butter_cup

 

Now she says she used Reese's Peanut Butter.  I couldn't find it anywhere...or at least not at the 2 places in town that I had to look. Not sure if they still make it or not.  I'm not going to post the recipe here because there are some changes I would make but haven't been able to test them.  She also says in the ingredients to get an 18 oz container of pb but in the recipe uses 4 tablespoons!! I was so mad when I saw that but then...I used 18+ ounces and I don't think it was enough (I used all the creamy we had and it wouldn't be right with crunchy)!  I ended up making way too much peanut butter filling because I used about 3 1/2 cups of powdered sugar like it called for.  I thought it was too much powdered sugar.  Use less and maybe you won't need the 18+ ounces of peanut butter I needed.  I also made my bottom chocolate too thick.  I used two 11 oz bags of milk chocolate chips, I thought "oh, one on bottom and one on top!"  No. Next time I'd used 1/2-3/4 of the bag on the bottom and the rest on the top.  I think my pan was also smaller than one that she used.  I found a quiche dish so the edges would be more like a Reese's but I wanted to be able to leave it in the pan and in the freezer while were were gone.  I thought about lining the dish but ended up not doing it.  It has worked great and didn't stick like I was worried about.

So you can see I had too much peanut butter filling.  I just used a butter knife to cut and remove some.

I cut some out around the edges and off the top.  I then put it aside, back in the bowl.

You can tell I didn't have quite enough chocolate to make the top smooth, but it covered so success! 



 

I put it in the freezer to speed up the setting up process so that I could then hide it until Christmas.  There are a few air bubbles, but I just tapped the dish on the counter and they came out.  Now, with the excess peanut butter mixture I made mini ones.  I didn't have anymore milk chocolate so I used semi-sweet chips.  In her recipe she warns against using these and adding milk because it turned out runny and not set-up.  Well, I didn't have much of a choice.  I tried to melt some chips and shortening but they didn't melt down smooth enough so I added some milk chocolate.  I balled the peanut butter up and (because I didn't have the time) I didn't do a bottom layer of chocolate.

 

I used a muffin tin and some left over cupcake liners.  I made them a little big because I didn't want to make very many, so I filled just the one tin.



 

I poured the chocolate over the top so they were something between a peanut butter cup and a bon-bon.

 

These didn't set-up well.  I put them in the freezer to speed the process.  They were okay to sit out a little bit but after a few hours, they would get too warm and were a mess to eat.  They weren't too hard straight out of the freezer so that is how I  served them.  Too much powdered sugar, but next time I'll try less and the same amount of peanut butter to see what I get.

 

Well, now I hope we're caught up a bit cause I'll be busy busy during my normal posting time this next week.  But stay tuned, I have a new Pinterst fail coming up!



Busy Christmas Season

So this post is coming to you via my iPhone. We've been busy at the Yost house and now that I have a few minutes to post, Isaac is cuddly and wanting to be put down for a nap. We've made Christmas cookies, decorated the house, put up a tree and decorated it, went to a Christmas party, had a weekend visitor, and we've all been sick. In the midst of all that, Isaac started climbing the stairs and I was hired to design decorations for a ball.

Let's start with Christmas cookies! We made lots...classic cutouts, candy cane blossoms, peanut butter kisses, orange meringue, spritz, and snicker doodle. I also made pretzel bites. Everyone has their favorite so we made our favorites and traditional cookies that we have every year.
We thought we'd have way too many and we did but we don't have as many left to take with us on our after Christmas trip as I thought we would.

Pretzel bites.  Delicious blend of crunchy and smooth, chocolate and salt.  We used our left over kisses...note: the candy cane kisses melt a lot faster!! I think it is due to the white chocolate....next time we'll have to separate them.

Once my phone finishes uploading and Isaac goes down for his nap, I'll have pictures and some recipes available. So stay tuned!

Classic cut-outs complete with Steelers, Yost Family, and of course...the Christmas Ogre.

Finally, I'm going to add those pictures and recipes.  I didn't monitor my phone so of course it didn't really upload all my photos...

Snickerdoodles.  These were pretty good but they hardened faster than the other cookies.  Not sure if I can get away with less time or if I need a better recipe.

I also, of course, forgot to take pictures of some of the cookies. Oh well I guess. I won't give all the recipes, but I will give a few...and my thoughts. The two recipes that I am going to share are the peanut butter kisses and candy cane blossoms. A few of the others are family recipes that I'm just not quite ready to hand out yet, and the two I choose to share are the ones that I have the most comments for.

Peanut Butter Kisses...always popular.

Peanut Butter Kisses...I don't remember where I got this recipe (probably pinterest), sorry!
Ingredients:
48 Kisses (I didn't use that many because I made my cookies a little bigger)
1/2 c shortening
3/4 c peanut butter
1/3 c sugar
1/3 c brown sugar
1 egg
2 Tbl milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 c flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
sugar for dusting
Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Line cookie sheet with parchment paper (I forgot to do this, but didn't have an issue removing them).
Cream shortening and peanut butter together. Beat in sugars until fluffy.  Add egg, milk, and vanilla.  Mix (sifted) flour, soda, and salt.  Add to the wet mixture.  Shape into 1 inch balls.  Roll in sugar.  Bake 8-10 minutes.  Place kiss immediately and move to cooling rack.
My tidbits: so I don't have a sifter, therefore my flour wasn't sifted and they turned out great.  I made the dough the night before so that we could bake all in one day.  I took the dough out in the morning to let it return to room temp but it ended up being slightly sticky.  It might be different if you never put it in the fridge but next time I won't let it sit quite so long before I bake it.  I found myself making different size balls since I also don't have a cookie dough scoop and just use a spoon.  After making these and a few others, I discovered something...use a tablespoon!  I used a tablespoon to scoop and measure the balls for the snickerdoodles and they turned out the same size and the perfect size.  Something I'll have to remember for next year.  These were also perfect because they didn't dry out much (I stored extra in tupperware but put some out during the day) and they didn't crumble like a lot of peanut butter cookies do.

Candy Cane Blossoms...this recipe came out of one of my cooking magazines and mine look nothing like their picture.

 Ingredients:
1 c butter, softened
1 c sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
3 c flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
4 candy canes, finely crushed
48 candy cane kisses (again, I didn't need this many but I did need more of these than the chocolate ones)
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream butter and sugar until fluffy (seems every recipe require this). Beat in egg and vanilla.  Mix flour, baking powder, and salt.  Add to cream mixture.  Shape into 1 inch balls and roll in candy canes.  Place on ungreased cookie sheet.  Bake for 10-12 minutes until bottoms are golden.  Immediate press in kisses and move to cooling rack.
My notes: These weren't my favorite.  They were a little dense and reminded me of Russian Tea cakes, a little too much flour and not as sweet as I expect a cookie to be.  My husband thought they were great though, so just a difference of opinion.  I used a processor to crush the candy canes (thought it'd be cleaner and not so loud with Isaac in the house).  I avoided making them into dust, but after making the first batch I liked the dust better.  They little chunks of candy cane melt and stick to the pan, not bad but they were threatening to burn.  It was also easier to roll the dough in the dust. I also ended up using 6 candy canes.  4 wasn't quite enough so I crushed more after the first couple pans went in the oven.  The kisses also melted really fast.  I'd give them a minute or two to cool first, then put the kisses on.  Since they melted so fast, they also took longer to set.  I stored them in a tupperware container and they stayed pretty soft but the ones that had the bigger chunks of candy cane tended to stick to other cookies easily.  I think I'll look for a different recipe next year, but if I can't find one I know they are good...just not great in my opinion.

 

 

Holiday deals!!

This is my first post from the ipad. Not quite sure if I like using it over the laptop yet or not...it is much easier than getting the laptop out, especially when Isaac is up. He likes the laptop and ipad but it is easier to distract him when I'm using the ipad.

The main reason for this post is to let everyone know about the latest deal at For You, By Me Events. Starting now and running through the holidays, every consultation and package is 10% off if it pertains to holiday events. Some package options will not be available, sadly, due to visiting family. From the 26th through January 1st, we will be out of town making the rounds to see the grandparents. This means that any events during this time, I will not be able to be in attendance. If you're event is during this time, I will help plan, organize and make sure that you are ready to set up and host your event. I will still be able to guide you via phone, text, and occasional email while I am out of town.

So, what are you waiting for?? Time to start planning your event! Whether you are planning a Christmas party, New Year's party, or just a holiday event, call or email me to get started.
What's even better? I'll include any Valentine's Day related events.

I'm really excited to get started on your event, so contact me today!

Side note...apparently on the ipad I can't choose where the photos are in my post. They automatically go to the end...interesting.