Shortcut Peanut Butter and Jelly Bars

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...Somewhere, at some point in your life, someone told you to "never say never." Chances are it was your mother who hadn't yet realized you knew more than she did. I remember those heady days, but the universe conspired against me, and following a particularly embarrassing debacle, I quickly learned it was much better to say "almost never" rather than bet the ranch on the outcome of my endeavors. Are you ready for my disclaimer? Folks who follow my blog on a regular basis know I prefer "from scratch" cooking. They also know I've been known to take a shortcut or two when it's necessary. This weekend the Silver Fox and I attended a large multi-age barbecue. I was responsible for the sweet stuff and spent more time than I should  making the adult desserts. I was time-pressed to produce something that would appeal to the children. A couple of ideas popped into mind. I decided to go with ice cream sandwiches, which could be made with cookies and ice cream from the grocery store, and peanut butter and jelly bars. I knew Ina Garten had a recipe for the bars, but I wanted to make something a bit less involved than that. I let my fingers do the walking and they found a truly simple recipe for the bars on the Land O' Lakes website. The base of the recipe was a packaged cake mix. I looked at the clock and gave myself absolution and permission to proceed with the shortcut version of the cookies. I'm glad I did. This is a nice recipe and it is nearly effortless to prepare. I hope you'll give it a try. Here is how these moist bars are made. Enjoy!

African Peanut Soup

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...I had reservations about this soup the first time I made it. The ingredients seemed a bit incongruous, but I decided to try it anyway. Just one taste of it, however, caused me to put my reservations aside, and I've come to love this strange African soup that combines peanut butter with tomatoes and rice. Over the years, I've added various versions of the recipe to my meal rotation. My two other favorites can be found here and here. Aside from its wonderful flavor, this soup has the added advantage of being remarkably easy to make. It is a true pantry soup that will take about 15 minutes of your time to assemble. It an be on your table in less than an hour, and, if your family is anything like mine, you will garner rave reviews. This is a hearty soup that is perfect to serve after a day in the snow and the cold. It's also a great soup to serve in summer after a day on the water. This soup, like many in which a starch actually cooks, can become quite thick. I've made provision for that in the recipe and you can add extra stock or coconut milk to thin it. Here is how the soup is made. Enjoy!

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Shortbread

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...This very simple recipe comes from the blog The View from Great Island. Those of you who love shortbread, peanut butter and milk chocolate are about to come one step closer to paradise, because these cookies have all three. It takes about 10 minutes to make the dough for the shortbread, but be forewarned, it must chill a bit before it can be sliced and baked. This is a very short (buttery) and crumbly dough, so don't be discourage if it crumbles when you cut it. That happens to me when I make these cookies, so, now that I am older, I simply do a bit of plastic surgery and press the dough back into a shape that resembles a disk. The younger me was a stickler and would never do, much less admit that it was necessary to reshape them. I'm not sure that is a good thing my standards have been lowered to that degree, but I have a family so enamored of cookies that they don't take time to check their appearance and I remain a heroine. I have one caution to share regarding preparation of these cookies. Do not use natural peanut butter to make them. The cookies need the extra oil that is found in commercial brands for proper consistency. Other than that, making them is a breeze. Here is how it is done.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Tart

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...On Thanksgiving day, somewhere between the assembly of the apple and pumpkin pies, my perverse nature surfaced and that small child that hides within me, became insistent in her demands for a peanut butter pie. This happens to me, in one form or another, every year. If I make turkey, she wants pork, if I make sprouts she wants beans. There is no pleasing her and it is a clear sign of my perversity. It is also as predictable as the rising sun. The yen generally passes before the holiday ends, but this year the child was relentless in her demands and I had to bake the pie to stop her nagging. The pie she wanted is the creation Of Buddy Valastro from Carlo's Bakery in Hoboken, and while her timing is terrible, I must admit that mini-me has marvelous taste. The pie is bloody fantastic, and while it is a bother to make, it is so good that you won't mind the time it takes to prepare. The one downside is the cost of the guard I need to keep me away from it once I've had a slice. If you love peanut butter and chocolate dessert combinations, you are about to enter paradise. There is no need to thank me, but if you see Buddy, tell him Mary sent you. Here is how his extraordinary tart is made.

Three Ingredient Peanut Butter Cake - Gluten Free

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...This simple, gluten-free cake is for adult lovers of peanut butter. As its name implies, it is made with just 3 ingredients, and while it's easy to make, you'll want to have a stand mixer, or a lot of patience, to get the eggs to the point they need to be before the peanut butter and sugar can be added. You'll also want to use a commercially branded, creamy peanut butter to make this cake. I found this recipe on a blog called Kirbie's Cravings, and I understand it is a riff on a similar cake she made with Nutella. I plan to try that one soon, too. I liked this cake and will make it again. While its texture is more fudgy than cakelike,  it is delicious, and if you like peanut butter you will enjoy this cake. I served ours warm with a scoop of really good vanilla ice cream and used chocolate covered peanuts to dress it up a bit. The cake, which is all about flavor, is not pretty to look at, but appearances aside, it is a wonderful way to end a meal. I do hope you will try it. Here is how this minimalist's cake is made.

Peanut Butter Granola Bars

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...I feel almost guilty calling these granola bars. While they contain oatmeal and peanuts, they are missing some of the other ingredients you'd expect to find in true granola bars. I, actually a young visitor, found the recipe while searching for peanut butter bars. He found them on the Cindy Shopper site, and because we made no changes to the recipe he found there, we thought we should stick with the name they had originally been given. This is a quickly assembled cookie bar that requires no baking, and if you like peanuts and chocolate with the added crunch of puffed rice you'll be in 7th heaven. The bars are quite nice and because they are so easy to make they would make great kitchen project when you have young helpers in the house. I keep the bars in the refrigerator to keep them from becoming too soft and sticky. I can attest to the fact that kids love these, and if given free rein, they would eat them in one sitting, and you'd never have to worry about leftovers. Do try these. They are fast and easy to make and they are delicious. Here is how they are made. 

Chocolate Peanut Butter Torte - Away A While Recipe Favorites

Chocolate Peanut Butter Torte

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...My favorite dessert are, for the most part, European and barely sweet. I love those made with lemon, nuts or fruit and if you wrap them in a crisp and crackly crust, I'll follow you anywhere. That being said, there are also a handful of other, less classic, desserts that can cause me to fall from grace. This Chocolate Peanut Butter Torte is one of them, and, when it's in the house, my fall from grace is not a stumble, it's a free fall. I can't resist this torte. I really love the peanut and chocolate combination and when it's used as it is in this Dorie Greenspan recipe, just a bite has been known to make my socks go up and down. While there are several steps required to make this torte, they are simple and quite easy to do. I don't make it a habit to rewrite recipes of this caliber. Pastry chefs are exacting in their measurements and execution, and I have no problem following them, if the flavors being proffered are to my liking. I did make a substitution here that I want to talk about a bit. It has to do with chocolate crumbs that are used to make refrigerator pies or cheesecakes. Many of the better recipes use chocolate wafer crumbs to line pie plates or spring form pans. If you live in an area where they are available, no harm, no foul. If they are not available, most of you already know you can use Oreo cookies, sans filling, as a replacement. The problem is that there is rarely a conversion table to tell you how many cookies are required to do that. I did a quick test to determine quantities of each that are necessary for an equivalence conversion. As it turned out the magic number is eleven. Eleven Oreos, stripped of their filling, equal 1 cup of crumbs when ground. It takes about 20 famous chocolate wafers to yield that same amount. Greenspan's recipe uses Oreo cookies to make crumbs. I had none in the house, so I had to fall back on my supply of chocolate wafers. It was a novel twist. I hope you'll try this recipe. It makes a perfect dessert  for a special occasion. You'll find the recipe here.

                    

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Old-Fashioned Peanut Butter Pie

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...This very old-fashioned pie is as delicious as it is rich. Back in the day, not much in the kitchen was wasted, and if egg yolks were used, frugal housewives found someway to use the whites as well. Refrigerator space was limited, and if you were making a custard-base dessert, meringue was the easiest and most logical way to use them up. This pie is simple to make, but it can be made easier still by substituting whipped topping for the meringue, and while this is a near effortless dessert, there are time constraints that you have to keep in mind should you decide to make it. It needs to chill for at least 6 hours before it can be neatly sliced. I suggest you keep the slices smaller than usual, because this is a very rich pie and one that can give credence to the old saw, "too much of a good thing". If you like peanut butter desserts, I suspect you will love this one. Here is how it is made.