So here it is my first blog post... I have been talking about doing this for a long time, and even attempted to start one earlier this year. Work and a little nervousness got in the way, but now I am ready to get started.
I have been seriously baking/experiment cooking for the last 3 years so I have lots of recipes to share with everyone. As I remake them and share them with you I decided to pick a different theme each week. The theme for my first week is peanut butter and chocolate... oh yes.. this is basically reese's peanut butter cups three ways.
I'm starting out with one of the easiest and BEST recipes ever. This recipe is so great and easy that my husband Jim will actually make it from time to time. This recipe comes from the The Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook: From Cauldron Cakes to Knickerbocker Glory--More Than 150 Magical Recipes for Muggles and Wizards
. It is actually the last recipe in the cookbook, and its definitely fits in the best for last category.Straight from Honeydukes:
Ingredients:
3/4 cup confectioners sugar
3/4 creamy peanut butter
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup rice cereal
5 oz. milk chocolate, melted, for coating (I used semisweet chocolate chips,any chocolate you have handy will work)
Combine the confectioners sugar, peanut butter, vanilla extract, and rice cereal in your stand mixer. Beat the mixture together on low speed until it starts coming together, scraping the sides as needed. Then beat at a higher speed, still only 2 or 3 on your stand mixer until the mixture becomes dough like.
Form the peanut butter mixture into balls about the size of a large walnut (1 1/2 inches) and line them on parchment paper. I get a few of my small plates and line them, because that way it is easier to stash them in the fridge later.
Now take a small bowl (like a cereal bowl) and melt the chocolate in the microwave. Depending on the size of your chocolate chunks it will take about 2 minutes. Make sure and stop every 30 seconds and stir the chocolately mixture. I was using mini chips for this batch so it only took 1 minute and 30 seconds, and not the whole time.
I got this awesome scale that is perfect for measuring stuff like this chocolate American Weigh Black Blade Digital Pocket Scale, 1000 by 0.1 G
.
It has saved me more than once... and helped avoid a repeat of a time when I didn't use enough marshmallows in a rice krispie recipe.
The next step is kind of messy, but is also kind of fun. Pick up the peanut butter balls with two spoons and coat them with the chocolately mixture. Once coated, put them back on the parchment covered plates. Once all the balls are coated with chocolate store them in the fridge for 30 minutes.
This is a half recipe, and makes 10 bonbons. This is plenty for the two of us, because they are ADDICTING.
This recipe is adapted from The Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook: From Cauldron Cakes to Knickerbocker Glory--More Than 150 Magical Recipes for Muggles and Wizards
