Friday, October 8, 2010

Trader Joe's = Healthy ... right?

As it turns out, I have a minor addiction to reading blogs. Not just any blog will do though. All of the blogs I follow land in one of two categories:

1. the writer discusses food and/or home decorating on a regular basis (no big surprise there, right?).
or
2. the writer is one of my friends.

So with that, let me introduce you to one of the wonderful blogs I like to read, Love and Olive Oil. This blog fulfills the "blogging about food" category. The co-authors are Taylor and Lindsay, a married couple based in Nashville, TN. According to their "about me" section, they're all about quick and flavorful dishes that don't hurt the wallet. Sounds good to me! About 6 months ago, my brother-in-law, Aron, pointed me in their direction to show me a decadent chocolate cake that he made from one their recipes, and I've been tracking them ever since.

About a week or two ago, they posted a recipe for Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Cookies. Let me give you a moment to soak it in ............... yum, right?

If you know me pretty well, you know that I LOVE peanut butter and that I think dark chocolate beats milk chocolate, hands down! Does it get any better than a cookie that combines the two? The correct answer is: no!

The recipe calls for Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups and after Lindsay (or Taylor) mentioned how amazing the little cups are, I noticed that all of the commenters agreed. Well I'm here to tell you, they weren't lying! I was walking through TJ's this week doing my usual shopping, when I looked up and saw them. Those little dark chocolate cups were staring me in the eyes, begging to be picked up, so I had no choice but to throw them in my cart and run! Alright, I didn't really run, but I did go straight to the check-out before I changed my mind.



I came home and started looking at the recipe to make sure I had everything else to make the cookies, but realized I was missing the bittersweet chocolate chips. While I knew it wasn't a huge deal, I was worried about losing some of the chocolatey-goodness by leaving them out. I thought about it overnight and decided to modify the recipe to make more of a chocolate chip style cookie with the peanut butter cups in place of actual chocolate chips. And without further ado, here is my version of the Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Cookies:

Dark Chocolatey-Goodness Peanut Butter Cup Cookies


Yield: about 18 cookies
Time: 15 minutes prep, 10 minutes per batch

1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter - at room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
15-20 Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups

1. Freeze the peanut butter cups for about 30 minutes. Coarsely chop the cups into bite-size pieces.

They will look something like this ... I know it's tempting, but don't eat them yet.


2. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

3. In a large bowl, with an electric mixer, beat butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add egg, beating until combined; mix in vanilla.

4. With mixer on low speed, add flour mixture; mix until just incorporated. With a rubber spatula or wooden spoon, stir in the peanut butter cups.


5. Drop mounds of dough (about 2 tablespoon's worth) onto an ungreased baking sheet (you will probably need to separate into two batches), at least 2-inches apart. Bake until golden, 10 -12 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through cooking.

6. Cool 1 to 2 minutes on baking sheets, then transfer to a rack to cool completely. Try your hardest not to eat them all before you take them to work to share with all your co-workers.













Ok, that last line was just to make sure you're paying attention. I made these cookies tonight so I can bring them into work tomorrow. I thought it would be fun to have an office warming party, complete with cookies and milk! I know you won't believe me when I tell you this, but I haven't eaten one yet. I'm TRYING my hardest to wait so I can have one tomorrow with everyone else ... I'l let you know how that plays out. :)

1 comment:

I would love for you to leave me a comment! It's a great way to interact with all of you (and to confirm that I have readers). I hope you enjoyed this post and I look forward to hearing from you soon!