Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars

Here is a yummy dessert recipe for you.  It's from the Nestle Toll House Best Ever Cookies book.  Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars are so easy and so scrumptious.  It will be hard to resist eating the whole thing by yourself.

 

 

Ingredients



1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 1/4 cups granulated sugar

3/4 cup creamy or chunky peanut butter (I prefer creamy)

1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 egg

2 cups (12 oz package) semi-sweet chocolate morsels, divided

 





First, combine flour and baking soda in a small bowl.

 

 

Beat granulated sugar, peanut butter, softened butter and vanilla extract in a large bowl until creamy.

Beat in egg.





 

Gradually beat in flour mixture.

Stir in 1 1/4 cups morsels.  Try to resist eating the whole bag of morsels.  But enjoy the smell! Note:  I used mini morsels in this recipe, but regular sized morsels work just as well!

Press into ungreased 13 x 9 inch baking pan.

 

Sprinkle with remaining morsels; press down slightly.

 

Bake in preheated 350 degree oven for 20-25 minutes or until center is set.  Cool completely in pan.  Chill for a few minutes and cut into bars.

Classic Cheesecake

When there's a special day like Valentine's Day, you always need a yummy, homemade dessert. For our family's fun-filled day, I made just a classic cheesecake. I looked up Philadelphia Cream Cheese (because that's the best) and found this simple recipe.

Mix 1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs, 3 Tbsp. sugar, and 1/3 cup melted butter. Down the baking aisle at your grocery store, you'll find containers of already crushed graham cracker crumbs. I used that instead of spending the time crushing whole graham crackers and hoping I have the correct amount of crumbs. A container of crumbs is so much easier. Unless you have some pent up aggression to get out, then go ahead and crush away.

Press firmly into the bottom of a 9-inch springform pan. Honestly, this is the first time I've ever used a springform pan. I've always been afraid that I wouldn't do it right and my cheesecake would fall apart. However, it was so much easier than I thought!!! Now I can't wait to use it again.

Beat 4 packages of softened cream cheese with 1 cup of sugar and 1 tsp. of vanilla.

Add 4 eggs, one at a time, mixing until just blended.

Pour over the crust.

Bake in a preheated 325 degree oven for 55 minutes. Loosen cake from rim pan. Cool completely before removing the rim. Refrigerate for 4 hours.

Enjoy with your favorite toppings, such as cherries...

...or drizzle with chocolate and caramel sauce.

So simple, so easy, why would you buy another premade dessert again?

Strawberry Fudge

I saw this yummy picture on Pinterest and decided to try it. It was so easy and very tasty. I made a batch that I passed out to friends. I'm going to make another batch for my kids teachers.

Source: cookiesandcups.com via Desiree on Pinterest

You only need only 2 basic ingredients: white chocolate chips and strawberry icing.

Melt the white chocolate chips and stir to get out all the lumps. Then, mix in the icing.

Pour into a 9 x 9 inch pan. Please ignore my very old and very stained pan! Cookiesandcups.com has more details on how to make the fudge very pretty.

Let it firm up in the refrigerator and it's ready to eat!

My variations: It was a little soft still so I stuck it in the freezer to harden even more. It's very sweet (since you're eating pure sugar!) so I may play around with the recipe. Next time I'll try less icing and/or adding a dash of vanilla extract. I also cut the fudge into squares and placed them in pretty Valentine's boxes. Remember to place a square of wax paper in between the fudge squares so they don't stick together.

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