PEANUT BUTTER MOUSSE in CHOCOLATE CUPS

 PEANUT BUTTER MOUSSE
In Dark Chocolate Cups
with Strawberry Blackberry Coulis

PEANUT BUTTER MOUSSE:

4 Oz. Whipped Cream Cheese
1 Cup Creamy Peanut Butter (don't use natural peanut butters as they are not homogenized and will separate.)
1/2 C. Powdered Sugar
Splash or so of Half & Half

• With a hand mixer blend together the cream cheese, peanut butter and the powdered sugar until smooth.
• Slowly add in the half & half until you get a consistency similar to soft ice cream.
• Chill until ready to serve.

CHOCOLATE CUPS:

Small party balloons
16 Oz. Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips

• Blow up the balloons until they're the size of cup you want.  Mine were about an 1-1/2" across.
• Melt your chocolate in a double boiler (I don't like microwaves for melting large amounts of chocolate).
• Dip your balloons into the melted chocolate part way - you can get fancy and do a tulip shape like the video below if you want.
• Chill the cups in the refrigerator.
• Dip again for a stronger, less fragile cup.
• Chill until ready to assemble your dessert.

Here's a great video showing you how to create the chocolate cups - I forgot to take pictures, lol:

TIP: After I blew up my balloons I SPRAYED THEM LIGHTLY with Pam - made mine SO much easier to remove the balloon without breaking my chocolate cups!!

ASSEMBLING and PLATING
THE PEANUT BUTTER MOUSSE CUPS

1/2 C. Extra Peanut Butter
Chocolate Syrup
Chocolate Shavings
Optional: Berry or Fruit Coulis
1/2 C. Whipped Cream

• Put your peanut butter mousse into a piping bag (or a plastic bag with a 1/2" hole cut out of one corner).
• Pipe the mousse into your chocolate cups.
• I added some berry coulis around my peanut butter mousse to make these a PB& J style flavor.
• Top off with some shaved chocolate curls.
• Microwave 1/2 cup of peanut butter for about 20 seconds.
• Take a pastry brush, dip in the brush in the peanut butter then paint a streak across your plate.
• Squiggle on some of the chocolate syrup in a decorative pattern.
• Drop some of the chocolate shavings on your plate.
• Spoon on a little extra of the fruit coulis.
• Add a dollop of whipped cream.
• Serve and enjoy!

I have been really jonesing for peanut butter and chocolate this week - check out my Peanut Butter Filled Chocolate Chip Cookies too!   Tweet
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PEANUT BUTTER FILLED CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

So, I got a craving the other night for chocolate chip cookies - you know - the kind we all grew up with, Nestle TOLL HOUSE Cookies. So I made a batch. A batch of cookies all for me. I cannot eat all those cookies at once and I only like my cookies fresh baked, I'm finicky that way.  So I baked up a few and wrapped the rest of the dough up and stuck it in the fridge.

The next night I made a few more. The next night after that I had a craving for peanut butter.  (No, I'm not pregnant - I am just a slave to my food cravings, okay?) As I was grabbing the peanut butter out of the cupboard I had a little flash of inspiration....why not stuff the peanut butter IN the chocolate chip cookies?  So, I did.

PEANUT BUTTER FILLED CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

Make the traditional Nestle Toll House Cookie dough.

Chill it for an hour or so to make it less sticky to work with.

Heat your oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

Take a 1-1/4" ball of dough and flatten it on some wax or parchment paper.

Spoon on a teaspoon or so of peanut butter (I used honey roasted, yum!)

Pick up the flattened, peanut butter filled cookie in your hand and mold the cookie dough around the peanut butter.

You don't have to close it completely up.

Put the cookie balls on a parchment lined cookie sheet and flatten them just slightly.

Bake at 375 for about 15 - 20 minutes - baking time will depend on how big your cookies are - you can see the size of mine from this:

Eat cookies.

(How much do you love me now?)

And now I'm thinking.....where did I put those mini marshmallow and the honey roasted peanuts?

And if you like peanut butter and chocolate.....wait until you see what I'm posting up this Friday!

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LEMON APRICOT BISQUICK SCONES

LEMON APRICOT SCONES

Made with Bisquick - Easy & Delicious

1 C. Bisquick (Heart Smart is okay!)

2 Tbsp. Granulated Sugar

1/2 C. Dried Apricots, Soaked and Chopped

1-1/2 Tbsp. Unsalted Butter

1/4 Tsp. Fresh Ground Nutmeg

2 Tsp. Lemon Zest

1/4 Tsp. Vanilla

1/3 C. Half  & Half (or Milk)

1/4 C. Apple Juice (or water or apricot brandy)

• Pour some apple juice, water (or even some apricot brandy!) over the dried apricots. Cover with plastic wrap and warm this in the microwave for 30 seconds to 1 minute, just long enough to warm the liquid. This will speed up the re-hydration of the apricots. Allow to cool.
• Preheat your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
• Mix the Bisquick, sugar and nutmeg in a large bowl.
• Break the butter into small pieces, then cut this into the Bisquick mixture until you get something that looks like crumbs.
• Stir in the vanilla, half & half, apricots and lemon zest until moistened.
• Drop onto a parchment lined baking sheet (or simply an ungreased baking sheet) using a 1/4 measuring cup as a scoop.
• Bake 10 minutes or until GBD (Golden Brown Delicious).

Serve with fresh butter or, better yet, clotted cream and some apricot preserves and one of my yummy TEA or COFFEE MARTINIS!

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