Happy National Peanut Butter Day!

Are you celebrating? We're eating peanut butter cups! If you want something a little more homemade, here are a few recipes from the archives

Peanut Butter Torte

Peanut Butter Nutella Cookies

Peanut Butter Torte

This is the dessert I made for a BBQ for Kyle's cousins. I had one cousin come up and hug me when she saw that I brought it and another compare it to heaven, so apparently it's pretty good. I've made this a few times before and it's had an equally good reception each time. This torte is a peanut butter moose in an oreo crust topped with chocolate ganache. It's very velvety rich and best served cold with a big glass of milk. Health disclosure: this has a ton of heavy cream, cream cheese, and peanut butter. Therefore not so great for your physical health, but it works wonders for your mental health. That's how life goes.

Pardon the not so great pictures, but I was enjoying the food and company at the BBQ so I didn't take the time to compose great photos. I got the recipe from my favorite dessert cookbook- Baking From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan. I highly recommend every recipe I've tried from that book, but if you can't wait to make this until you buy it, you can find the recipe online here. It's a little more involved than cookies, but worth every minute for the delicious results!

Peanut Butter Nutella Cookies

We made these cookies for the Chemistry Department Picnic the other weekend. Before you get your hopes up, know they're not as good as they sound. I think it's a great idea, but there were a few flaws with the recipe. The peanut butter cookie dough turned out cookies that were too dry. So, use your favorite moist peanut butter cookie recipe. Also, the way the recipe described swirling the nutella made it loose the wonderful distinctive flavor. A guy in my lab had no idea they even had nutella in them. He thought it was just chocolate. This still has potential and I think I'll be making them again sometime, but in a different form. I'll probably put a little puddle of nutella in the center instead, kind of like a peanut butter blossom cookie.

Kyle did absolutely love the dough though! It was his favorite snack for about a week. So, if you're a dough person, this one's for you!