Peanut Butter Frosting - Broiled

It was Ryu's birthday Monday and I overheard him talking with Jun about what they both liked. He loves peanuts and said he also liked peanut butter. I had no idea! So, as we were going out for dinner to a Christmas party, I decided to make up the brownie mix I had in the cupboard and find a new frosting to celebrate at snack time. This is in Betty Crocker's Cookbook from 1978. Can that really be 32 years AGO? Anyway, another great NO POWDERED SUGAR recipe!

Broiled Peanut Butter Frosting

2/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup butter - softened
1/4 cup peanut butter (chunky or creamy is fine)
3 Tbsp. milk
1 cup finely chopped peanuts

Mix brown sugar, butter, peanut butter and milk. stir in peanuts. Spread frosting over warm 13 X 9 inch cake. Set oven control to broil and/or 550F. Broil cake about 5 inches from heat until frosting bubbles and browns slightly, about 3 minutes. (Watch carefully - frosting burns easily.)

I kept the oven door open to keep an eye on things and set the timer. This frosting on brownies (with a few handfuls of chocolate chips thrown into a box mix) was too perfect. The saltiness and the crunchiness of the peanuts was a good contrast to the moist sweetness of the brownie. Mmmmm!

I'm going to make this for my Mom's birthday today!

No-Bake Chocolate Oatmeal Peanut Butter Cookies

THERE! By THAT name, perhaps people who WANT to make these cookies can actually find a recipe to do so!

This recipe is called Peanut Butter Cookies in my "Old-Fall-Apart-Cookbook" Favorite Recipes of the Great Northwest. Anyone who has EVER made a peanut butter cookie knows it is round, light brown, and has fork marks making an x across the top! These cookies are NOT Peanut Butter Cookies! I am shouting!

And, I CANNOT make these cookies successfully. Again - one more point AGAINST DNA, and FOR ... what was the other ... Nurture!

My Mom and niece make them regularly. Successfully! The problem is not in the recipe! Well, not now that I called my Mom and asked HOW she made those cookies, and what "full boil" really means! The problem is in ... my favorite things in the world - substitution and scrimping!

I have tons of old fashioned oats from Costco. I use them for making granola. This recipe calls for quick cooking oats. I don't have any of those and am not really sure WHERE to get them in my town. So, I used the old fashioned kind. Big big looser. Took the batch to church. No one actually said it tasted like they were eating chocolate covered horse food, but...

The next time I decided to toast the oats before using them. I was too embarrassed to take this batch to church - burnt the oats a bit - so they tasted like chocolate covered burnt horse food.

So, as Japanese cornflakes seem to be harder, thicker and crisper than US ones, I decided to use them instead. This was the worst substitution yet. Though they may be a bit crisper, I bought the cheapo store brand, and I ended up with soggy, tough chocolate covered cornflakes. ARGH!

So, unless someone has a good way to make old fashioned oats into quick cooking oats, I may have to put off making this recipe till I find the "real" thing. Or, until I think of another option. Seriously - don't you think this recipe would be good with slightly broken up salty pretzels? Mmmmm?

No-Bake Chocolate Oatmeal Peanut Butter Cookies (Peanut Butter Cookies)

contributed by Mrs. Fred T. Mellinger, Portland, OR page 168

2 cups sugar
1/4 cup butter (we use margarine)
1/2 cup milk
2 1/2 Tbsp. cocoa
2/3 cup peanut butter
3 tsp. (1 Tbsp.) vanilla
3 cups oatmeal

Combine sugar, butter, milk and cocoa in saucepan. Bring to a full boil. (Full boil means a boil you can't stir down. Then I counted to 10.) Remove from heat and add peanut butter, vanilla and oatmeal. Spoon onto waxed paper. Cool. Yield 3 dozen.

From my experience, one should not skimp on any of the above ingredients (sugar, peanut butter)! Also, from my experience, if making a substitution for the oatmeal, one might just want to start with a half batch!

I tried other recipes like this one that had less peanut butter. They tasted more chocolaty, but didn't set well. This really tastes like peanut butter chocolate fudge with oatmeal in it. If you make them right.

Remember, I am waiting for your ideas about a better substitution for the quick cooking oats!!!

NOTE: I DID try to cut those oats up in my blender/mixer thingie before trying again. And they were much much better. If I had quick oats, I think they are still best, but "blended up oats" worked just fine! Thank you for the suggestion!

HEY! I might use the chocolate/peanut butter mixture as frosting on my birthday cake this Friday!!!??? What do you think??

NOTE: I DID use the "chocolate sauce" part for frostening on my cake! It turned out great! I made 1/2 batch to "frost" a single 8" layer that I cut in half to make two layers. And you don't need a knife!

Peanut Butter Granola

Thanks to Tana for the idea of peanut butter and oatmeal! When I ran across this recipe for PB Granola, I didn't run away screaming! I really changed the recipe to fit my oven and larder (or any larder in Japan - I think.) Jun LOVES it! My Japanese friends at church all want the recipe, and their kiddos loved it too. So, I guess I'd better write it down before I forget it! I SURE want to make it again and again!

My Mom wasn't awed at the idea, but ... this isn't your standard C____ granola. It is easy on the teeth! Crunchy and tasty. I like the fact that you can adjust the sweetness/saltiness, etc. to fit your likes. You could even substitute other grains/flours if you wanted.

Peanut Butter Granola

2 cups regular oatmeal
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup cornmeal
1/4 cup crushed genmai flakes (a whole rice cereal flake. Could use a bran cereal.)
1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/6 cup sesame seeds
1/3 cup chopped peanuts
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon

Combine the above in a large bowl. Heat the following BRIEFLY, stirring til blended.

1/4 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup oil
1/4 cup water
1 tsp. vanilla

Pour the PB mixture over the oats mixture and mix well with your hands - till it is all coated and wet. Put the mixture in a broiler pan and bake at 130 degrees C or 250 F for one hour - stirring every 20 minutes. Turn off oven and leave granola in closed oven till cool.

Add:

1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup dried other fruit (I used dried cranberries.)

Store in an airtight container. This made just enough to just fill my oven pan in my tiny oven. Around 4 cups or so. Next I will have to make this into granola bars for on-the-go snacks!

Peanut Butter Cookies (With Chocolate Chips)

Ryu didn't grow up on American cookies and cakes. Poor guy! Probably why he was as skinny as a rail when I married him. But he loved my chocolate chip cookies! So, those were the cookies I made. Then, and I don't remember why, he asked for a peanut butter chocolate chip cookie. So, I tried. I added peanut butter to the chocolate chip cookie recipe. Nope. Then I added chocolate chips to the peanut butter cookie recipe. Nope. Ryu was "happy," but I was not satisfied.

Then, a few weeks ago when I was looking for an egg-less peanut butter dessert (and found the lovely recipe for Peanut Butter Shortbread), I also ran across this recipe. And, it is the winner, hands down! I love it. Ryu loves it. Jun? She just likes cookies!

I made the cookies according to the recipe. I bought "coffee sugar" to roll the cookies in, but lost it as soon as I brought it home. Oh well, I'll be making these cookies again! Also, I had a cosmetic debate. REAL peanut butter cookies are rolled into balls and then imprinted with a criss cross of fork tines. These aren't REAL. So, I first dropped some dough into some regular (wet) white sugar and flattened it out gently with the bottom of a glass. Then, I rolled the rest of the dough into balls and rolled them in sugar and flattened them out too. I kind of liked the look of the "dropped" cookies. Kind of rustic. But, Ryu loved the ones I rolled into balls. Something about the uniform size and shape.

This recipe is a keeper! (As long as you have a nice big quantity of peanut butter!! Thanks, Tana!)

Peanut Butter Cookies (With Chocolate Chips)

Peanut Butter Shortbread

I try to make good things last for a long time. I like delayed gratification. I've saved some things so long, they were no longer any good. So, I am trying to change my spots!


I received a four pound jar of peanut butter (see Scotcharoos), and am determined to enjoy it rather than hoard it. Jun had a peanut butter sandwich yesterday and loved it. Today, we had a meeting for Mamas at church, so I decided to try another peanut butter recipe. I was out of eggs, so this was perfect!

Peanut Butter Shortbread

The site is called Peanut Butter Lovers. They have ALL kinds of peanut butter recipes! I'll have to try a few more, I think! Entrees too!

Abigail saw this recipe and "tweaked" it with .... CHOCOALTE! Click HERE to see her version!

Scotcharoos

Last fall, our last (and first, I think) overnight visitor of the year, Tammy from Ukraine, practically twisted my arm until I got signed up for Facebook. Already a bit busy with blogs and life, I didn't expect to find it so fun! Blast after blast from the past blew me away during the first few months. One friend from college, that I got reacquainted with, Tana, uses the SAME Cooky Cookbook that my family has ALWAYS used. One note led to another, and...she sent me a wonderful box...

filled with yummy ingredients...

to make these SUPER DUPER yummy bar cookie-like snacks! Please forgive my poor photography, and documented inability to melt chocolate and butterscotch chips! The results were great, in spite of my downfalls! In fact, my hubby, who "doesn't eat much sweets" said that these were too wonderful to be homemade and should need to be purchased in a store! YATTA! (Means "yay" for me!!!)

Jun loved the making of the Scotcharoos...

And, couldn't get enough of that GREAT CEREAL! Sugarless and milk-less, to go with her clothes-less state of dress.

Now, for those who might live in a place where some of these ingredients are hard to come by...like Japan, I'll give you some ideas for substitutions at the end! So, read on!

SCOTCHAROOS

In a saucepan, melt:

1 cup sugar

1 cup Karo syrup

When it reaches a bare boil, remove from heat and add:

1 cup peanut butter

Stir tell melted and blended.

Pour over, and mix into:

6 cups of Rice Crispie cereal

Press firmly into a well buttered jelly-roll pan, with a well buttered spoon/spatula.

Melt:

1/2 pkg. chocolate chips

1/2 pkg. butterscotch chips

Spread over the top. When set, cut and EAT!

Now, I am not sure if Karo syrup and Japan's "gum syrup" are interchangeable. I kind of think that "gum syrup" is too watery. So, if I were doing this with ingredients I could find in Japan, I would take two packages of marshmallows (in the candy section at the super), and melt them with a bit of butter in a deep fry pan When melted, I'd mix in 1/2 cup peanut butter. I'd semi crush a box of cornflakes, and mix it all together. I'd probably use a well buttered round or square cake pan. Then, sighing sadly at the lack of butterscotch chips, I'd buy a few milk-chocolate bars at my local convenience store, melt them, and "frost" the top of the cookies. It wouldn't be exactly the same, but...it'll give you the chocolate peanut butter, crunch, YUM!, without waiting for the next trip home, or without breaking the bank finding the imported ingredients here.

Peanut Butter Bread

As I mentioned on my other blog, I was flipping through an Amish cookbook and came across Peanut Butter Bread. Well! That sounded strange enough to me to give it a try. I looked on the internet to find a recipe that I could easily share with you all if I liked it, and was SHOCKED to find all the recipes for Peanut Butter Bread! Seriously! I had NEVER heard of it before. Then I heard from Abigail at Mamatouille - her cooking blog, and before reading my post she had been planning to try this "interesting recipe".... Peanut Bread.

I made the bread, and, truly, if it weren't for the raves from the peanut butter lovers around me and those who want to try the bread, I probably wouldn't post the recipe. With each bite I kept wanting chocolate spread or peanut butter cookies. Needless to say, I forgot to add a handful of chocolate chips like planned!

I choose the recipe from Jif Peanut Butter. I figured if it had to do with peanut butter, a recipe from a peanut butter company should be good. And, while My Mother never bought it, as a child the ads ALWAYS said "Choosy mothers choose Jif!"

So, here it is. If you try it, please let me know. It is supposed to be nice with chocolate spread, cream cheese, jam, etc. Straight butter did not do the trick, in my book!

Peanut Butter Bread