salty caramel-apple pie

Well it's Thanksgiving week. That was fast. Are you ready? Are you stressed? Last year I did the HUGE mistake of going to Whole Foods on Thanksgiving eve. There wasn't a parking spot to be had for miles. It was INSANE there. As much as I love Whole Foods I will never ever do that again. I swear everyone was there buying turkeys and side foods as well as pies. I mean I know people do last minute Christmas shopping, but last minute turkey dinners? Amazing. I just went there to stock up on my water and probiotics--which could/should have waited.
Are you cooking this year? What are you making? Are you doing the whole meal? Doing the whole meal scares me unless I have a big ass kitchen and an even bigger fridge. Because seriously where are you going to store everything? One of my culinary dreams is to have a Sub Zero fridge or no, that fridge that is in the background of that food show Cooking for real with Sunny Anderson. It's a SEE THROUGH fridge people. How cool is that?
If you need any ideas for kicked up pies here is one: salty caramel apple pie. It's has the salty, sweet and buttery all happening. Perfect combo in a pie really. Just make sure you top each slice with vanilla ice cream! It's fairly easy to make. You can make the caramel sauce a couple days ahead and save the pie for the day of--easy peasy.

Have a wonderful holiday kids. Be safe and eat well!

I love the person that thought those chunks were cheese. Ha Ha! But actually that's a really good idea--for real. (I had posted this pic to the Vanilla Sugar Blog Facebook page as a teaser of what's to come).

salty caramel-apple pie
print recipe

2 pie crusts, homemade or premade
(I always use Martha Stewart's pie crust recipe; it never fails me)
7-8 cups apples, peeled and sliced into medium 1 ½ x 1 ½ inch slices (I use any apple really not granny smith)
The juice of one large lemon
2 TB flour
1 TB cinnamon
3 TB butter
3 good pinches of sea salt
¾ cup of caramel sauce
1 egg (for the pie wash on top)

homemade caramel sauce
from my baking addiction

1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon corn syrup
1/4 liquid cup water
1/2 liquid cup heavy cream, room temp NOT cold
2 TB unsalted butter, room temp
½ teaspoon fine grain sea salt
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Cook notes: I only used ¾ of the caramel sauce and saved the rest in a covered glass jar for other goodies. I’ve made this pie with premade crusts and with homemade crusts—both work fine.
I used about 3 good size pinches of sea salt for the top of the filling—this maybe too much for some of you and just right for some of you. Use what you think is best. I tend to like my caramel pie a touch salty. I used a deep dish apple pie pan for this, as it hold more apples. I do NOT like to pile apples into a mile high pie—that’s’ just me, I feel the caramel taste gets lost with too many apples. I like about a 4 inch apple thick pie.
You must, I repeat must serve this with a scoop or two of vanilla ice cream. I stored my pie, covered, at room temp. I could not fathom putting it in the fridge; apple pies do not taste good cold. It kept nicely at room temp for about 2 days.

For the caramel sauce:
In a heavy saucepan place a candy thermometer on the side of pan. Stir together the sugar, syrup, and water. Heat over medium-high heat, stirring constantly until all sugar is dissolved AND its bubbling. When it hits 380 F remove from heat and CAREFULLY pour in the heavy cream. It will bubble and boil a lot so stand back and let it do its thing. Once it’s calmed down, mix with a rubber spatula, stirring and scraping up the bottom of pan. You might want to return it to the heat (a medium heat) if you see that not everything is dissolving. Once that is heated thru and stir in the butter and salt. Take off the heat and keep stirring till everything has come together. Let this cool a bit, about 4 minutes, then add in the vanilla extract.

For the pie filling:
In a large bowl place the chopped apples in and sprinkle with the lemon juice. In a small bowl combine the flour and cinnamon mix. The toss the flour mixture onto the apples and using a spatula combine well.
Let sit for a bit.

For the pie:
Preheat oven to 420 degrees. Spray your deep dish pie plate with non-stick spray; lay one of the pie crusts down into pie plate.
Take your apples and pour about ¾ cup of the caramel sauce over them, then mix with spatula. Take apples and place into pie. Sprinkle on the sea salt over the top, then take your 3 TB of butter, cut into small pieces and drop over the pie filling.
Take the other pie crust, and place over the top, crimping the edges closed. Take your egg and beat it a small cup with a fork. Generously wash the top of the pie with egg using a pastry brush.
Using a sharp knife, poke about 5 slits in the top of the pie for steam escape.
Place pie on a parchment lined baking sheet.
I baked my pie at 400 degrees for about 50 minutes. Yours might take less or more to bake, depending on oven. But check at the 45 minute mark to see where it stands.
Please let this pie cool at least 30 minutes before slicing into it to let the caramel set up.
Serve with vanilla ice cream

chocolate-peanut butter and shortbread chunk cookies

On my fridge sits many a recipe paper cut outs attached to various magnets. These are recipes that I need to try and also kick up. Some recipes have been there for years, some even longer. And with each new place we move to they come with only to get placed back up on the fridge to sit there.....forever. Well the other day I finally was able to take one down. One that came from a cut out from King Arthur catalog. A peanut butter-chocolate chunk cookie. King Arthur has fabulous recipes, and I'm so glad that they add them into their website and catalogs. Just like Barefoot Contessa, King Arthur has recipes you can trust and count on; tested, tried and true. So I didn't do that much to their original recipe, I only added on extra butter, some baking powder, used a double dutch cocoa powder (for more chocolately flavor) and of course added in the shortbread chunks. Why? I just knew that these cookies would be nice and soft and I just had to add in a subtle layer of 'crunch'. OK and more butter flavor too.
If you make these make sure to read all my cook notes. OK?

Do you want a money shot? Yeah of course you do.

chocolate-peanut butter and shortbread chunk cookies
sort of adapted from king arthur
print recipe

1½ cups and 3 TB all-purpose flour
6 TB Dutch-process cocoa (I used double dutch, either is fine)
½ ts baking powder
¾ ts baking soda
¾ ts coarse salt
1 stick (8 TB) unsalted butter, at room temperature
¼ cup and 3 TB creamy peanut butter (do not use all natural)
½ cup white sugar
½ cup light brown sugar, packed
1 large egg
1 ts pure vanilla extract
2 TB whole milk or half & half
1 & ½ cups mini PB cups OR regular PB cups, chopped
1 cup of shortbread chunks, rough chop

Cook Notes: I used Trader Joe’s mini pb cups in this, but next time I will use Reese’s PB cups. The trader joe ones were not that peanut buttery for my taste. I just wanted a bit more peanut butter taste and I know that Reese’s will do it just right.
As for the shortbread chunks, use a good quality shortbread; one that is nice, buttery, crispy and thick like Lorna Doone.
As for the dutch process cocoa, I used a double dutch for that extra chocolate richness, but regular dutch process is just as fine too.
I made these cookies large using a regular size ice cream scoop. You can make them smaller, but whatever size you use I highly recommended using an ice cream scoop (any size) to scoop them onto baking sheet as the dough is very sticky.
Do the cookies freeze well? No.

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, dutch cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the butter, peanut butter, and both sugars.
Beat till light and fluffy. Then add in the egg, vanilla extract, and milk. Mix until smooth.
Next add in the dry ingredients and mix till just incorporated.
Then by hand, add in the peanut butter cups and shortbread chunks using a spatula.
Place in fridge and chill at least half hour, longer if it’s humid and/or hot outside.
When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
Using an ice cream scoop, scoop out even sizes of dough onto baking sheet, making sure to place doughballs at least 2 inches apart from each other. Cookies don’t spread that much.
Bake 13-14 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through baking.
The cookies will be soft to the touch. But as they cool they do firm up a bit. I know you might be tempted to overbake them, please don’t.

devils food cake pops w/ mint chocolate

Cake balls, cake pops, cake thingees-- I am now ok with them. Before I hated them. Remember when I made these midori cape pops? Yeah, those were hard to make! Hard to make the first time around, and even the second time around. Patience grasshopper; that was what my mind was telling me--have patience. First time around I did not have any patience and maybe got 4 to 6 good cake balls for a photo. Whew! Yes, out of like 50 cake balls I got 4 to 6 good ones--bad, very bad. Don't get me wrong they tasted wonderful, but were fugly. Instead of being cake pops they were cake nuggets! Hubby didn't care, they popped in his mouth like popcorn. And I swear each time I saw him eat one I would cringe thinking 'do you know how long it took me to dip that one? No, that one was even worse to dip! I can't watch!'
Since I was so disappointed in myself I gave them a second go without realizing why I had failed in the first place. So naturally the second time around failed--again. Retracing my steps like a detective from Law & Order: Special Cake Pops edition I realized that I did not let the cake pops set up in the freezer long enough; I was letting them set up in the fridge. They need to be a bit firm, not frozen, before you dip them in the chocolate bath that makes everything fall off the stick. LOL! I also found that using milk chocolate as opposed to candy melts makes a much nicer dipping process. AND the taste of pure chocolate tastes way better than candy melts. But that's just me. If you do decide to use milk chocolate instead of candy melts remember the milk chocolate will have a thicker shell than the candy melts.

If you're new to making cake pops or cake balls make sure to visit bakerella.com. She is the queen supreme of all things cake pop. She has a whole section of just cake pops, and if memory serves correct her first cake pop post was in 2008? She's certainly come a long way since then. Now she even has muppet pops (check out the Beaker pops!), kidney pops, and tea pop party! Glad to also hear that her health is on the mend and life is good for her. Congrats to you. How she gets her cake pops so perfectly round is still a mystery to me, but for now I love my lumpy cake pops.

For the recipe head over to Nescafe Dolce Gusto Facebook page, under the recipes tab!

pumpkin-cream cheese cinnamon rolls

It's amazing the amount of emails I receive, thanking me for the Trader Joe creations. To be honest, I wasn't sure if they might go over well, but glad to hear most of you enjoy them. I know most of them are semi-homemade, but in this tough economy saving money when making meals is a top priority of mine; you can imagine the amount of money I spend on food for creating recipes. Thank goodness Trader Joe's products are so versatile, user-friendly, what else (besides cheap?). Oh you know where I'm going with this......

I do get a lot of inspiration when Trader Joe's has the product sampling. Does yours do sampling? I imagine they all do. Last time I was at Trader Joe's, four days ago, they had samples of the rice balls with marinara, they were good. But what really caught my attention was the girl behind the counter serving the samples was quieting working on these cake ball like things. So being the chatty person that I am I asked her what she was making. She took the TJ's pumpkin bread mix, made them into cake balls with some agave, let them chill/firm up in the fridge and then was dipping them in white chocolate. She had made a small batch for the employees to try before launching onto them to the public. Interesting for sure. Pumpkin bread cake balls; might give that a try....would you?

Remember the peanut butter cream cheese cinnamon rolls topped with bacon that I did a while back? Well that is where I got the inspiration for these pumpkin ones. The instant cinnamon rolls from trader Joe's are so good, so easy and always beg to be kicked up somehow.

pumpkin-cream cheese cinnamon rolls
print recipe

1 pack of Trader Joe’s Cinnamon Rolls (in the can)
2-3 TB plain pumpkin puree
4-5 ounces of cream cheese, room temp
A few dashes of pumpkin pie spice
A few dashes of cinnamon
¼ cup of crushed pecans or walnuts, optional

Note: I thought I was going to need a bit of confectioners' sugar, but I did not. The icing pack that came with the cinnamon rolls was plenty sweet.

Bake cinnamon rolls according to package directions.

Take the icing pack that came with the cinnamon rolls and place in a bowl along with the pumpkin puree, cream cheese, pumpkin pie spice, and cinnamon. Stir until well mixed. Set aside.
When rolls are done baking, immediately put the pumpkin-cream cheese mix over the rolls. Top with extra spices if desired and crushed nuts.
Serve immediately.
(they don’t keep well for the next day)

apple-pecan blondies

I do love a good kicked up blondie. A blondie is the perfect vessel for housing different flavor combo's. The blondie base is the perfect ratio of butter, sugar, flour and eggs, leaving you to fill in the flavor gaps. And I did just that with sauteed apples and pecans. And the best part? It's easy peasy to throw together. What add in's would you use?

Head over to Nescafe Dolce Gusto Facebook Page for the recipe. This Blondie recipe can be found under "recipes" on their FB page. See you there!

chocolate covered pumpkin-walnut bars

I had started out wanting to make pumpkin cookies with no chocolate, but thought you gotta have chocolate chips/chunks when you make pumpkin cookies--I mean they just go so well together. Then I wanted to do butterscotch chips in pumpkin, and then finally I settled on bars. My mind changes so fast. To be honest, I'm not that into pumpkin. Butternut squash I love, just not pumpkin. The only time I made an exception is when I made the pumpkin cheesecake with nutella glaze--Oooo that was good. Just about anything in cheesecake form is good though.
These bars are good, if you like pumpkin. I got the thumbs up from several friends; I was not a good taste tester on this one given my lack of enthusiasm for pumpkin. But I am making pumpkin recipes for you. Ya'll requested them, and I'm delivering. Couple more coming your way soon. Any pumpkin creation requests?

chocolate covered pumpkin-walnut bars
print recipe

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 ts baking soda
1/2 ts baking powder
A scant 1/2 ts pumpkin-pie spice (this gives a ‘gentle’ spice flavor, if you like stronger add in a touch more)
A dash or two of cinnamon
1/4 ts salt + pinch
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup white sugar
1 large egg
1 egg yolk
15 ounces pure pumpkin puree
¾ - 1 cup of rough chop walnuts, optional but wonderful (make sure to toast walnuts before using)
6-8 ounces semisweet chocolate chips or chunks

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a medium bowl, mix the flour, baking soda, baking powder, pumpkin-pie spice, cinnamon and salt.
Using a spatula or an electric mixer, beat together butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Add in the egg and egg yolk, mix till smooth.
Next add in half the pumpkin puree, mix. Then add in half the flour mixture, mix till just combined. Then add in the rest of the pumpkin puree, mix till just combined, then add in the remaining flour and mix till just combined. Do not overmix. Add in the walnuts and gently fold in.
Grease up a 9 X 13 baking pan
Spread batter into pan, making sure to get the edges. Using a wet spatula will help spread the batter.
Bake until mixture is puffy and edges are golden, 25-30 minutes. Or until a cake tester comes out clean or slightly clean.
As soon as the bars are done, remove from oven and sprinkle the chocolate chips over the top, let them melt, then spread with spatula. Let chocolate topping harden before slicing into bars.

Makes about 15-20 bars depending on how you cut them.

Giveaway! Bakers Field Guide Books

CONTEST CLOSED. CONGRATS TO #76 @SPIFFYCOOKIE!



The kind folks over at Harvard Common Press has donated a free set of the Baker's Filed Guide by Dede Wilson. Four books total including: bakers' field guide to chocolate chip cookies, baker's field guide to holiday candy & confections, baker's field guide to cupcakes (my favorite), and baker's field guide to christmas cookies. I was over the moon thrilled to do this giveaway as this are some of the best cookbooks I've come across in a while. Very detailed, very easy to follow and the size of the book is handy for in the kitchen--nothing big and bulky.


click me for details

Each book is set up in a unique, practical, and engaging “field guide” format that gives home bakers the lowdown on every little, delicious detail of each creation, making the baking process fun—like it should be!—for adults and kids alike. Whimsical creations come to life through each recipe’s breakdown, complemented by vibrant four-color photography that makes mouths water even before the first aromatic
whiff of fresh cookies seeps out through the oven door.
And nobody makes a better “field guide” than Dede Wilson, a contributing editor for Bon Appétit. She has written over a dozen baking books and continues to receive national recognition for her creations and baking innovations. Her baking prowess and her wit shine in these well-loved Baker’s Field Guides, now available for the first time in paperback (and at lower prices), making them more accessible and userfriendly
than ever before! All four guides—Cupcakes, Holiday Candy & Confections, Chocolate Chip Cookies, and Christmas Cookies—promise festive, fun treats for the whole family.
Dede Wilson has written over a dozen books, including Christmas Cooking for Dummies, Appetizers for Dummies, and The Wedding Cake Book. She is a contributing editor to Bon Appétit, for which she writes articles as well as makes frequent television appearances on NBC's TODAY and Dr. Oz, among other shows. She lives in Amherst, Massachusetts.

I'm partial to the cupcake cookbook. It has a huge variety of cupcakes as well as frostings. This one recipe is bookmarked.


Can you see all the tips they give for each recipe? I love that. Brilliant idea.



To win ALL four cookbooks, all you have to do is leave a comment here telling me which book you would open first. Which one is calling to you. Is it the cupcake, the chocolate chip, the holiday candy & confections, or the christmas cookie?
I will do the drawing on November 6, 2011.
PLEASE ONE ENTRY PER PERSON.
MULTIPLE ENTRIES WILL GET VOTED OFF THE ISLAND.

pumpkin bread w/ cream cheese filling

I have to admit, I've never been a big fan of cake mixes, bread mixes for fear of crappy taste. But hands down this instant pumpkin bread mix from Trader Joe's is really good. Has really good pumpkin flavor and definitely not too sweet. It rises perfectly and holds up well to add in's. I've experimented with this bread mix before, adding in chips, spices, nuts and now cream cheese swirl. It's really good. And if you're strapped for time this is it; so quick and easy to assemble, the only long part is the baking. I've made the cream cheese swirl with espresso and plain using a hint of vanilla extract. Feel free to experiment here. One could even add in pumpkin pie spice to the cream cheese filling; just taste test as you go along as pumpkin pie spice is strong and can dominate flavor fast.
I also love the Trader Joe's Gingerbread mix--come see what I did to that one!
Gingerbread cupcakes with white chocolate-cream cheese ganache

As you can clearly see it's a moist bread. Give this one a go, I'm certain you'll love it no matter how you kick it up.

pumpkin bread with cream cheese filling
print recipe

Pumpkin bread batter:
1 box of Trader Joe’s Pumpkin Bread
A dash or two of cinnamon

Cream cheese filling:
8 ounces cream cheese, very soft
Pinch of salt
1 egg yolk
3-4 TB white sugar (more if you like it sweet)
If you want espresso flavor use a ½ of a Starbuck’s Via
If you want plain flavor use 1 oversize teaspoon vanilla extract
If you want pumpkin pie flavor use a couple dashes of pumpkin pie spice blend

Mix bread mix according to directions on box. Set aside. Preheat oven to what it says on box.
In a separate bowl mix the cream cheese with the egg yolk, salt and flavor of your choice. Mix well.

Spray a bread loaf pan with non stick spray. Pour in half the batter, then dollop the middle with clumps of the cream cheese mixture; don’t let the cream cheese mixture go to the ends as it will run out as it bakes. Cover top with remaining batter. Bake according to box directions. You’ll know when it’s done when you see light brown edges and the bread mix when tested with toothpick comes out clean. Don’t test the middle of the bread is it has the cream cheese and no batter.
You have to let this cool for a while before slicing as the cream cheese filling needs to firm up.

pumpkin bars w/ cider-cream cheese frosting

Do you remember that show "DoorKnock Dinners" with Gordan Elliot? Almost 11- 12 years ago on food network? Back when food network was just starting out? I do. And I remember the episode when Gordan went knocking on Paula Deen's door. This was waaaay before she was famous. Oh she had such a warm, inviting personality when she answered the door. Surely that was what Gordan was drawn too, her bubbly personality; for he knew she would be great on the show. Smart man. And from there Paula started her journey into food. Granted from interviews with Paula now she states she always wanted to do something with food--just wasn't sure what exactly. She was doing a lot of catering well before she opened her restaurant. Amazing to also find that back in her late 20's she suffered from panic attacks and agoraphobia that literally kept her housebound. After reading that I just find it so hard to believe with her very bubbly personality and tremendous self esteem that shines through on her shows, book events, guest appearances, etc... Apparently it took her a few years to get well, when she then ventured out to have a job as a bank teller, then onto a small catering business, a large catering business, then meeting Gordan Ramsey, and the rest is history. Fascinating how she turned her life around at such a late age and finally realized/accomplished her dream of being int he food business.

Onto the bars. These moist pumpkin bars are from Paula Deen with a kicked up frosting from me. I finally have some of the 'pumpkin baking bug'. Took a while but it's here. While I have you--any kicked up pumpkin requests? Love to hear them!
(sorry the photos are so dark, we've had a ton of rain here on cape cod).
Since I get emailed (a lot) about where do I get the sprinkles from. I all mine from Whole Foods. They have such great colors and varieties of sprinkles and they're all natural too; no chemicals or dangerous food dyes in them.

pumpkin bars with apple cider-cream cheese frosting
bars by paula deen, frosting by vanillasugarblog.com
print recipe

Bars:
4 eggs
1 2/3 cups granulated sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
15-ounce can pumpkin
2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda

Frosting:
1 cup +/- confectioners sugar, sifted
8 oz. cream cheese, room temp (nice & soft)
1 ts ground cinnamon
A dash or three of pure apple cider (apple juice really won’t work here for that full flavor of apple, stick with the cider)

Orange sprinkles, optional

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Using an electric mixer at medium speed, combine the eggs, sugar, oil and pumpkin until light and fluffy. Stir together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, salt and baking soda. Add the dry ingredients to the pumpkin mixture and mix at low speed until thoroughly combined and the batter is smooth. Spread the batter into a greased 13 X 10-inch baking pan. Bake for 30 minutes. Let cool completely before frosting.

To make the frosting:
In a medium bowl add in the soft cream cheese with the sifted confectioners sugar, cinnamon, and a couple dashes of the apple cider (in batches--don’t add in all the cider at once; it’s better to add in small doses than larger ones).
Get out the handheld mixer and beat until well mixed, no lumps are present. You can add as much or as little apple cider depending on how thick you like your glaze. I like to place mine frosting in the fridge for a while to harden up before frosting/piping onto the cake. For a decorative cake like mine, you can use a piping bag to frost or a knife. But make sure the cake is cooled before frosting.
Dust with orange sprinkles if desired.

sunset photos, beach photos, etc..

There hasn't been a lot of sun here on cape cod lately, it's as if our winter (which is mostly rain and snow) is starting too early for me. I'm missing the summer sun and all its brightness. We did have a couple stellar days where it was high 70's, low humidity and bright sun. The sunset for those couple of days were amazing; a spectacular sunset that brought people out of their houses and onto the beach to just stand, be silent and watch. It was almost like being back in California--it was breathtaking; the colors, the air, the calmness of the ocean.

These photos were taken at corporation beach in dennis, mass. Can you imagine living in this house with those views?


Love finding little critters in the ocean at low tide.




Found this little guy in my backyard swimming in the sun.

You know for a couple years now I've been waiting for the perfect timing to occur and capture a shot of the cape cod railroad. Finally got one! If you ever come to the cape you should try this, it's fun in the off season months like october when it's not as packed. The rail travels along the great cape salt marsh to cape cod canal; they're infamous for traveling through the cow tunnels: one cow high, one cow wide. They give you a scenic/narrated tour along the trail, along with a great lunch or dinner. It's worth it if you are a history buff.

We still have massive seal sightings on the cape cod national seashore. Can you see the seal? They are huge; some of them are just as big if not bigger than a shark. It's moments like this when I wish I had a fancy camera, but the iphone gets great shots for now.

I love when the tide is low and you can wade through the water, searching for all kinds of critters.



Remember last winter when I introduced you to Mabel? She's back, having her pre-evening stroll. She's quite the character, and must say hello to EVERYONE on the beach before walking home.

The swells at cape cod national seashore have been pretty big, well pretty big for cape cod. A good handful of surfers out making the most of it. The weather this weekend was perfect. I'm really going to miss summer, so not ready for winter.

cake filled peanut butter cups

Wouldn't this be a fabulous gift for the upcoming holidays? Imagine the look on their faces when they bite into one of these? Priceless. They'd say "oh my gosh there's cake inside my peanut butter cup!" That's reason enough to make them.
I mean who doesn't love a little cake with their peanut butter? And why not throw them into a nice cute little milk chocolate cup?
Ever since I made my first homemade peanut butter cup way back in 2009 I've always had it in the back of my mind to kick them up a notch, somehow, someway. Finally I thought of putting cake inside when all this cake ball madness came about from Bakerella.
I hope some of you make these, they are a lot of fun. Enjoy!






cake filled peanut butter cups
recipe by vanillasugarblog.com
print recipe

Cook notes:
I only made 12 (regular size muffin tins) with this. You could go ahead and make a lot more, but I only wanted 12. The rest of the cake batter I used them for cake pops.
One could make these cups smaller, like mini’s, but it might be hard as you have to put a layer of cake batter in there and a layer of pb filling—you need the room that a regular sized muffin tin has.
I used milk chocolate for this, you could try dark; I don’t know how that would taste.
I used devils food cake for this as I wanted something that would go nice with peanut butter. But feel free to experiment and use any type of cake filling you desire.

Cake filling:
1 box devil food cake mix
1 can cream cheese frosting

Peanut butter filling:
1 cup of plain or crunchy peanut butter (use a pb that is not runny or too oily)
2 TB confectioners sugar
3 TB of crushed graham crackers, finely crushed

Milk chocolate cups:
About 2-3 cups of melted milk chocolate
Pastry brush

Bake cake according to directions on box. Let cool, then crumble cake into large bowl or use a food processor to crumble. Then mix the cake crumbles with the can of cream cheese frosting. Mix well. Cover with plastic wrap and let chill for an hour.
Line a regular muffin pan with cupcake liners.
Melt the milk chocolate over a double boiler. It’s best to use this so this way we can go back and reheat what we need in steps. Take pastry brush and gently line the bottoms and sides of the cupcake liners with melted milk chocolate; do this a couple times as we want a nice thick bottom and sides to hold all the stuffing inside. Let the chocolate harden in the fridge or on the counter.
Make the peanut butter filling by combining the peanut butter, confectioners’ sugar and crushed graham crackers. Mix well, cover and store in fridge.
Take your chilled cake batter and scoop out “almost golf ball” size and place into hardened chocolate cups; flatten just a bit. Make sure to leave room around the edges for pouring chocolate. Then take your chilled peanut butter filling and make a smaller ball than that of the cake batter and place on top of the cake batter. Once you’ve done all the cups, let this sit in the fridge to harden up a bit.
Go back to your chocolate over the double boiler and melt chocolate again. With a spoon, take the melted chocolate and filled the sides and tops of the peanut butter making sure to cover everything in chocolate and giving the cup an overall good seal.
You can either let these harden on the counter or if you can’t wait the fridge.