Tag Archives: reeses

August 16, 2013 · 8:00 am

Reese’s Peanut Butter Ice Cream Cake

My brother joined the navy earlier this year. We are very close – he actually has lived with me for most of the last 3 years.

He came to town on leave to surprise me. He’s been gone for 6 months, and this was the first time in our lives we’ve been away from each other for more than a couple weeks. It was a really good surprise, I cried for like 20 minutes straight. My sneaky husband knew everything and got it all on video. 🙂

While he was here we had a big family BBQ so everyone could see him. I (of course) asked to bring dessert. My brother is after all my best ~~fan~~ tester.

I had been eyeing this cake by Lindsay for a while now, and I knew an ice cream cake would be a perfect summer BBQ dessert that would impress not only my brother, but the entirety of my sweets loving family.

I decided to switch up her recipe a bit. Mostly because (and I know I’m in the minority here) I don’t think caramel and peanut butter belong together. Both are fabulous and both pair perfectly with chocolate, but I like to keep them separate.

Also – this cake is SOOO easy to make. If you can bake a box of brownies, you can make this ice cream cake!

Reese’s Peanut Butter Ice Cream Cake – adapted from Life, Love and Sugar

Ingredients:

1 box brownie mix, plus ingredients called for on box (I used fat free brownies)

8 oz brick cream cheese (I used 1/3 less fat)

1/4 cup milk

1/2 cup sugar

1 1/2 cups creamy peanut butter

8 oz Cool Whip, thawed (I used fat free)

Chocolate Syrup

Large bag Reese’s Miniatures, unwrapped and chopped

Directions:

1. Bake brownies in greased 13×9 pan, but reduce baking time to only 20 minutes. Let cool completely.

2. With stand mixer or electric hand mixer, beat together cream cheese, milk, sugar, and peanut butter until completely combined.

3. Carefully fold Cool Whip into peanut butter mixture.

4. Top cooled brownies with 1 cup of chocolate syrup. Spread all the way to the edges.

5. Drop chopped Reese’s on top of the chocolate syrup in an even but hearty layer.

6. Cover Reese’s in peanut butter mixture and spread smooth.

7. Cover entire pan in plastic wrap and freeze at least 4 hours, or overnight.

8. When ready to eat, cut cake into squares and top each square with more chocolate syrup and chopped Reese’s.

This cake is extremely rich. My brother and my family loved it. Honestly it was a little bit too rich for me to handle, but I’m not a huge chocolate fan anyway so don’t necessarily take my word for it. 😉

I used fat free/low fat everything I could for this recipe. I figured why not – there’s enough sugar in it anyway it’s definitely not going to be low on flavor! Feel free to use the full-fat version if you prefer!

4 Comments

Filed under Brownies, Cakes, Misc

Tagged as brownies, chocolate, ice cream, ice cream cake, peanut butter, reeses

May 17, 2013 · 10:35 am

Reese’s Cupcakes

Tomorrow is a coworker’s birthday. She asked me to bring chocolate cupcakes. Too boring for me, so I had to get fancy.

These are fun, rich, and look fancy!

Reese’s Cupcakes (yields 24 cupcakes)

The cupcake base is the Hershey’s “Perfectly Chocolate” Chocolate Cake. It’s right on the back of the cocoa box. I have made them a couple times here and here. Aaaannnnnd I just realized I didn’t post the actual recipe either time so here it is:

Chocolate Cupcakes – adapted from Hershey’s “Perfectly Chocolate” Chocolate Cake

Ingredients:

2 cups sugar

1 3/4 cups flour

3/4 cup Hershey’s Cocoa

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

2 eggs

1 cup milk

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 tsp vanilla

1 cup boiling water

(I know it’s a lot of ingredients but it’s easy – I promise!)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350*. Mix together all dry ingredients in a large bowl (or stand mixer bowl).

2. Add eggs, milk, oil, and vanilla and beat on medium speed for 2 minutes.

3. Carefully add boiling water and mix in thoroughly by hand. (If you try to use the stand mixer, water will splash everywhere. Trust me. Don’t do it.) Batter will be very thin.

4. Fill cupcake liners about 3/4 the way. Bake for 11 minutes. While they are baking, start unwrapping miniature Reese’s cups.

5. After 11 minutes, remove the cupcake pans from the oven. Carefully press a Reese’s cup into the top of each cupcake and return to the oven. Bake for another 11 minutes.

6. Let cool completely before making the frosting.

Some of the cups sank lower than others for the second half of baking…

By the way, how cute are these liners? They are the only non-super-girly liners I could find with orange on them. I felt like orange was necessary because, hello – Reese’s!

Now on to the good stuff….

Peanut Butter Frosting

Ingredients:

1 lb powdered sugar

1 stick (1/2 cup) salted butter

2/3 cup smooth peanut butter

3 tbsp milk + 2 tbsp milk

2 tsp vanilla

Directions:

1. Put powdered sugar in the bowl first. Cut up the butter into small slices or chunks, and spread out on top of the powdered sugar. Add peanut butter, vanilla, and 3 tbsp of the milk to the bowl. (I know this sounds silly, but putting the powdered sugar on the bottom helps the other ingredients incorporate better.)

2. Mix on low until powdered sugar is incorporated and will no longer fly across the kitchen. Beat on medium speed until frosting is smooth. Add the remaining 2 tbsp of milk one at a time until fully incorporated.

I frosted my cupcakes with a large closed star tip. It doesn’t need to be perfect, it just needs to cover the secret Reese’s cup inside the cupcake. Top with other Reese’s cup and ta-da!

These cupcakes are super rich and SO dreamy with the peanut butter frosting. How have I never made peanut butter frosting before?!

8 Comments

Filed under Cakes

Tagged as buttercream, chocolate, peanut butter, reeses

June 19, 2012 · 8:00 am

Peanut Butter Surprise Cookies

My brother and I love candy.

This love of candy is one of the reasons he makes an excellent Target shopping partner. (I have gone to Target with a number of different people and I have discovered that not everyone shops Target the same way. My brother and I are good together at Target because we understand the most important part of the store is the 3 aisles of candy in the far back corner near the seasonal section.)

I recently had a poll on facebook asking people to rate these in order from MOST favorite to LEAST favorite: cookies, cake, ice cream, candy, pie. (For the record, mine is 1. Candy 2. Ice Cream 3. Cake 4. Cookies 5. Pie) It was fun seeing everyone’s answers!

Anywhoo… on one of my brother’s candy trips to Target, he disovered this:

It’s basically like a Hershey bar except each individual bar is a separate Reese’s.

I knew I had to make something with them, and this is what I came up with!

It’s a Peanut Butter cookie dough wrapped around an individual Reese’s bar, then baked long and slow so that they are soft, chewy, and melty chocolate on the inside!

Peanut Butter Surprise Cookies – adapted from Simply Recipes

Ingredients:

1 stick butter

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup peanut butter

1 egg

1 1/4 cup flour

3/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

Directions:

1. Beat butter for 2 minutes. Add sugars and beat for 2 minutes more, scraping sides of bowl halfway through. Add peanut butter and egg and mix until combined. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Slowly add to sugar mixture until completely combined. Let chill for at least 2 hours.

2. Cut apart Reeses bars. Get a ball of dough about 2-3 tablespoons and flatten with your fingers. Put the little Reeses bar inside and wrap it up all snug. I sort of rolled it into a little log shape after the bar was completely covered.

3. Space the cookie logs about 2-3 inches apart on a parchment lined cookie sheet, they will spread quite a bit.

4. Bake at 300* for 15 minutes. Let cool for about 15 minutes on the pan before moving to a drying rack. They will come out of the oven a little poofy so they need to set and settle as they cool.

These might be the best cookies I’ve ever had. Especially if you eat it when it’s still warm!

4 Comments

Filed under Cookies

Tagged as chocolate, peanut butter, reeses

February 22, 2012 · 8:00 am

Mini Reese’s Cookies

I had a poll on my facebook page a while back. Rolos vs. Mini Reese’s.

Rolos won.

But my secret? I really planned on doing both all along. I just couldn’t decide which to do first!

My biggest problem is I couldn’t decide what to make with them. I first got the idea to use them in something from Shelly at Cookies & Cups when she made these. I wanted to do something different because I’m not a huge fan of chocolate.

I couldn’t do blondies again, and I didn’t want to do the standard peanut butter cookies, because I don’t love peanut butter that much.

So what to do…

I thought of other things I enjoy with peanut butter and Muddy Buddies came to mind. Chocolate, peanut butter, perfect harmony.

Then I remembered these brownies. The basic ingredient is chocolate cake instead of brownie mix. And they are gooood brownies. So chocolate cake must be okay.

That’s it! Chocolate cake cookies! And then I realized. That is exactly what Shelly made. I made a full loop and ended up back in the SAME PLACE.

So here you have it. Chocolate cake cookies with Mini Reese’s.

Mix a boxed chocolate cake mix (I used Milk Chocolate flavored), 2 eggs, and 1/3 cup of vegetable oil.

Once the batter is all ready, add in the full bag of Mini Reese’s. Mix it up some more, the cups will break up a bit but that is perfectly okay!

Use a cookie scoop (or 2 tablespoons) to form balls and drop on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet. These cookies will spread so keep them a couple inches apart.