Adventures in Baking #87930

I was almost afraid to try a new recipe after the disaster that was the Royal Blue Velvet Cupcakes.

By and large, I'm not a fan of "flour-less" anything, but this recipe for Flourless Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies from Cooking Classy caught my eye.  Even if the recipe wasn't any good, how bad could peanut butter and chocolate chip cookies be?  And with only six ingredients, not even I could screw it up.

So far, so good.

They look pretty good right out of the oven.

I got cocky with the second batch in the oven.  The directions say to let the cookies sit for five minutes before moving them to the cooling rack.  With the first batch, I only let them sit for about a minute and a half and them moved them and didn't have any problems.  When the second batch came out of the oven, I just tried to slip them onto the cooling rack.

It was a very bad idea.  They're not pretty, but they are tasty and only took a few minutes to make.  The longest part of the whole process was the ten minutes in the oven. 

Betty Crocker Strikes Again

I really don't know what has come over me.  Used to be I only baked at Christmas.  Now, it seems like I'm baking all the damn time.  I think it's because I finally have a kitchen that I like and that I have some counterspace.  And having a dishwasher doesn't hurt either.

So Sunday, out of boredome, I was looking at that site that I swore I was never going to look at and found a recipe for Red Velvet Cookies.  And then I found another recipe I wanted to make; off to the store I went.

I bought everything I needed and then, on the way home, I thought, "Red velvet is just chocolate dyed with red food coloring.  I wonder what it would taste like with cayenne?". I called Bill and ran the idea by him, don't know why, because anything with cayenne is good by him.

They turned out pretty good.  I'm not a fan of white chocolate chips - I think they taste waxy and they're pretty gross, so next time I'll use regular chocolate chips, even if the cookies won't look as pretty.

Spicy Red Velvet Cookies

·         2 ¼ c. all purpose flour

·         2 ½ T. cocoa powder

·         1 ½ t. cornstarch

·         ¾ t. baking soda

·         ½ t. salt

·         ½  t. cayenne pepper

·         ¼ t. black pepper

·         ¼ t. cinnamon

·         7 T. butter, at room temp

·         6 T. shortening, at room temp

·         1 ½ c. granulated sugar

·         1 large egg

·         1 large egg yolk

·         1 ½ t. white vinegar

·         1 ½ t. Mexican vanilla

·         1 T. red food coloring

·         ½  c. white chocolate chips (or chocolate, they just won’t be as pretty)

Sift together the dry ingredients (except the sugar), set aside.

In a mixer, mix butter, shortening and sugar approximately 4 minutes until fluffy.  Add egg and egg yolk, mix to combine.  Add vinegar, vanilla and food coloring.  Mix until well blended. 

Slowly add in dry ingredients until just combined.  Add white chocolate chips.

Scoop onto lined cookie sheets and bake at 375 for 10-11 minutes.