Oreo Truffles

- Michael Leave a comment

Oreos. Truffles. What more could you want? Before I’d really started baking I went to a friend’s flat party. One of her friends had bought a selection of homemade treats with her and amongst them, were Oreo Truffles. They were simply incredible. A week later I tried my hand at them myself. They are possibly one of the simplest things possible to make and incredibly tasty. I’ve done them on numerous occasions and even put them inside cupcakes.

Truffle-y Goodness
Truffle-y Goodness
Oreo Truffles
 
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Ingredients
  • 2 x Packets of Oreos
  • 250g Cream Cheese
  • Chocolate for Melting (either White, plain or milk, whatever you want)
  • Butter
Instructions
  1. This is a no-bake recipe and the only time consuming part is chilling the truffles.
  2. Start by breaking down the oreos, either put them in a bag and attack with a hammer (you couldn’t ask for better stress relief), or else put them in a blender or processor. Either way, break them down until they are fine crumbs.
  3. Mix in the cream cheese.
  4. Form in to balls and place in the fridge for several hours until they have firmed up.
  5. Melt the chocolate (using the butter for shortening) and coat the truffles in the chocolate. This gets very messy.
  6. Place back in the fridge to set the chocolate and get the truffles back to the right consistency.
  7. Enjoy.

 Truffle Preperation

Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

- Michael 2 Comments

Now, I am well aware that my first post was also Reese’s cookies. But I made these yesterday, and while they are fresh in my mind I just have to write about them. They are simply incredible. My friend Daryl showed me the recipe, which she found on Kitchen Magpie. Couple that with there being two of my colleague’s work birthdays today, one of which is an American woman who adores peanut butter, it was kind of a no-brainer. I’ve made “cookies” that contained peanut butter cups before, but they were sort of… squidged? Yeah, that’s the word, into the top of the cookies, which were slightly more cake-like. These actually contain the cup inside the centre of the cookie. It’s the perfect amount of indulgence. I always get such funny looks from the cashier whenever I turn up at the till with a basket full of nothing but Reese’s cups. These went down an absolute treat at work with one of my colleagues asking me to bake them, and only them, once a week for the rest of my time with the company.

DSC_0220

Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Cookies
 
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Ingredients
  • 290-300g All-purpose Flour
  • Dash salt
  • 1 tsp Baking Powder
  • 115g Unsalted Butter
  • 150g White Granulated Sugar
  • 165g Packed Brown Sugar
  • 1½ tsp Vanilla extract
  • 2 Eggs
  • 150g Chocolate Chips (I used milk chocolate)
  • 12-15 Reese’s peanut butter cups
Instructions
  1. First of all, preheat your oven to 180°C (or 160°C fan).
  2. Cream together the butter and sugars until fluffy.
  3. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Followed by Vanilla.
  4. Separately mix together the flour, salt and baking powder before mixing it in slowly on a low speed. (At this point I noticed that my cookie dough was a tad too sticky so I added a bit more flour until it firmed up a little.)
  5. Fold in the chocolate chips.
  6. Now comes the fun bit.
 

Take a good sized dollop of the dough in your hand, don’t make it too large as this is just the base of the cookie. Squidge (yup, there’s that word again) the peanut butter cup into the top of the dough, flattening it slightly.

 

Squidge
Squidge

Take a similarly sized piece of the dough and cover the top of the cup, pushing it down around the edges of the cup.

Encased cup

Spread them out on a baking tray, covered with a baking sheet. Space them slightly, but don’t worry too much as they don’t spread a large amount. Press them down slightly.

Baking tray

Bake for 12 minutes, remove from the oven. Allow to cool slightly before transferring to a cooling rack.

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Fresh Cookies
They are incredible while still fresh and slightly gooey.

Reese’s Pieces Chip Cookies

- Michael 1 Comment
Peanut Butter Cookies

Now, here, is where my love affair with peanut butter starts to rear it’s beautiful peanutty head. I have a bit of a soft spot for Reese’s Pieces and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. Much of my baking has included them, and not just because of my own soft spot. I love baking for friends, and around 90% of them love peanut butter and American candy. This means that if I’m baking for a crowd, it’s a fairly good go-to thing. At the time, Reese’s Pieces were on offer at Sainsburys. Half price. I just couldn’t not stock up. My excuse of course was “well I can bake with them”. (Please excuse the lack of imagery with some of my earlier posts, I wasn’t in the habit of taking so many pictures back then).

Peanut Butter Cookies
Peanut butter infused glory.

Thus began my hunt for a Reese’s Pieces chip cookie recipe. I didn’t have to look far. Hershey’s obliged.

 

Reese's Pieces Chip Cookies
 
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Ingredients
  • 115g butter or margarine , softened
  • 100g granulated sugar
  • 110g packed light brown sugar
  • 170g Peanut Butter (I’m pretty penniless so for me it was own brand)
  • 1 egg
  • ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 130g all-purpose flour
  • ½ teaspoon baking soda
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • A couple of bags of Reese’s Pieces
  • Dark Chocolate chips (optional)
Instructions
  1. First things first. Pre-heat your oven to 180ºC and line a baking tray with a baking sheet.
  2. Cream the sugars and the butter together until fluffy. Cream in the peanut butter. I used a wooden spoon and some elbow grease for this, but a food mixer would be absolutely fine.
  3. Add in the egg and mix until fluffy.
  4. Meanwhile (if using a mixer), sift the flour into a bowl with the baking soda and salt.
  5. With the mixer on low, gradually add the flour mix into the mixture. If mixing by hand, add in instalments. Do this until the mixture is well combined.
  6. Finally, add in the Reese’s Pieces (and the chocolate if you’re using it. I like to do this just so it adds an extra dimension to the cookies, stops it being out and out peanut butter).
  7. Using teaspoons, drop on to the baking sheets. I sometimes vary the size here, so I have a few larger cookies, instead of loads of little ones.
  8. For firmer cookies, bake for 10-12 minutes or until the edges have browned slightly. If you’d prefer them to be a touch chewier, bake for around 9.
  9. Remove from the oven, allow to cool for a few minutes until they are solid enough to transfer to a cooling rack.
 

Coming Soon…

- admin Leave a comment

Welcome to the Bearded Bakery. Everything is in it’s early stages right now, but pretty soon I’ll be populating the site with a few of my earlier recipes and imagery. From cakes, to bread, cookies to cups I bake anything and everything, often with a little bit too much a lean towards peanut butter.

Cinnamon Rolls