BAKED Sunday Mornings: Chocolate Peanut Butter Spread

So I might loose all my foodie cred for telling you this but I don't like Nutella. I honestly don't understand the appeal. When I saw this week's recipe was chocolate hazelnut spread I was not excited. However, I do love peanut butter and when I had the idea to replace the hazelnuts with peanuts, then I was super excited!

I urge anyone who loves the chocolate peanut butter combo to do this. It is so easy and delicious. You just whir peanuts, cocoa powder, sugar and a bit of oil in the food processor and you come out with this rich and yummy spread. 

I also used the spread to make scones, based on the Nutella scones from baked. Instead of chopped hazelnuts, I used mini chocolate peanut butter cups. Insane!

Check out what some of the other bloggers did here.

Cookie Butter/Biscoff/Speculoos...Whatever You Call It, It is Yum!

Cookie Butter.  Biscoff.  Speculoos. There doesn't seem to be a tremendous amount of agreement about what to call this spread, but whatever you call it, it is delicious.  It is a little spicy, a little sweet, a little cinnamon-y and a lot of yum.  There doesn't actually seem to be a lot of reason to cook with it, when you can just eat it straight from the jar or spread on toast, but I thought I would try something different.  

I always look for excuses to eat cookies for breakfast and scones are just a way of eating a cookie in the morning.  This scone recipe comes from King Arthur Flour.  It has a five star rating and recipes from that site with a high rating have never failed me.  I love the way they explain everything and lay it out step by step.  These scone were tender, with a great crumb and a sweet cinnamon flavor from the cookie butter (which I bought at Trader Joe's, by the way).  In the recipe, there is a glaze but I skipped it and just spread the cookie butter directly on the scones.  A tasty morning or anytime treat (and they freeze really well!).

You can find the recipe here.

Baked Sunday Mornings: I'm Back!

Life is slowly returning to the new normal -- life with two kids and a traveling husband -- so I have finally been able to return to Baked Sunday Mornings.  The group is actually now baking from two books: Baked Explorations and the new book, Baked Elements.  These are from the latter book.  I have been following along, but the last few recipes have been more complicated than I could do at the time.  However, when I saw these Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip scones, I thought they would be the perfect thing to mark my return.

These were a snap to put together and full of delicious ingredients.  Sometimes, scones can be dry, but I think the addition of the peanut butter and the chewiness of the oats keep them nice and moist.  I actually thought mine were a little underdone when I looked at them, but it turns out that that is just how they look.  I really enjoyed this combination.  The peanut butter is not overwhelming and you can really taste each of the ingredients.  The only thing I would change is that the scones were huge!  I would cut them into smaller pieces, because I'm not sure anyone can finish one in one sitting.  You can find the recipe here and be sure to check back to see what other bakers have done.

Delicious Scones (Not Just For Breakfast)

Apologies for the extended hiatus.  Our grandmother passed away last week.  Unlike our mother, who has many wonderful qualities, but cooking is not among them, our grandmother was a terrific cook.  Perhaps cooking skill skips a generation or something, but some of our fondest memories include spending time with our grandmother as she cooked Thanksgiving dinner (while refusing to let anyone else help).  She was also an avid gardener and there were always fruits and veggies in the house that she had picked from her garden.  She will be tremendously missed by her many friends and family.


I tried to think of what I had baked recently that would be an appropriate tribute to our grandmother.  However, I don't really remember her baking too much.  The thing that I do remember is that times at her house were always special and these scones are certainly something that you might serve if you wanted a breakfast to be extra special.  


These scones are super easy to make.  All you need is a bowl, a fork and your fingers and you can make something really delicious.  I often think of scones as dry and not very appealing to eat, but these are flakey and they melt in your mouth.  Dorie's original recipe calls for currants, but I used chocolate chips instead.  These would be really good with any kind of dried fruit or mini chocolate chips or nuts or whatever you can think of.  You can whip up a batch any time you want to, because they are so easy.  You can also freeze the dough and bake them straight from the freezer or freeze the completed scones and warm them in the oven.  See...very versatile.   


Happy Scone-ing!


Recipe is after the jump...