Oatmeal Peanut Butter Banana Sandwiches

Hello again, friends of the baking community! It's been awhile, I know, and I wanted to give you an extra special gift for being patient! These are oatmeal peanut butter cookies, that happen to be gluten free, made into a sandwich that has pureed frozen banana in the center. 

I was not looking for a gluten free recipe but I came across this one which is lower in fat content and has no flour so I decided to try it out!  Be careful not to overcook these as they will get a weird consistency after cooling down but still yummy nonetheless. 

To update you on my life I have about one more week of classes, finals, and then I am finally headed home for a nice long summer which I am so excited about!  It has also been gorgeous weather in Portland, which is hard to believe, but it is so hard to sit inside and study when it is 75 degrees out!

My friends and I are huge Pinterest people and love to freeze pieces of frozen banana, throw them into the food processor or blender, and make it into a creamy ice cream that has just one ingredient: the bananas themselves! 

Beware: if cookies are just out of the oven they will be impossible to resist and sandwiches will be very messy.  So bring plenty of napkins. 

I used the peanut butter oatmeal chocolate chip cookies recipe from Ambitious Kitchen, which you guys should check out if you are interested. 

Ingredients:

This recipe makes 15-20 cookies.

1 cup creamy peanut butter
2/3 cup brown sugar
1.5 tsp. vanilla
2 eggs
2/3 oats
1 tsp. baking soda
2/3 cup chocolate chips
2 sliced frozen bananas 

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350.
2. In a small bowl combine oats and baking soda.
3. In a separate larger bowl mix together peanut butter, brown sugar, eggs, and vanilla with an electric mixer.  Then, add the dry ingredients and chocolate chips and mix until combined.

4. Roll into 1.5 inch balls and place 2 inches apart on a cookie sheet.  Press down lightly to flatten slightly before placing in the oven for 9-11 minutes.  Remove when the edges start to turn golden brown. 

5. While your cookies are baking, make the banana puree.  You should already have 2 frozen sliced bananas that have been in the freezer for at least 4 hours.  Place in a food processor and blend until creamy! 

   

6. Place between 2 cookies and INDULGE! 

These are not difficult at all so I hope you try it out and make again! Happy baking! 

Oatmeal Peanut Butter Heath Bar Cookies

It was a late night.  I could feel the need for baking rushing through my blood.  I spotted the Heath Bar bits in my freezer, the Quaker Oats staring me in the eye from the pantry, and the smooth peanut butter not far off.  The combination was meant to be! 

I quickly looked up some sort of recipe that I could go off of to get me started but exchanged the Heath Bar for the chocolate chips that were required in this recipe: Simply Scratch.

Right now I am sitting in my living room drowning in Kleenex and wishing that I could be going for a run in this beautiful California weather.  But I can't because I have one clogged ear, two runny nostrils, and a burning throat.  To top it off I was blessed with this state while on vacation in Cabo San Lucas with my mom!  I have to return to school in 2 or 3 days and really hope I am better because flying with this monster was no fun the first time around! 

Anyways... I would love to bake right now but everyone is afraid of me so sadly I guess that won't happen until I am healthy (it's probably for the best).  

So yes, these cookies were delicious and easy and fabulous and you must try them and I am sorry for my lack of imagination today as I am not feeling very zippy. 

Here we go:

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups of Quaker oats

1 cup all purpose flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

2 sticks unsalted butter

1 cup smooth peanut butter

3/4 cup dark brown sugar, packed

3/4 cup granulated sugar

2 eggs

3/4 tsp. vanilla

1 cup Heath Bar bits (or more if you want)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350.

Combine the dry ingredients in a medium sized bowl: oats, flour, whole wheat flour, baking soda, and salt.

Combine butter, peanut butter, and sugars in an electric mixer and mix until fully incorporated (a few minutes).

Add eggs one at a time followed by the vanilla.

While mixing on low speed, slowly add in the dry ingredients and mix until combined.  

Stir in Heath Bar bits.

Form round spoonfuls of cookie dough onto a lined cookie sheet and place evenly apart, allowing room for expansion. 

Press lightly down on each ball of cookie dough to flatten slightly.

Bake for 10-13 minutes and remove from the oven to allow them to cool on a rack.

Enjoy with milk while warm and gooey! Happy Baking and next time you hear from me it will most likely be from Portlandia!

Peanut Butter Hershey's Kiss Cookies

These peanut butter chocolate cookies are decadent and so ridiculously easy.  Only 4 ingredients are needed: peanut butter, sugar, eggs, and Hershey's chocolate kisses.  No flour, no baking powder, no hassle.  

I could not believe it when I saw the recipe but my boyfriends mom insisted she had made them plenty of times and that they come out delicious.  This could not be more true! 

You have to try these.  They take 10 minutes at the most to create and only 10 more to bake! And they taste amazing right out of the oven with the melted warm chocolate.  They disappeared so fast and I am already craving more already.

I hope everyone is getting ready for the new year, 2013 here we come!

Again, I want to acknowledge that I got this recipe from my boyfriends mom, Sharon, so she receives worthy credit. 

Ingredients: 

This makes 35-40 peanut butter chocolate cookies.

2 cups granulated sugar
2 eggs
2 cups creamy peanut butter
35-40 chocolate Hershey's kisses 

Directions: 

Preheat the oven to 350.  

Mix together using a wooden spoon or spatula the sugar, eggs, and peanut butter until full combined.

Roll the dough into 1-inch balls and place spread apart onto 2 ungreased nonstick cookie sheets. 

Bake in the oven for about 10 minutes, or until the edges start to turn a light golden brown color. 

Remove from the oven and immediately place the Hershey's kiss into the center of the cookie.  (Make sure to insert it far enough in so that it is secure but not so that it goes all the way through)

Enjoy and consume while warm, mmm mmm good!

I told you it was easy! A must try holiday treat to bring forth the New Year! Hope you are all having a wonderful weekend. 

Happy baking! 

Rachael Ray Oven Lovin Nonstick Crispy Cookie Sheet (Google Affiliate Ad)

Banana, Oatmeal, Chocolate Chunk, and Reeses Bars

Let me start by saying these were gone in 24 hours.  I do live in a dorm with tons of hungry teenagers, but still, they disappeared in the blink of an eye. 

It was hard to come up with a title for these.  Technically they were made in a 9x13 pan and should be called bars.  But they were moist and had a more fluffy texture so it was more like bread than a bar.  I guess it falls somewhere it between.  

There is a plethora of wonderful ingredients in here but some of them include: oats, overripe bananas, chopped Reeses, and chocolate chips.  Can't get much better than that can it? 

After it was done baking, I melted some chocolate chips with a few tablespoons of heavy whipping cream and drizzled it over the top.  A must do.  

I am on "Fall Break" right now, which is just a few days off of school and it is quite nice to have a mental break.  I'm at Willamette University right now visiting my boy, and it's his 20th birthday next week! Because I can't be here with him on his special day we are going to make a cake together and have a pre-birthday celebration.

Back to the recipe... I made this in between classes one day and it was really simple so if you are in a crunch it's a good one to do!  I had 2 seriously overripe bananas that I'd bought and was trying to figure out what to do with them (I hate wasting food).  Breakfast muffins?  Chocolate chip muffins?  Banana bread? Smoothie?

I finally arrived at this!

This recipe was inspired (but changed a bit) by the Bon Appetit cookbook.

This was the sad last piece left!

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup oats

1 tbsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

2 sticks unsalted butter, room temp

1 1/4 cups sugar

1 cup packed brown sugar

2 eggs

2 very ripe bananas

2 tsp. vanilla

1/2-1 cup chocolate chips

4-6 Reeses cups, chopped

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350. 

Take two bananas that look like this:

And turn them into this: 

Mush up thoroughly with a fork until you reach a smooth consistency. 

Blend the dry ingredients in a separate medium sized bowl: flour, oats, baking powder, and salt. 

In a large mixing bowl combine the butter and sugar with an electric mixer.

Then, add both eggs, one at a time.

Beat in the banana mush mixture, followed by the vanilla.

Stir the flour mixture slowly into the wet ingredients.

Stir in the chocolate chips and Reeses cups (determine the amount yourself based on how much chocolate you want).  

Pour the mixture into a pre-greased 9x13 baking pan.  

Bake until the top is golden brown at 350 for about 35-45 minutes. 

Once they have been removed from the oven allow to cool completely.

I took some chocolate chips (about 1/4 cup) and a few tablespoons of whipping cream to reach a thin consistency and drizzled it over the top for some added oomph. 

If you like bananas and chocolate I can guarantee you will LOVE these.   

Sidenote:

I am from San Francisco and am a huge Giants fan.  The NLDS can be summed up in one word: torture.  Not only are we the first National League team to come back and win the series from an 0-2 deficit.  The Cincinnati Reds had not been swept 3 games in a row at home all season.  Let's go Giants and let's continue to kick some butt in the NLCS. 

Happy Friday and Happy Baking!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Mini Cheesecakes

College Cooking Episode #2!  Reeses are by far my favorite candy in the world.  Chocolate and peanut butter, independently, are way up there on my favorite foods list and when combined... oh don't even get me started.

This was my first time making cheesecake so I am definitely a rookie and made a few minor mistakes but we have to make mistakes to learn, right? 

I would eat cheesecake every day if I could but my conscience won't let me.  I guess its for the best. 

This particular cheesecake has an Oreo crust, a peanut butter cheesecake, a chocolate ganache topping, and chopped up Reese's to put on top.  The recipe makes about 12 mini's or one whole cheesecake.  I had to use my cupcake pan because its all I had, but I would recommend using something made specifically for cheesecakes if you have it.  

Last week, when I somehow ended up doing the most baking I've done since I have been here, I had so much going on.  I had my chemistry and biology midterms as well as my boyfriend running the Portland marathon on Sunday.  He had a fabulous time of about 3 hours and 23 minutes, which is around a 7:45/mile pace.  I am so proud of him and just wanted to make sure I acknowledged it here. 

This recipe is inspired by the blog, Gimme Some Oven.

Ingredients:

This recipe makes about 12 mini cheesecakes. 

For the oreo crust:

1 cup finely chopped Oreo's

2 tbsp. melted butter

For the peanut butter cheesecakes:

16 oz. softened cream cheese

1/2 cup smooth peanut butter

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

2 eggs

1/4 cup heavy whipping cream

1/2 tsp. vanilla

For the chocolate ganache:

1 cup chocolate chips

3 tbsp. heavy whipping cream

1 tbsp. powdered sugar

*Also: chopped up Reese's candy for garnish.

Directions:

For the oreo crust:

Finely chop up 1 cup of Oreo's. 

Melt butter in a microwave safe bowl and add in the chopped oreos. Mix well.  

Evenly distribute the crust among 12 pre-greased cupcake slots. 

Push down to the bottom and flatten with a spoon so it it just the base. 

Bake the crust at 350 degrees for 5 minutes. 

For the peanut butter cheesecake: 

Tips: 

1) Bake in a water bath.

2) Do not open the oven while they are baking.

3) The center should still be a little jiggly when they are done cooking. 

4) Do not over mix/beat the batter.

With an electric mixer combine peanut butter and softened cream cheese until thoroughly mixed. 

Add sugar and continue mixing until combined.  Then, add in eggs one at a time, followed by the cream and vanilla, mixing until it is just combined. 

Transfer the batter to the baking pan with a spoon or ice cream scoop, filling each container as much as possible.  Bake at 350 for 13-15 minutes or until they are starting to turn brown and the majority of the surface has firmed up.  

When they are done baking, open the oven a crack and let cool for 15 minutes, then remove from the oven and let them cool completely before attempting to separate them from the pan.  This is necessary as cheesecakes are very sensitive to sudden changes in temperature. 

Refrigerate for several hours before topping with ganache and Reeses. 

For the chocolate ganache: 

Melt the chocolate chips and cream in a microwave safe bowl in 15 second intervals until it has reached the consistency you want.  

Add 1 or more tbsp. of powdered sugar to thicken.  Feel free to increase the recipe size by about 50% as I found that it would have been better if it was spilling off the sides.  

After the cheesecakes are done chilling, transfer the ganache to the top of the cheesecakes.  I did this by spooning it on and spreading with a knife but choose whatever method you prefer. 

Last but surely not least: top with Reeses!

I already miss these things- they were so yummy and I will definitely be making them again at some point with my lessons learned on what to do the next time around.  

My hall mates were not disappointed.  Cute look Jordan... 

As always feel free to contact me with any questions and I hope you give these a shot.  You honestly cannot go wrong with this combination of ingredients. 

Happy October and Happy baking!