Homemade Almond Butter

So I really, really love any kind of nut butter. I will eat peanut butter with a spoon and look for reasons to slather Nutella on anything tasty. Naturally, I'm in a bit of a dilemma for a few reasons. Most big brands put who-knows-what in their nut butters to help "shelf life" and "color preservation". And while they are delicious, I don't love eating such processed food. Here's the kicker--brands that don't use all these gross ingredients are really expensive. As a result of this, I've been living a nut-butter-free life for a little while. Sad, right?

Well, not anymore. My awesome cousin gave me her old food processor and it's rapidly changing my life. Homemade almond butter is the first thing I made--literally the only ingredient is almonds. It's super easy to make, and unbelievably delicious. Also, almonds are cheaper than almond butter, so I can (sort of) justify this as saving money. Right? Let's pretend that that's how money management works.

You will need:
 -Food processor
 -Almonds
 -Neutral-tasting oil, ex. canola oil. (optional)

To get about one cup of almond butter, start by dumping two cups of almonds (with the skins) into your food processor. Lock the lid in place, and process!

Stop and scrape the sides down occasionally. Make sure you get that little crease where the sides meet the bottom! Also, don't let your fingers go anywhere near the blade. It's incredibly sharp and I'm sort of afraid of it.

Keep processing! It will get lumpy--at one point, it will probably clump up into a giant ball and you'll think that you've completely ruined it, but never fear. Scrape the sides down and continue processing, it will become smooth, I promise!

After about four minutes of processing, you will be left with wonderfully smooth almond butter. I wanted mine to be a little less sticky, so while the processor was doing its thing, I drizzled about half a teaspoon of canola oil through the safety tube. This just gives it a little extra smoothness.

If you want crunchy butter, you'll do this process slightly differently; you'll start by pulsing about half a cup of almonds four or five times. Then, place those to the side, and make the almond butter as shown above. When it's reached the desired consistency, throw those chopped almonds back into the processor and pulse two or three times. Boom! Now you have chunky almond butter.

This stuff is absolutely incredible. Flavorful, sticky, and nutty, this is better than any store brand that I've tried. And the best part? It only takes a few minutes and a few dollars to make in my own home. Store yours in a sealed container in the refrigerator--it should keep for a while, if it doesn't all disappear within a few days! I'm so delighted that this almond butter turned out so beautifully, and I'm really excited to experiment with other nut butters, as well as other food processor goodies.

You can make any kind of nut butter with this method. Buy your own peanuts, macadamias, or hazelnuts, and process away! You may surprise yourself with how delicious and simple it is to make your own high-quality nut butters.

My kitchen is starting to become more and more legitimate as the time progresses--I no longer have to use a fork to cream butter and sugar, for example! I can't wait to continue sharing more recipes as I utilize my awesome gadgets.

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Peanut Butter Jelly Muffins

Well, here at Study Central, I've started counting down the days until spring break. Everyone's up to their eyeballs in midterms and desperately wishing that vacation would come just a little faster. 

I've been brainstorming countless recipes to make and share, but I sort of ran into blogger's block for a week. It seemed that everything I wanted to make was too similar to things I've posted recently. However, on Sunday afternoon, I had a bit of a brainwave.

I've had peanut butter on my mind lately, but I wanted to steer clear of its usual companion; chocolate. If you're really craving some chocolate-peanut butter action, I recommend you head over to my peanut butter swirl brownies--but I digress.

I made these peanut butter jelly "muffins" in bar form a few years ago, and had completely forgotten about them until my brainwave. Peanut butter dough sandwiching a layer of jelly, with some crunchy peanuts on top--count me in. I didn't have a small enough pan, so I brought out my trusty muffin tin and hoped for the best.

They're absolutely delicious and perfect for a breakfast on the go. Peanutty yet bright, rich but still light, these babies are sure to please everyone with a soul who has a hankering for that old PB&J taste.

You will need:

 -1/2 cup (1 stick) of unsalted butter, softened

 -3/4 cup of peanut butter (chunky or smooth, doesn't matter)
 -3/4 cup of light brown sugar

 -1 1/2 cups of flour

 -1 egg

 -1 tsp vanilla extract

 -pinch of baking powder

 -1/4 tsp salt

 -1 cup coarsely chopped peanuts

 -3/4 cup jelly of choice

Oven temperature: 350˚F

Start by mixing your peanut butter, butter, and sugar together. Use an electric mixer unless you're looking for an arm workout. 

Next, add your egg and vanilla. Keep mixing until it's all combined.

Then, add your dry ingredients--flour, salt, and baking powder. Keep combining until it holds together. Use your hands to sort of knead it a little bit if you'd like. At this point, divide your dough in half, and put one half in the freezer.

Lightly grease a muffin tin. Push your dough into each well to make an even layer. Use all of the dough, and try to put an even amount in each one.

Fill a tablespoon measure about 3/4 full with your jelly, then spread over each muffin base. Again, try and get this as even as possible! As the muffins cook, the jelly will bubble, and you do not want hot, sticky jelly all over your oven or yourself. Trust me on that one.

Next, take the other half of the dough out of the freezer and crumble it over each muffin. Push it down into the jelly to make it stick. They can be pretty large dough chunks, but they really do add a lot to the texture.

Finally, top with your chopped peanuts, pressing down to make them stick in the dough. Pop them in your preheated oven for 15-20 minutes, or until the jelly is bubbling and the peanuts are golden. 

Remove from the oven and let them cool completely before attempting to dislodge the muffins from the tin. If you try and get them out while they're still warm, the jelly will make them slide around and disintegrate. Pop them in the fridge for a bit if you're extremely pressed for time, then pry them out with a knife when they're cool.

These dense little muffins are probably going to be my breakfast for the next few days. They keep well and taste delicious for as long as it takes to be consumed. One friend told me that these little beauties are even better than the classic peanut butter and jelly sandwich--I can't help but agree!

They're really easy, don't take any weird ingredients, and come together rapidly. These muffins are hopefully going to provide me with the energy to get through to spring break!

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Peanut Butter Swirl Brownies

It was inevitable, really. I've been interested in cooking and baking since I was four and I have never made brownies from scratch before this recipe. Really. Never.

Well, folks, it has finally happened. I took the plunge and deviated from my usual Ghiradelli Triple Chocolate brownies for some homemade chocolate-y goodness. I used an extremely basic brownie recipe, and added a ton of chocolate chips and a peanut butter swirl. Let me tell you, this one is a winner. I gave literally all of them away so they wouldn't sit in my kitchen. All my friends were texting me telling me how amazing these were. Trust me, totally worth the effort.

You will need:
 -8 oz semi-sweet baking chocolate
 -1/4 cup of unsalted butter
 -1 cup of dark brown sugar, packed
 -1 tsp vanilla extract
 -1/2 cup all-purpose flour
 -1 tsp baking powder
 -1/2 tsp salt
 -2 large eggs, room temperature
 -3/4 cup of chocolate chips
 -1/3 cup of smooth peanut butter

Oven temp: 325˚F.

Start by taking your chocolate and breaking it into smaller pieces. I thought I was going to use the knife and then I realized that Baker's chocolate is meant to snap easily, so the knife was for decoration. Looks legit though, so I suppose that's all that counts?

Melt your chocolate and butter in a bain marie.

Disregarding the French name, it's actually a super easy way of melting sensitive ingredients without any danger of water contamination or burning. You'll set up the bain marie by filling a saucepan with a few inches of water, then heating to a nice simmer. Place a heatproof bowl snugly over the top, making sure the bottom of the bowl doesn't touch the surface of the water. Boom! That's it! Place your chocolate and butter in the bowl and stir constantly until everything's fully melted and combined, about five minutes. Once it's done, set aside for another five minutes to cool.

Add the sugar to the cooled chocolate mix. Stir it up really well, because you do not want any lumps!

It will look very grainy once all the sugar has been incorporated. Make sure you scrape the bottom of the bowl as you mix so that you don't miss mixing anything in.

Add eggs one at a time to the mixture. Crack one in, then mix like crazy. The batter will get much more liquid-y as you mix, but make sure that all of the first egg is incorporated before you add the second egg! You want no bits of raw egg visible in the mix.

In a separate small bowl, mix together the flour, salt, and baking powder. It's that straightforward!

Add the flour mixture to the chocolate mixture. You can just throw it on in there...

...and stir it up! Again, make sure that you are completely combining the two mixtures. Scrape the sides and the bottom of the bowl in order to confirm that you're not missing out on anything.

Hey, this looks familiar, right? This is when I started to breathe easier because it looked a heck of a lot like the premade brownie mixtures of my past. The batter should be completely smooth and reasonably runny. Make double sure that there are no clumps of flour left in the batter!

Now, add your chocolate chips. I added 3/4 of a cup, but feel free to scale down or up as needed. I found that these made the brownies extremely chocolate chip-y, but that's really how I like them. They would still be delicious without, I'm sure! You could also add peanut butter chips or nuts if you so desire. Just chuck 'em in and mix it all up.

Pour/dollop the batter into a greased baking ban. My apartment only has a 13x9 pan so I used that... honestly, sometimes I think my blog could be accurately titled "Janky Kitchen Adventures" but I don't think it's super catchy.

For the peanut butter swirl: Microwave the peanut butter in ten second increments until it's very runny... obviously a scientific term. Once it's sufficiently liquified, pour it on top of the brownie batter and run your knife through it a few times. I tried to get it sort of evenly distributed, but it's not a huge deal. Think of it as avant-garde baking.

Here you can see the method to the madness in greater detail. It's really that easy--stick your knife in the mix and drag it around.

Now, stick the brownies in the oven. I kept mine in for 27 minutes and they were a little gooey for my taste, so I would recommend keeping them in for thirty minutes. Check for doneness when a toothpick (or in my case, a knife) comes out clean.

For smaller pans (8x8, 9x9) I would guess that they would take closer to forty minutes. However, check for doneness regularly by the toothpick test and noticing if the brownies are pulling away from the edges of the pan.

Since these were pretty thin brownies, I gave my friends huge pieces. And dang, were they a hit. Rich chocolate flavor, with molten chocolate chips, and that delicious peanut butter undercurrent... yum. I'm insanely proud of my first foray into brownies from scratch!

These took about an hour to make, start-to-finish. While I will never discourage the use of Ghiradelli mixes (let's be real, they're dang good), I have to say that homemade brownies are simply incomparable. They are gooey, rich, and absolutely delicious. I highly recommend these for an easy recipe that produces some show-stopping brownies.

Also, in humble-brag news, my amazing friend Natasha interviewed me for part of an article on O2 Max Fitness about how to eat healthily in college! I'm so honored and flattered that people besides my parents (love ya, mum and dad) read this little blog. You can find the article here.

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No-Bake Peanut Butter Pie

As I told you a week ago, I needed to bake something for my boss's birthday. He absolutely loves peanut butter--much to his wife's dismay. So, in order to please them both, I tried to find a healthy dessert that had a strong peanut presence.

Ladies and gents, after much deliberation, I present to you a no-bake peanut butter pie. I got the recipe from one of my favorite dessert blogs: Sally's Baking Addiction. Her recipe used a lot of low-fat and fat-free versions of ingredients to make it "skinny", but to be honest, "reduced fat" doesn't mean it's healthier. It just means that the manufacturer uses a more obscure chemical ingredient to make the fat content go down. I'm not really comfortable with eating a lot of food with mystery ingredients, so I eat the real stuff as much as possible. Hey, it's not like I eat dessert all the time, right?

There was a major heatwave in New England over the holiday weekend, but today the temperature hovered right around 70˚ all day. Feasibly, I could have used the oven and been totally fine, but I really, really wanted to make this lil' frozen pie. Just look at it!

You will need:
 -24 Oreos (the only time I will recommend regular, not Double Stuf)
 -1/2 stick of melted butter
 -1/2 cup + 2 tbps creamy peanut butter
 -1/2 cup granulated sugar
 -1/4 cup milk
 -8 oz room temperature Neufchatel cheese (healthier alternative to cream cheese, and tastes almost identical)
 -8 oz thawed Cool Whip (Fun fact: I had to call my mom to find this in the supermarket)
 -3/4 cup of crushed Reese's Pieces
 -1/2 bar of dark chocolate

Wrangle your food processor out from the depths of its cabinet. Throw your Oreos inside. (and take an extra from the packet for yourself, clearly) Process until the Oreos are fine crumbs. It kind of really resembles soil... there's actually a dessert for kids that is essentially ground-up Oreos with a gummy worm sticking up from the middle. Sounds charming, right?

Add your melted butter to the crumbs and process until it all comes together. It should seem pretty dry still, but that's fine. Also, just to note that the original recipe calls for the oreo crumbs and the butter to be mixed by hand, but I was feeling lazy... and my mother is terrified of me touching the processor blade. Thanks for watching out for my fingers, mama. And remember; it's your pie, so it's up to you how you mix the butter and the crumbs!

Press the crumbs into a 9- or 10-inch pie pan. Pack it down into an even layer, and try to make the crust go as far up the sides of the pan as possible.

That's it! You're done with the crust now! Stick that sucker in the freezer while you make the filling.

Well, this looks vaguely phallic and disturbing.

Combine the peanut butter, sugar, Neufchatel, and milk in a large bowl. Mix until smooth. I highly recommend using an electric mixer--I used a wooden spoon and it took way longer than I thought it would. I also tried (and failed) to use my left hand because my right was so sore.

It will look like this. Seriously, spare yourself the trouble and use the electric mixer.

Now, fold the Cool Whip into the mixture, using about a third of the container at a time. If you're not sure about your folding capabilities, check this tutorial out. Once the Cool Whip is incorporated, the filling is done!

It's time to assemble! Get your crust out of the freezer and dollop half of the filling in. Smooth it out with a knife, then add half of the crushed Reese's Pieces.

Then, add the other half of the filling and top with the remaining candies. See? Isn't that easy!?

For the chocolate drizzle: Coarsely chop up the chocolate bar, then put it into a microwave-safe dish. Nuke it for thirty seconds, then take out and stir. Repeat until the chocolate is all melted. As soon as it's fully liquid, drizzle it on top of the pie. I had thought about writing "Happy Birthday" on top, but I thought that may be a little too ambitious.

Pop this bad boy back in the freezer for at least four hours before serving. Let it thaw for twenty minutes before serving.

My boss has yet to see/consume his pie, but I'm eagerly anticipating his reaction. His wife seemed okay with the idea of a "lighter" peanut butter dessert, so I say mission accomplished!

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