Little Bits of Amazing!!!

What is it about Christmas music that makes cooking that much more enjoyable? I absolutely love to listen to music whenever I am cooking... but somehow when baking my thoughts seem to drift to Christmas music... Tis the season I guess!!!

Have you ever had a recipe that calls for you to melt a stick or more of butter... Well I was always the type who would just throw the whole stick in and swirl it around... all the while wondering why it is taking forever... Well my friends I have changed my ways... I now cut my butter in slices... like 4-6 slices per stick... now I do not have to wait for what seems like forever for my butter to melt... now I know this is something I should have known to do... but it never once occurred to me... I was to busy being impatient to rethink my process until ... well... now.

So I have been craving peanut butter cups lately... and I was searching and searching for just the right recipe... but was not finding one that called to me... so I put it on the back burner so to say. Well today I decided to resume my search and I found something that looked promising... but of course being me I had to do some tweaking... and I must say... I am not sure what the originals were supposed to taste like... but the ones I made are pretty freaking scrumptious!

So without further delay.....

Peanut Butter Cups

Ingredients:

1 cup creamy peanut butter

3/4 stick of butter

1 1/4 cups powdered sugar

1 1/4 cups crushed gingersnap cookies (fine crumb)

1 tsp vanilla
36 oz chocolate (milk chocolate or semi-sweet)

Approx 75 mini cupcake liners

Directions:

Melt butter and peanut butter in a saucepan. In a large bowl combine gingersnap crumbs and powdered sugar. Mix well. Add peanut butter mixture and vanilla to the crumb mixture. Mix well. **Just a note... this mixture might seem a bit crumbly... but it should cohere if you squeeze it in your hand!** Melt the chocolate in a double boiler. If no double boiler is available, use two saucepans, one on top of the other. Boil about 2” of water in the bottom pan. Put the chocolate in the top pan to melt. While chocolate is melting take your mini cupcake liners and place them on a large baking sheet. Once chocolate is melted use a spoon and place a little in each cup making sure to cover the whole bottom. Once all the liners have chocolate in them take the melted chocolate off the burner so you don't burn it. Then take about a teaspoon size scoop of the peanut butter mixture and using your palms roll it into a ball. Then take the ball and pat it into a small patty **it should be no bigger then the size of the cupcake liner** and place on top of the chocolate in the cupcake liner. While you are making the last few patties start to rewarm your chocolate. Once all cupcake liners have a peanut butter patty in them you can use your spoon to put chocolate over the top of the patties. Make sure to cover the patty all the way. Once you have covered them all slide your baking sheet with your liners into the fridge and cool for at least 30 minutes.

Word to the wise... these are amazing and addictive. I made and gave some out today and so far the feedback is that they were 9 out of 10 when using the semi sweet and 10 out of 10 when using the milk chocolate. As you can see this recipe makes quite a large batch, so they can be shared. Well hope you all have fun making these little bits of amazing... I know I did!

Have you ever had a pie that you really really loved... I L-O-V-E pumpkin pie... I have for a long time... years upon years... Sure there was a time I did not care for it... but I was a kid then... so I blame it on undeveloped taste buds. I mean... come on at that age I used to think it was perfectly fine to microwave a grilled cheese sandwich... not much grilling going on there!

Anyway... so I have a love for pumpkin pie. One day a few years back I discovered something else that was a nice addition to my pumpkin pie and it was gingersnap crust... yes it was a very welcome addition. I thought to myself... This is it... pumpkin pie can not get any better then with a gingersnap crust...

I was wrong... I was so so SO wrong! This past Thanksgiving I came across a recipe that sounded as if it could have a chance at being good. It was for Apple Butter Pumpkin pie... I thought... Why not... I will give it a whirl. Then it hit me...

Have you ever watched the cartoon bit where the person is walking and they step on a rake and it comes up and smacks them in the face... Whenever I say an idea hit me... That is what I think of... but that is neither here nor there... so back to the point...

It hit me... Apple Butter Pumpkin Pie with a Gingersnap crust! It sounded brilliant... So I took my two recipes... did a little tweaking of them to mesh them together and made the pie... We had it on Thanksgiving... I was a little worried about it... Would it be good... What if it was a disaster and no one would ever trust my cooking/baking again... Well I dished it out and.... oh yeah... you guessed it... It was a hit! So I figured... hey what a great recipe to open my new blog with... so here it is!

Apple Butter Pumpkin Pie W/ Gingersnap Crust

Ingredients for crust:

1 3/4 cups gingersnap cookie crumbs
3 tablespoons butter, melted
2 tablespoons white sugar

Ingredients for pie filling:
1 cup apple butter
1 cup canned pumpkin
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 eggs, lightly beaten
3/4 cup evaporated milk

Directions for crust:

Preheat oven to 325F. Combine cookie crumbs, granulated sugar, and melted butter in a 9 inch pie pan. Press into sides. Bake for 8 minutes. Cool completely.

Directions for Pie:

Preheat oven to 425F. In a large bowl, combine the apple butter, pumpkin, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Add eggs. Gradually beat in milk until smooth. Pour into prepared crust.
Bake at 425F for 35-40 minutes or until set. Cool on a wire rack.

**I have never found any store that sells gingersnap crumbs... so you will have to make your own... Now I have tried many different ways of crushing the cookies to make the crumbs myself... and I will tell you the EASY way... I know you will be tempted to use a blender... or some other mechanical doo-dad you have in your kitchen... but don't... All you need are two things... First a Ziplock Freezer bag (you want the gallon size freezer bag because it is big and thick... so the cookies don't rip the plastic) and second you will need a rolling pin. Now here is what you do... Put about 8-10 little cookies in the bag... take most of the air out... zip it shuts... give each cookies a good whack with the rolling pin to break it into smaller chunks... then take the rolling pin and roll the cookie bits out... it turns into a nice crumb... no big pieces at all... Once you have them all crumbled... put them in your measuring cup and grab a few more and do it again until you get the right amount for the recipe. :)

Well I hope you all enjoy this little recipe... I know I sure did! Also... Here are two pictures of the pie for your viewing pleasure... One with whipped cream for those who like it... and one with no whipped cream because sometimes there are a few freaks out there... like my brother... who don't like the stuff! ;)