Peanut Butter Chocolate Cookies

These remind me of " yin - yang " !  When making these cookies, you will be mixing 2 smallish batches of dough, chilling them and then rolling a lot of little balls (45-50 each).

Heat the oven to 350º.

Chocolate dough - mix together all ingredients in this order. Wrap in plastic & chill 1 hr:
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
2 Tblsp. milk
1/2 cup + 2 Tblsp. cocoa powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1 cup flour
1/2 cup mini semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup bittersweet chocolate chips
WRAP & CHILL 1 HR.

Peanut Butter dough - mix together all ingred. in this order. Wrap in plastic & chill 1 hr:
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg
3/4 cup peanut butter
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1-1/4 cups flour
1/2 cup mini semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup bittersweet chocolate chips
WRAP & CHILL 1 HR.

This works best if you quickly roll all the balls first (peanut butter first, and then chocolate) - if you alternate and make 1 cookie at a time, it's messy and you get chocolate all over your hands, mixing it onto the PB dough.

Roll each type of dough into small balls (1 level tsp. or so - don't forget - you're combining 2 balls per cookie!).  After they're all rolled into balls, take one of each and quickly roll them together between the palms of your hand.  Just a few 'spins' is all you need.  Place the balls into parchment lined baking pans (or greased sheets) - bake for 11-13 minutes.  Remove from the oven, let sit for a minute and then remove the cookies onto cooling racks.

Chocolate Chip Cheesecake

Heat your oven to 350º.
Have a 8-9" springform pan ready, with the bottom lightly greased.
For the crust - in a small mixing bowl, combine ingredients and press onto the bottom of the prepared pan:

1-1/2 cups crushed Oreo cookies
1/2 cup crushed graham crackers
4 Tblsp. melted butter

Place in oven and bake 10 minutes. Remove to a wire rack to cool slightly and lower the oven temperature to 325º.

In a mixing bowl, using an electric mixer (low speed - don't use a high speed!!), combine the following ingredients:

4- 8 oz. packages of softened cream cheese
1-1/4 cup sugar
4 eggs
1 teasp. vanilla
2 Tblsp. flour
1/2 cup heavy (whipping) cream
FOLD IN:
1-1/2 cups mini semisweet chocolate chips.

Spoon into pan over crust.  Place in oven and bake for 1 hour.  Open the oven door - gently tap the side of the pan. If the center is still a little 'jiggly' close the door and bake another 10-15 minutes.  Check again.  Do this until the center isn't jiggling anymore, but being careful NOT to OVERbake it - or the top will crack.  Once the cheesecake is done, turn the oven off but LEAVE it IN the oven with the door ajar for an hour or two, until it sets.  Remove from oven and place on a wire rack (room temp) until it's completely cool.

You can either leave it 'as is' - or 'frost' it with sour cream (sweetened with a little sugar & a splash of vanilla) OR you can spoon a chocolate ganache over the top. Then it must be refrigerated for at least several hours.

To make the ganache,   in a small sauce pan over a VERY low heat,  heat 1/2 cup of heavy (whipping) cream, stirring occasionally.  Once it's hot - slowly add  chocolate chips (I use a 1/2 & 1/2 combination of bittersweet and semisweet chips) - approx 1-1/2 cups total.  Stir continually until the chocolate is fully melted and then remove it from the heat.  Spoon it over the top of the cooled cheesecake and then refrigerate until ready to serve.

You can garnish it with more crushed Oreos, chocolate chips, whipped cream... whatever you like!!

Scones (with chocolate chips)

If you've ever made biscuits, scones are made in pretty much the same way.  And if you've ever made biscuits or scones and wound up with tough, leathery lumps of dough, there's a good change you over-mixed the dough. As weird as it may look (crumbly), REFRAIN from mixing the dough too much or you'll be disappointed with the results!!

This recipe makes 24 SMALLISH scones.  If you want them larger, divide the finished dough in HALF (rather than 4 parts) and cut 6 scones per pc for a total of 12. Proceed the same throughout the end, but baking time will be increased by 5 min. or so.

Heat the oven to 400º
Spray 2 baking sheets LIGHTLY with nonstick spray.
In a mixing bowl, combine dry ingredients and set aside:

3 cups white flour
6 Tblsp. white sugar
1/8 tsp. salt
4-1/2 tsp. baking powder

With a pastry blender, add 1/2 cup (1 stick) of COLD, COLD finely chopped butter.  Keep cutting the butter into the flour mixture until it looks like coarse little crumbs.
add:
1-1/2 cups mini semisweet chocolate chips

In a measuring cup, break 1 egg & gently beat it, then add enough heavy (whipping) cream to measure 1-1/2 cups.  Add 1 teasp. vanilla extract.

VERY SLOWLY, pour the milk/egg/vanilla onto the dry ingredients, quickly and gently tossing the mixture until it's moistened, but NOT wet.  Using your hands, give the mixture a few quick kneads until it holds together without mixing it hard/packing it together TOO much. You just want it to hold together and don't want a firmly packed ball of dough.

On a lightly floured board, set the dough. Divide into 4 equal parts with a SHARP knife.  Take one segment of dough at a time and GENTLY pat into a circle (4" around by nearly an inch high), patting the sides so that they're even & flat.  With the sharp knife dusted w/flour, cut the dough disc into 6 equal sections (like cutting a pie),  and place the 6 triangles of dough onto the baking sheet, leaving an inch or two between each pc.  I get 12 scones onto each sheet.

Beat one egg white in a small bowl. With a pastry brush, lightly brush a LITTLE egg white onto the tops of each scone.  Sprinkle each with a little white sugar.

Bake for 14-18 minutes (starting at 14 min, checking for doneness - they'll brown quite quickly once they're almost done) and once the tops are golden brown, remove from oven and place on cooling racks. Naturally, if you like your scones a little darker on top, leave them in the oven for another minute or 2 or 3.