Chateau Gateau

Roopa

It is Alana’s birthday this weekend!!! She is baking herself a cake (obviously), so I wanted to make something completely different. Alana’s favourite things in life include hammocks and peanut butter, so there was no doubt that this needed to be a peanut butter centred treat. We actually make peanut butter at my house, and like most other things in life the homemade version is vastly superior to the store bought version. I used that with some real vanilla – I’m a broke student who typically uses the artificial stuff – and the resulting peanut butter icing was rather excellent. 

CHOCOLATE CHUNK COOKIES (~30 tbsp. size) 

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup + 2 tbsp. flour, sifted
• ½ tsp. baking soda
• ¼ cup + 2 tbsp. packed brown sugar
• 2 tbsp. white sugar
• 40 g vanilla pudding (powder form)
• pinch of salt
• 114 g butter, melted
• 1-½ tsp. vanilla
• 1 cup Hershey’s chocolate chips
• 2.5 tbsp. milk

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Mix together flour, baking soda, brown sugar, white sugar, and pudding until thoroughly mixed.
3. Melt butter completely and mix into flour mixture.
4. Add vanilla and chips to mixture, which should be crumbly at this point.
5. Add ~2 tbsp. of milk, or until the dough starts to hold together nicely. More milk will lead to a flatter cookie. 
6. Spoon onto an ungreased cookie sheet using a tablespoon or an ice cream scoop. 
7. Bake cookies for 9-10 minutes, rotating pans halfway.

ICING

INGREDIENTS

• ½ stick (57 g) unsalted butter
• ½ cup icing sugar
• ½ tsp. vanilla
• 65 g peanut butter 
• pinch of salt

DIRECTIONS

1. Beat butter on a low-medium speed until fluffy.
2. Add icing sugar until well combined, and then add vanilla
3. Add the peanut butter and salt, and mix at a medium speed until well mixed.*

*I usually warm up the peanut butter a little bit since mine is refrigerated.

I added more peanut butter and a bit of extra salt to cut the sweetness a little bit. You can add milk if desired, but I wanted a slightly stiffer icing. 

The amounts used here worked out perfectly. The chocolate I used was milk chocolate, but semi sweet chocolate would be a good idea to make these a little less sweet.