Possibly my favourite cookie recipe of 2010.

I’m home for the holidays! And I’m lucky to have made it out of the UK, judging by what I hear from my friends back in Scotland.  Apparently Heathrow resembles a refugee camp and the queue for the Eurostar stretches 1km back! Eek.  Indeed I hope all of this will have calmed down before it’s time to go back to the Bubble.

As usual I have a long droughts with no posting followed by a flash flood of recipes and photos.  I do bake in between posts! Lots! It’s just hard to get a good photo and even harder for me to motivate myself to post when most people who read this probably already sampled the baked goods. Ah well. It’s the end of 2010, so I thought I’d include some pictures of my favourite cakes and other sweets from this year.  If you’d like any of the recipes, just let me know!

Also, the Toronto Star is doing this amazing recipe advent calendar, the Great Cookie Countdown.  From Dec 1 until Dec 24 they are publishing a new cookie recipe every day.  I took one look at this decadent cookie recipe and immediately marked it as one to try.  O my, it is amazing!

Not only is it chocolate and peanut butter (which by the way, rocks!), the cookies are moist and chewy.  The cookies are almost more like brownies and the peanutty centre is a delicious surprise.  My only warning is that these are a little on the labour-intensive side as they require your to individually wrap each morsel of peanut butter-awesome in it’s blanket of chocolate-awesome. Well worth the effort, I assure you.

So without further ado, my 2010 baking recap and the recipe for the Peanut Butter-Filled Chocolate Cookies!

Sky Dive Cake Party: Classic Sponge with Lemon Glace and Lemon Curd

Sky Dive Cake Party: Banana Maple Walnut Cake

Sky Dive Cake Party: Banoffee Pie; strictly speaking not a cake, but oh so delicious.

Sky Dive Cake Party: Cake of Death!

Neopolitan Jelly Roll... I was feeling retro.

White Chocolate Pear Glazed Bundt Cake

Mini Banoffee Pies... so I could take them into share!

A Hallowe'en sweet... Candy Corn Shortbread

Finally the recipe…

Peanut Butter-Filled Chocolate Cookies

adapted from the Toronto Star

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose (plain) flour
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips (original recipe calls for 1/4 c peanut pieces)
• 1 large egg
• 1 tsp pure vanilla
• 3/4 cup icing sugar
• 1/2 creamy peanut butter

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350F/180C. In medium mixing bowl, stir together flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt.
2. In large mixing bowl using eletric mixer on low then medium, cream butter and sugars until fluffy, scraping down the sides.  Add egg and vanilla. Beat until fluffy; scrape down the sides.
3. In two additions, beat in flour until just combined. Stir in mini chocolate chips. The mixture may look crumbly, but it should hold together when your form a ball.  Form into 24 balls, each about 1 1/2 tbsp.
4. In a small bowl, stir together icing sugar and peanut butter until smooth. (I ended up using my (clean!)  fingers). Form unto 24 balls, each about 1 tsp.
5. Between damp hands, flatten 1 chocolate ball. Top with one peanut butter ball. Shape chocolate dough over peanut filling until completely covered. Roll dough into a ball. Repeat with remaining chocolate and peanut balls.
6. Place balls 1 inch apart on 2 parchment lined cookie sheets (I used uncreased stoneware).  Flatten slightly with bottom of glass to about 2 inches. Bake in oven until just set, 8-10 minutes. Cool 1 minutes on try before transferring to wire racks to cool completely. Makes 24.

Phew. It certainly has been a lovely year of baking and I haven’t even come close to mentioning all of the goodies that I baked.  All I can say is I hope those who ate them enjoyed them and I look forward to making even more treats in 2011!