Peanut Butter Cup Brownies (For Football....of course)

Also found this on Pinterest and adapted my recipe from Baked Perfection.
I told Jeremy I would make a few things for the first Saturday football game, as we are going to some friends house to watch football (the guys will watch EVERY game on TV.....)

So here is the recipe.....they are delicious (we had to try a couple of them to be sure, before we served them)

(forgot to take pictures until I was almost done....sorry)

Ingredients:

• 1 box of brownie mix (any kind you want)
• 1 egg, oil and water for the brownie mix (but check your box first)
• Peanut Butter chips (about 1/2 cup)
• Semi-sweet Chocolate Chips (about 1/2 cup)
• 3/4 cup creamy peanut butter
• mini muffin pan (mini muffin cups if you want....I didn't use them)

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350
• Mix brownie mix as directed
• Spray mini muffin pan with cooking spray (it may be easier to use the muffin cups, I had to wait on mine to cool completely in order to get them out of the muffin pan w/o breaking the bottoms off)
• Pour brownie mix in to muffin pan, about 3/4 of the muffin cup.
• Put in oven and cook for about 13 minutes, until the tops are soft
• Remove from oven, take the back of a teaspoon spoon and gently push the centers down so there is a cup to put the peanut butter in.

• Microwave the peanut butter for about 30-45 seconds until runny.
• Fill the empty space of the brownie with peanut butter

• Top with peanut butter chips and chocolate chips (I used about 3 each for each brownie)

• Let cool completely before removing from muffin pan (you will probably need to go around the edge lightly with a knife to make sure it's not sticking to the pan)
• ENJOY!

Jeremy's Birthday Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cheesecake

I've been MIA for awhile....I had to take a small Vacation for 7 days. 
We just got back from a 7 day Southern Caribbean Cruise, in which we had a wonderful time, and celebrated Jeremy's Birthday! Since we were gone for his birthday, I waited till we got back to make him his cheesecake.  He loves cheesecake, and last year I made him a reese's peanut butter cup cheesecake, so I had to try to one up myself this year. I adapted my recipe from Mel's Kitchen Cafe, check her out!


Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cheesecake
Ingredients:

Crust:

• 1 box chocolate Teddy Grahams (crushed) (2.5 cups to be exact, but I ended up using the whole box)
• 4 tbsp. butter (melted)

Cookie dough

• 1/2 C. softened butter
• 1/2 C.  granulated sugar
• 1/2 C. packed light brown sugar
• 2 tbsp. whole milk
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 C. all-purpose flour
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1 C. mini chocolate chips

Cheesecake Filling:

• 4- 8oz packages of cream cheese, at room temp. (I used 1/3 less fat cream cheese)
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 4 large eggs
• 1 tsp. all purpose flour
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 cup light sour cream (1 8oz container)
• 3/4 C. mini chocolate chips (to be added after half of batter poured into crust)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325

Crust:

• Crush up teddy grahams (I used to ziplock bag and a rolling pin...but you could make it easy and use a food processor)
• Add in 4 tbsp. melted butter and mix
• Grease 9 inch springform pan, liberally
• Press the crushed cookie/butter mixture into the bottom of the pan and half way up the sides of the pan.
• Set aside

Cookie Dough:

• In medium bowl, mix together butter, sugar, milk, vanilla, flour, salt and chocolate chips. Mix until incorporated. 

• Roll cookie dough into small balls (do whatever size you like, but they need to be about marble sized to fit them, plus....they will expand a bit inside the cheesecake.
• Place on a plate (you can use wax paper, but I didn't need it) and put in the freezer for about 10 min. to harden a bit.

Cheesecake Filling:

• In large bowl, add cream cheese, sugar, eggs and flour, beat with an electric mixer on high until smooth. 
• Add in vanilla and sour cream. Beat only until incorporated. If you beat it too much, you will get too much air into the mixture which could cause cracks while cooking.

Now to put it all together:

• Pour about 1/4- 1/3 of the cheesecake filling over the crust. Smooth out with a spatula
• Remove cookie dough from freezer
• Press cookie dough into the filling all around the bottom.
• Pour and mix the 3/4 C. mini choc. chips into the rest of the filling.
• Pour another 1/3 of filling into the pan, and press the rest of your cookie dough into the filling, trying to push it far enough down so only a bit of the top of the cookie dough is showing.
• Pour the remainder of the filling into the pan and smooth out the best you can so it looks even when its cooked.

• Place springform pan on a baking sheet and place into the oven.
• Cook on 325 for 1 hour to 1 hour 15 min. The middle may still be a little soft, but the sides should have a slight light to golden brown.

• Turn the oven off, and crack the door a few inches and leave the cheesecake in the oven for an additional 30 min.

• Remove cheesecake from the oven, and place on metal rack to cool completely.
• Once completely cooled, cover with plastic wrap and put in the refrigerator (for SEVERAL hours, but best would be over night to make sure the whole thing sets up)

• Right before serving, I drizzled some chocolate over the top.

It is VERY rich, so only a small slice is necessary, but Jeremy loved it, and that's all that matters to me!