Recipe: Cookie Swap 2011

I decided to participate in my first food blogger event for the holiday season which may have been insane of me given the busyness of the two months right before Christmas.  I chose to do something for National Cookie Day, which is today, December 12th, and so I joined the "Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap 2011." The rules were that we sent in our information and we'd send one dozen homemade Christmas type cookies or bars to three other bloggers. Then today we'd share our recipe.  I'll do that but I also want to look at what I received from three other bloggers after I share my own recipe.

I was injured in October and I'm still recovering.  All of these posts you've been reading have been written in short spurts so I knew I couldn't make the cookies I originally wanted to try. So bars seemed the most logical choice.  However, getting anything in and out of the oven is also a challenge so I knew it couldn't be something that required baking.  This isn't particularly Christmas or Holiday like but this is a revision of a recipe I had published back when I as a child in our church cookbook.  I still have some ideas of how to revise this further but here is the recipe of what I sent my three cookies swap mates.

Crunchy Dark Peanut Butter Squares #1
TammyJo Eckhart

Ingredients:  Bottom Layer
13 oz graham cracker crumbs
2/3 lb powdered sugar
1 18 oz jar crunchy peanut butter
1.5 sticks butter or margarine

Directions Bottom Layer

Let butter or margarine come to room temperature then beat it until fluffy.  Add in peanut butter one spoonful at a time and mix thoroughly.  Add in the powdered sugar slowly and mix thoroughly.  Finally add in the crumbs 1/4 cup at a time.  Note: if you use reduced fat butter or peanut butter this will make a semi-soft bottom layer.  You'll need to add more crumbs and powdered sugar or reduce the butter or peanut butter of  you use regular and non-crunchy versions of these.

Press this mixture into the bottom of a pan -- you can chose the size based on how thick you want these bars.  The ones I sent were approximately 13 X 9 X 2 inch aluminum pans for shipping.  Set the pan aside to make on the frosting.

Ingredients: Frosting Layer
5T butter or margarine
1/3 C skim milk
2/3 C sugar
1 10-12oz bag dark chocolate pieces









Directions for Frosting Layer

Melt the butter or margarine on low heat in a medium sized sauce pan and stir in the milk.  Mix well then add in the sugar stirring until you real a slow boil.  Boil for 1 minute then turn off the heat and add in your chocolate.  Stir until smooth then pour and spread over the bottom layer.

Refrigerate for about an hour then cut into squares or whatever shape you like.  Note: If you leave these in the frig too long they will be quite difficult to cut.  You may refrigerate or not after you have cut them.  Because these are so rich -- even changed from the original recipe -- I strongly recommend you cut them into no fewer than 12 pieces.  Normally I cut ours into 20 pieces.  I also only make these every three years or so though I'll need to try again to work on another change I have in mind in regards to the frosting layer.

My bars were pretty but the three packages I received contained very Christmasy cookies that were lovely.  I received these Ginger Crisps from Jean Brletic by jeanniebeebakes, these candy cane cookies by Kristy Still at Mommy Hates Cooking, and the peppermint pinwheels by Kristin Rosenau from The Pastry Affair.  My family and friends who get a bit tired of chocolate (I know, are they crazy or what?) was thrilled that none of these had chocolate in them.  It was a nice change though I must confess, given how busy we've been here on The Chocolate Cult with Holiday feature reviews, having to double up on them for the past few weeks and with a week or so left in that doubling.  Yes, Virginia, even The Chocolate Priestess can get a bit tired of chocolate all the time.