Yesterday I made an amazing discovery. I love people and I love food. Well, I already knew those things, but here’s the discovery. I bake because I enjoy it, but more because I love the people in my life and want them to have delicious things. I’ve made a decision. Someday, when I have my own bakery, all the goodies will be named for the people I love that had a hand in the creation of those things. So, instead of having a cookie called “Double Chocolate Brownie Cookies”, they will simply be named “Phil”. As in, I’d like a dozen “Phils”. Because I created that cookie specifically for my pastor. And each item will have a photo of that person next to the name. I’m thinking of calling my bakery “Bakerlady’s House” – because it will be filled with all the people I love…in the form of delicious treats. We’ll see, I’m still working on it.
Today, I created what will be known as Emily. Emily (the person) is a friend from church. She is generous and organized. I love that she always seems to know when I need a play date to walk with our strollers and just talk. I made these cookies today to recreate some that I purchased (gasp!) for her baby shower last week. I have an excuse, I could not use my kitchen that day. Here’s what the purchased (Trader Joe’s) cookies looked like:
They were really good. Today, I set out to recreate them and here’s what I came up with. Emily (the cookie) consists of a shortbread cookie topped with peanut butter/marshmallow creme, dipped in chocolate with roasted peanuts on top.
“Emily”
Shortbread Cookie
3/4 pound unsalted butter at room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3 1/2 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
Peanut Butter Creme
1 C Peanut Butter
1 C Marshmallow Creme
Chocolate Topping
2 C semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 teaspoons shortening
1/2 C Roasted Peanuts, chopped coarse
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter and 1 cup of sugar until they are just combined. Add the vanilla. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour and salt; then add them to the butter-and-sugar mixture. Mix on low speed until the dough starts to come together. Dump onto a surface dusted with flour and roll shape into a flat disk. Wrap in plastic and chill for 30 minutes.
3. On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough 1/4-inch thick and cut with a round cookie cutter. Place the cookies on an ungreased sheet pan. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, until the edges are set and golden. Allow to cool to room temperature.
4. Once cookies are cool, combine peanut butter and marshmallow creme in a medium bowl. Place 1/2 teaspoon of the peanut butter mixture on top of each cookie (I re-cut the cookies with the same round cutter after they were cooled to make nice crisp round shapes). Spread out almost to the edges of the cookie.
5. Place cookies in the freezer for 10 minutes. This will make the peanut butter hard enough that it won’t melt all over when you dip them in chocolate.
6. While cookies are in the freezer, chop the peanuts. Remove cookies from freezer. Melt the chocolate chips and shortening together (in the microwave or over a double boiler, whichever you prefer) until there are just a few pieces of chocolate remaining slightly unmelted. Stir chocolate to melt remaining pieces.
7. Drop each cookie into the chocolate and cover with chocolate, using a fork, lift the cookie and tap off excess chocolate. Place gently on waxed paper to cool. Sprinkle with the chopped nuts while still warm.
Here’s the finished product! They are pretty time-consuming, but holy cow are they good!
Bakerlady 
These look amazing 🙂
They are!