TARRTS AND COOKIES

Peanut Butter and Jelly Tart

Peanut Butter Cookie Tart Dough
½ cup unsalted butter, chilled and cut into 10 pieces
1/3 cup granulated sugar
½ cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
½ cup peanut butter
1 extra large egg
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups all-purpose flour
½ tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
In a food processor, blend together butter and sugars. Add egg and vanilla. Add the peanut butter and pulse until completely mixed together.
Sift together flour, baking soda and salt. Add to food processor. Pulse until it starts to form a ball. Take out and roll into two balls. Wrap in plastic wrap and place in refrigerator and chill for at least 1 hour.
Take dough out of refrigerator, divide ball into two parts, place onto a heavily floured surface and roll out into a circle. You might have to pat it back together a few times. Carefully lift and place into a greased and floured tart pan(I used 3-inch diameter ones). You will most likely have to do some patch work, which is easily done. Using a fork, poke the bottom of the tart, I did it about 10 times. Place a piece of parchment paper and then pie weights or dried beans.
Bake at 375F for 10 minutes. Take weights and parchment paper off and bake for another 6 minutes.
Makes 4 small tarts shells.
Peanut Butter Ganache
1 cup peanut butter chips
3 TBSP heavy whipping cream
In a saucepan, on low heat, melt together peanut butter chips and heavy whipping cream.
To assemble tart:
Place desired amount of jam/jelly into tart shell. Take peanut butter ganache and place in a piping bag. Pip ganache in whatever pattern you would like. These are best eaten the day of.

Andes Chocolate Mint Cookies
3/4 cup butter
1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons water
12 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 large eggs
2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
Andes mints candies, broken in half
DIRECTIONS
Heat oven to 350°F.
Over low heat, combine butter, sugar and water.
Heat until melted and add chocolate chips until partly melted.
Remove from heat and stir.
Pour into large mixing bowl.
Let stand 10 minutes to cool slightly.
Beat in eggs one at a time on high speed.
Reduce mixer to low speed and add flour, salt and baking soda.
Beat until well-blended.
Chill one hour (dough is almost liquid before chilling but hardens and is easy to shape after chilling).
Roll into balls, place two inches apart on parchment paper-lined baking sheets.
Bake for 10 minutes.
Place an Andes Mint half on top.
Allow to melt slightly and spread with a spoon.

Buttermilk Spice Muffins

1 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter
3 eggs
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
2 1/2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon nutmeg
3/4 cup + 1 tablespoon buttermilk
For Topping:
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup walnuts, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Grease the baking tins with butter
Method
Preheat oven to 375°. In a mixing bowl, cream the sugar and the butter together with an electric mixer. When they are thoroughly mixed, add eggs and beat one more minute.
Sift the flour into a separate bowl, together with the baking soda, nutmeg and the cinnamon.
Add the flour and the buttermilk to the first mixture, mix at low speed until smooth. To avoid lumps in the batter, add the wet and dry ingredients alternately, in small amounts.
Make the nut topping: Mix all ingredients together in a small bowl.
Grease muffin tins with butter or margarine. You can also use paper baking cups. Fill each cup 3/4 full of batter. Add a full, rounded tablespoon of nut topping on top of each muffin cup of batter. Bake immediately or the topping will sink to the bottom of the muffin.
Bake at 375° for 20-25 minutes, until golden brown. A toothpick inserted in the middle of the muffin should come out dry. Home ovens heat differently from commercial ovens so you may need to adjust the temperature or the baking time accordingly.
Recipe yields 12 standard-size muffins, or six jumbo size muffins. If using the jumbo muffin pans, reduce the oven temperature by 25° and increase the baking time 5-10 minutes.