chocolate | cookingonthebrightside

When I was toying with the notion of starting a blog, it was tough for me to pick a name that conveyed what I wanted it to convey. That cooking could be fun. That preparing healthy meals isn’t as insanely difficult as it seemed. And that delicious meals didn’t take hours of preparation.

I originally wanted to do a blog about cooking on the “light” side – but I realized that would paint me into a corner. I have always loved cooking – long before I started losing the weight. That just made it even more fun for me! Now, no fear – a majority of these recipes I have taken the liberty of reducing – but sometimes, you can splurge!

So I landed on this title so that I could have some flexibility.

Last week was the husband’s birthday – so there was a lot of flexibility when it came to our meals. That included pizza from our favorite place.

Also, I may have mentioned before that baking is not exactly my favorite thing in the word. I like playing with spices and flavors, and baking much more, well, scientific. However, the husband loves baked goods! And he loves peanut butter and chocolate combinations. And I love him. And it was his birthday. So I wanted to bake him a special birthday treat!

All of this is to say, I love my husband SO much, that I now present you with a very non-diet friendly baked good. I started on Pinterest, and ended up landing here.

It is, very very naughty. But in the very best way possible. Like seriously, you will want to punch me in the face and then give me a big giant smooch.

Pretzel Crusted Peanut Butter Chocolate Pie

Oh, I finally named my outlet - meet "Sparky"!

1 1/2 cups crushed pretzels

1/2 cup sugar

6 Tbsp. butter, melted

2 sticks butter, room temperature

3/4 cup brown sugar

3/4 cup sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp. vanilla

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. kosher salt

2 1/4 cup white whole-wheat flour

1 cup milk chocolate chips

1 (8 oz.) bag Reese’s mini cups

Preheat oven to 350.

Crush your pretzels and mix with melted butter and 1/2 cup sugar.

Press into the bottom of a pie dish. I covered the bottom and went about 1/4 the way up the sides. Bake for 10 minutes and remove from oven.

Cream together butter, sugar and brown sugar.

Add vanilla and eggs and beat until combined.

Add in baking soda, salt and flour. Scrape sides to ensure everything is mixed well.

Fold in chocolate chips.

Then fold in peanut butter cups.

Mix until well incorporated.

Pour and press into crust as well as you can – as you don’t want to press too hard and break the crust. The heat will allow the “cookie” to spread.

Bake pie for 30-35 minutes. I ended up baking mine for about 40 minutes until set.

Allow to cool before serving.

I would highly recommend throwing some ice cream on top. Because what’s a little ice cream at this point, right?

Enjoy and thanks for reading!

I seriously cannot believe it is April! The husband and I hit the 6-month-as-a-married-couple mark on April Fool’s Day. Seemed fitting considering it certainly doesn’t feel like that long. Somebody must be running ahead of me and messing with calendars!

Now, if you asked me what time of year it was judging by the weather – it certainly would not be early April! I believe Memphis just had a few months of “Wintring” this year, combining winter and spring. I mean, it’s 90 degrees! I wore jeans and a 3/4 sleeve shirt yesterday with flip-flops and I almost broke into a sweat loading my groceries into my car!

Anyways, with all of the gorgeous weather out – I managed to read 2 books during my patio time after work. It was nice – I feel like I’d been gluing myself to the tv lately just to “relax”. I have always loved reading but I’m so much better about doing it on vacations – but I don’t need a beach to enjoy a book! It relaxes me and makes me so happy to get lost in a good story. I read “Something Borrowed” – which quite honestly just made me angry, so I had to read “Something Blue” and it did help reduce the anger a little.

Well, by the time Friday rolled around I realized I was supposed to have something to make for our Sunday school! Our class was just doing a potluck type deal for breakfast. Since the husband and I go to early service, a breakfast casserole would be tricky to have it made early and then sit in the car for 1 1/2 hours. I figured baking something like muffins would be good, but when I hit the internet, I found these gems and did not look back!

I had never in my life made scones (maybe only eaten them once) but just something about these called to me. And I am glad they did.

Chocolate Chip Scones with a Peanut Butter Glaze (makes 32 mini scones)

Scones:

2 cups white-whole wheat flour

1/3 cup brown sugar

2 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. kosher salt

1/2 cup cold, unsalted butter

3/4 cup mini chocolate chips

1/2 cup reduced-fat buttermilk

1 egg, lightly beaten

1 tsp. Vanilla

1 Tbsp. fat-free milk

Peanut Butter Glaze:

3/4 cups sifted powdered sugar

2 Tbsp. fat-free milk

2 Tbsp. reduced-fat creamy peanut butter

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 425. Line baking sheet with a baking mat.

In a large bowl, stir together flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

Cut butter into 1/2 Tbsp. pieces and add to flour mixture. Cut into mixture with a pastry cutter until it becomes coarse and crumbly.

Add buttermilk, vanilla, egg and chocolate chips. Stir until just combined.

Transfer dough to lightly floured surface and knead a few times with your hands. Take half of the dough and roll into a rectangle shape, about 1/4 inch thick. Use a pastry knife to trim with precision.

Cut dough length-wise down the center of your rectangle. Then cut into 8 equal squares. Cut each square diagonally, leaving 16 triangles.

Repeat with remaining dough.

Place scones on baking mat and brush the tops with the 1 Tbsp. milk.

Bake for 12-15 minutes. Remove and let cool. Don’t burn your fingers trying to steal on right out of the oven…I may or may not be speaking from experience!