I Heart Valentine's Day!

Ahhhhh Yes! Valentine's day is so very close. I love this special holiday. All of the pink and red makes me giddy like a little school girl waiting for that little paper valentine from the dreamy blue eyed boy in the seat beside her.  Do you remember those days when everyone swpped their valentine cards at school? Those days have since past but the sweet memories linger. Now that my little Princess is getting older she will soon get to make those memories with her school friends and I can't wait to help her make the cutest little valentine for that dreamy blue eyed boy.  Shhhh....don't tell her daddy I said that. He has decided to keep her under lock and key until she is 30!!!
She is only 4 and already stealing hearts. She just performed in her first ballet recital this past weekend and made hearts melt with her smile. Okay...she made my heart and her daddy's heart melt. Can you tell we are proud parents?  Here are a few pictures of her on stage. No stage fright at all.

(By the way, I married that dreamy blue eyed boy and he is still dreamy and Oh so wonderful.)

Okay, I got a little off  the Valentine subject for a second but I could not resist sharing my pics with you.

Since this is such a "SWEET" holiday for me  I would like to share with you a couple of treats that I made to celebrate.  There is nothing like peanut butter and chocolate together. Don't you agree? One of my all time favorite treats is the Reese cup. They have the Double Peanut Butter Hearts out for Valentine's. Yum!  I think I can do one better than that. How about Peanut Butter Brownies covered in chocolate? Oh, Yeah! That's the ticket. Just wait until you see what I did with the scraps. :)

It all started with this recipe...

PEANUT BUTTER BROWNIES

1 cup AP flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

6 Tbls. butter, softened

2/3 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla flavor

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray an 8 x 2 in. square pan with bakers joy or Non-stick spray.

In a small bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt.  In a large bowl, beat peanut butter, butter and sugars with an electric mixer until light and fluffy.

Add eggs, one at a time, and vanilla.

Add flour mixture; mix until just combined. Spread into prepared pan. Bake for 30-35 mintues or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.  Cool completely. Turn out onto a piece of waxed paper to cut into shapes if desired.

 Cut out the brownies

Melt your chocolate morsels in the microwave. (DO NOT GET WATER IN THE CHOCOLATE)

It will seize up and ruin the chocolate.

Using a spatula, cover the bottom of the brownie with chocolate and place on bakers rack chocolate side up. you can place them in the freezer for a couple of minutes to speed up the drying process.

This is a messy process but worth it.

Now cover the sides and top of brownies with chocolate.

Place back on the bakers rack and into freezer for a few minutes.

You can leave them as is or add a little more to dress them up. I used white chocolate to decorate them.

store them in a single layer in an air tight container. You can package them seperately for gifts too.

I had a lot of left over brownie pieces too. I've always been taught, "Waste not, Want not".

So I took a little time to make some brownies pops. Here's how.

I used my food processor to make crumbs and then added a little cream cheese frosting to it.

I forgot to take a picture of the brownie mix as I rolled it into balls. But that is what you do. Just roll it into 1 1/2" balls. Place on a waxed paper covered cookie sheet and freeze for abot 15 minutes.

I used white chocolate to cover them . I melted the chocolate in the microwave and added a little marshmallow and coconut flavored oil to it. (It was so good)

Remove the balls from the freezer and insert sucker sticks into each ball. Dip into the chocolate and gently tap and swirl to remove excess. You can add sprinkles like I did or get a little more creative.

Here is the finished product with a few heart shaped chocolate lollipops added in.

My inspiration came from Bakerella. If you haven't seen her creative pops you should really check her blog out.

As Always....Enjoy! And Happy Valentine's Day!

XOXO

The Cookie Girl