~How do you tell a placid bee from an angry bee anyway, they always seem pretty irritated

Jun 10, 2013 20:12

The wedding was a lot of fun! There were a lot of silly videos and fun movie themes and DANCING WOOO though I ended up feeling a bit sick near the end of it ugh why does that keep happening at weddings.
I also stupidly decided today to try and take a shower while having terrible cramps without having eaten anything for like 12 hours which ended up in me feeling dizzy and having to sit down and cut it short. Way to go self.

BUT ASIDE FROM THAT, LET'S COOK SOMETHIN!

I was lookin for somethin neat to make for a family gatherin lately and I came across some Peanut Cheese Bars on Gourmet Gaming! As you may remember, Peanut Cheese Bars were a favorite of the Mr. Saturns back in EarthBound, so I was intrigued and also they sounded interesting.


First, here's what they're supposed to look like.



CAN I MATCH THIS STANDARD? LET'S FIND OUT



First up, setting up the pan. It said an 8x8 pan and that seemed weirdly small to me but hey I'm not the recipe maker man what do i know, I mean I thought meringue came in cans. SO 8X8 IT IS
Everytime I try to line something with parchment paper it ends up looking like this. Also said to grease the pan then put the paper over it which also seemed weird BUT HEY THEY'RE THE BOSS



Recipe calls for softened butter but I'm a busy woman I don't have time to wait for butter to soften
what do you take me for



meanwhile dump a ton of sugar in here, there we go



LOOKIN SOFT



After a bit of mixing, we're getting somewhere!



Smoothin on up. I dumped a bunch of flour over the counter and also the bowl but i cut that mostly.



Getting to a dough quality! It seemed pretty crumbly tho.



After a bunch of punchin and a fight montage i got it to this smooth lump state. The dream state of all dough.



According to directions, I rolled it up all flat under the plastic. I was then supposed to put it in the pan but I sort of missed so one side was flopped over. I sadly didn't catch that.



I did get the aftermath here though! Admire all my fingerprints as I pressed down the edges and tried to get it back even again, beautiful. However the middle was still poking up and I needed a way to roll it down smooth again without using my skeletal hands. WHAT TO DO



Aha, here we go. Just the right size! I rolled the can around for a while.



Haha, gross
I should have put a towel on it or something
hindsight



Flatter! I popped it in the oven to cook. Next up, melting chocolate! It says to use a double boiler.



This looks like a double boiler to me.



Uh oh, it appears I am short some chocolate chips. What do I do WHAT DO I DO I DON'T WANT TO GO BACK TO THE STORE
HOW CAN I MAKE UP THIS DIFFERENCE



god help us all



In the end I decided against the ground chocolate and thought hey, I like white chocolate too right? After a brief search online marbled chocolate is a thing so this will work out just fine



After cookin a bit. I can sort of see the edges browned here but in retrospect I probably should've left it in a bit longer.





After some sporadic nukes in the microwave, melted chocolate! Ha ha! No double boiler for me! There's more than I anticipated.



Well I already opened the white chocochip bag, I'm committed now.



glop. The weird raised edges here actually worked out nicely as a natural barrier for the chocolate! I probably could've gotten away with just leaving it at this



BUT I MELTED THIS CHOCOLATE, IT'S GOING IN THERE
I MEAN WHAT ELSE COULD I DO WITH IT



i then added some crushed peanuts which completely ruined the marbled effect somehow, whatever



I assumed I had a full pack of cream cheese but then I actually pulled it out of the box and a big chunk was gone. WHY DON'T I CHECK THESE BEFORE I'VE COMMITTED
Well this is probably a cup.



Toss in some cream and sugar and peanut butter and such



This looks more peanut buttery than I was expecting, hmmm. I thought at this point I should try doing the whisking myself since the hand mixer kept gathering globs in the center.



Handwhisking is hard you guys :(
My noodly arms got tired quickly but it looks smoother now!



After sitting in the fridge for an hour or two for the chocolate to harden



blop



And then after another couple hours for the topping to harden



That... seems like a very thick base.



chop chop chop



These don't quite seem even, I blame my lack of chocochips and also i still think the pan is small

BUT WHAT IS THE VERDICT?

They're good! They're intense though so you can't really eat like more than one at a time or you'll start feeling sick though cause man lots of sugar. BUT VERY TASTY
There was an odd aftertaste for mine though but I suspect that might have been the cream I was using, since I made some mushroom soup later with the leftovers and it had the same aftertaste.
The peanut butter came through a lot more strongly than I guess I expected (or wanted maybe?) so if I made em again I'd probably cut back the peanutbutter like by a half cup or something, or add more cream cheese maybe, something like that. Also the marbled chocolate I think added a weird element to it, haha. MIGHT HAVE BEEN SIMPLER WITH JUST CHOCOLATE

BUT STILL GOOD THOUGH
I'd recommend makin em yourself, they're very interesting. :O



nom nom



just toss em in the fridge, see who bites



And here's a close up of one later I was munching on! I'd grab one or two and just sit em by my computer and take a bite every now and then. You're supposed to eat em when they're chilled I think but they're good warm too! They just totally dissolve in your mouth, haha. It's super tasty.

You can see though that the layers aren't exactly even. HOW DID MY COOKIE BASE GET SO ENORMOUS

Anyway they were pretty good! I think if I made em again with straight chocolate and cooked up the bottom some more and added less peanut butter they'd be even better. I wonder if you can switch out the peanut butter for another type of nut butter, like almond or something? QUESTIONS
If I do make em again I'll try those things, haha.

I also posted this at dreamwidth with reluctant ambivalence. Comment here or there, don't matter to me!

earthbound, mother (series), blend cooking and stupidity until creamy

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