Special K Bars - (From Mom)

• 1 cup white Corn Syrup (Karo)
• 1 cup white granulated sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 1/2 cups of peanut butter
• 6 cups Special K cereal or you can substitute Corn Flakes

Grease a 13×9 pan.

Place a large sauce pan over medium/high heat and add the corn syrup and the sugar.

Bring to rolling boil and remove from heat.

Stir in the peanut butter and the vanilla in.  Mix until smooth.

Fold  in the 6 cups of Special K or corn flakes.

Spread in greased 9×13 pan.

Let set for 15 minutes or so and then they are ready to eat.

These bars are super easy and extremely delicious.  They are a must try.

No-Bake Cookies

The hardest part is waiting for them to set.

No-Bake Cookies - (From Mom)

• 2 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 stick Margarine – I tried butter, but they don’t set right.
  
• 2 cups oatmeal
• 1/2 peanut butter
• 1/2 cup coconut
• 1 tsp vanilla

Place the sugar, milk, cocoa and margarine into a pan and bring to a boil.  Start slow to fully melt the butter and then bring it to a boil, stirring occasionally.  When the mixture starts to boil, set the timer for 1 minute.  After a minute remove it from the stove.

Allow the sugar to dissolve and mixture to boil

Add the peanut butter, oatmeal, coconut and vanilla.  Stir until everything is mixed in.  Let cool for a minute.

Add the uncooked ingredients

Place a sheet of parchment/or wax paper onto a flat surface.  Then using a tablespoon drop the cookies onto the parchment paper.  This should yield about 2 dozen cookies.  Feel free to make them as big as you like.  Remember the bigger that you make them, the longer you have to wait for them to set.

Place on parchment or wax paper to set

After about a half hour they should be set.  Feel free to eat them.  Let them cool all the way before storing them in a airtight container.  Enjoy!!

Lessons learned:  I tried to use butter instead of margarine and it did not turn out well.  The cookies never set completely.  They ended up sticky and gooey.  With margarine they set up quick and easily.

Peanut Butter Cookies

Peanut Butter Cookies – (Adapted from The Joy of Cooking)

• Dry Ingredients
  
• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 1 1/4 baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• Wet Ingredients
  
• 1/4 cup canola or corn oil
• 2/3 cup peanut butter
• 12 tbs butter (1.5 sticks of butter)
• 1/3 cup powdered sugar
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 tbs molasses
• 1 large egg
• 1 large egg yolk
• 2 1/2 tsp vanilla

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Sift the dry ingredients into a bowl.

In a separate bowl add the oil, peanut butter, powdered sugar, sugar and molasses.  Beat on medium until the mixture is light and fluffy.

Light and Fluffy

Once light and fluffy add the egg, egg yolk and vanilla.  Mix until incorporated.

Add the egg, egg yolk and vanilla to the mixture

Now fold in the sifted dry ingredients.  Add the dry ingredients in thirds.  This will make sure that the ingredients get fully incorporated.  Using a scoop or a tablespoon, portion the dough and place the dough on a cookie sheet.  It is recommended to use parchment paper or a silpat.

Portion the Cookies

Next I lightly dust the cookies with sugar.  Then using a fork, make a cross-hatch pattern in the cookies.

Making a cross-hatch pattern

Depending on the size of the cookies that you are going to make the baking time will vary.

A closeup of the cookie pattern

For a tablespoon sized portion it takes about 9-12 minutes for the cookies to cook.  I used a 1.5-2tbs ice cream scoop and the cookies took about 16 minutes to cook.

Cooling on the rack