Round two of baking is underway!

First up are my

Chocolate Dipped Peanut Butter Cookies.

This variation was created on behalf of my husband who loves the flavor combination. For starters, I followed this classic from the Joy of Baking:

Ingredients

3/4 cup (170 grams) unsaltedbutter, room temperature

1/2 cup (105 grams) light brown sugar

1/2 cup (100 grams) granulated white sugar

1 large egg

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

3/4 cup (185 grams) peanut butter (smooth or crunchy)

2 cups (260 grams) all purpose flour

½ teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon salt

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and place rack in center of oven. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

In the bowl of your electric mixer (or with a hand mixer), beat the butter and sugars until light and fluffy (about 2 - 3 minutes). Beat in the peanut butter. Add the egg and vanilla extract and beat to combine. In a separate bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Add to the peanut butter mixture and beat until incorporated. Fold in the chopped peanuts, if using. (If the batter is too soft to form into balls, place in the refrigerator for about an hour or until firm.)

Roll the batter into 1 inch (2.5 cm) balls. Transfer the cookies to the prepared baking sheet, placing about 2 inches (5 cm) apart. Then, using the tines of the fork that has been dipped in white granulated sugar, make a crisscross pattern. ***

Bake the cookies for about 10 to 12 minutes, or until the cookies are lightly browned around the edges. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool. Can be stored at room temperature, in an airtight container, for about a week. Freeze for longer storage.

***rather than making the fork tine cross design, I dipped the bottom of a drinking glass into a bowl of granulated sugar and used it to flatten the cookies into discs.

For the finishing touch, I melted dark chocolate chips in a double boiler until smooth and dipped the cooled cookies half way in the chocolate.

Next up:

Martha Stewart' Bullseye and Spiral Cookies 

I found this recipe in the NY Daily News. It's a new recipe from Martha dahling and it was a little complicated, but the cookies are good and pretty neat looking.

Ingredients

Makes 5-8 dozen, depending on size

1½ cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1¾ cups sugar
2 large whole eggs, plus 1 large egg white, for brushing
1 teaspoon salt
²/³ cup milk
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
5 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface 
Unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder (optional) 
Gel-paste food coloring, in various colors 
Colored sanding sugar, chopped nuts, or chocolate sprinkles, for topping (optional)

Instructions

1. Beat butter and sugar with an electric mixer on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes. Add whole eggs and salt, and mix well. Beat in milk and vanilla. Add flour a little at a time, mixing just until incorporated.

2. Divide dough into equal portions (1 for each color). For chocolate dough, add cocoa powder (¼ cup flavors half a batch); mix well with an electric mixer on medium until cocoa is incorporated. For tinted dough, start with ¼  teaspoon food coloring; mix well. For darker colors, gradually add more in tiny amounts. Wrap each portion of dough separately in plastic, and press flat to form into rectangles. Chill 1 hour or up to 1 day.

3. Dust a piece of parchment with flour. Roll out each piece of dough to ¼- to ½-inch thickness, to make the spirals; use thicker layers for bull's-eyes. Use a bench scraper to trim dough edges to make them even.

4.  TO MAKE BULL'S-EYES: With your hands, form chocolate dough into a ½- to 1½-inch-thick log, for center; chill 20 minutes. Place log on edge of rolled-out dough brushed with egg white. Roll log inside sheet of dough; cut dough where it joins. Pinch and press gently to seal. Chill 20 minutes, then repeat rolling and chilling to add other layers. To decorate outsides of cookies, spread desired topping on a baking sheet, brush dough with beaten egg white, and roll log in topping.

5. TO MAKE SPIRALS: Measure and trim 2 or more colors of dough to the same size. Brush tops of layers evenly with egg white to help layers stick together, then stack layers. Starting at short end, roll up dough. Gently pinch and press edge of roll to seal. Decorate with toppings, if desired (see step 4, above).

6. Roll each log in parchment; twist ends of paper closed. To help logs keep their rounded shape, set each in a cardboard paper-towel tube sliced open lengthwise. Chill logs, seam side down, 90 minutes, or up to 1 day.

7. Preheat oven to 350. Cut 15 inches of dental floss (or a double thickness of thread). Let logs soften at room temperature 10 minutes. Remove parchment. Wrap floss around log and pull through to make ¼-inch-thick slices.

8. Place slices on parchment-lined baking sheets. Bake, rotating sheets halfway through, until firm but not browned, 12 to 15 minutes.  

Let cool on sheet on a wire rack several minutes, then transfer cookies to rack to cool completely.

And finally:

Buckeye Candy

There are about a million variations of buckeye candy recipes on the web. This is my mom's version that I have made since I was a kid. As an Ohio native, these little guys are a Christmas staple for just about everyone I know from home. By dipping the peanut butter bon-bon 3/4 of the way in the melted chocolate, you end up with the finished product that looks like the nut produced by the official state tree and is also a nice shout out to mascot of The Ohio State University.

 Ingredients

1 ½ sticks butter, softened

1 lb creamy peanut butter

2 lbs of confectioners' sugar

12 oz bag of chocolate chips

½ stick of paraffin wax

Mix butter, peanut butter and confectioner' s sugar thoroughly. Roll into 1 inch balls and chill on a cookie sheet for several hours.  Melt chocolate chips and paraffin in a double boiler. With a toothpick or bamboo skewer, dip peanut butter balls in melted chocolate and place on a wax paper lined cookie sheet. Refrigerate leaving on waxed paper until hardened.

Happy Baking!