One of my most favorite cookies in the whole wide world is the dark chocolate peanut butter chip cookie at Levain Bakery in New York. It’s the chocolate-peanut butter combo, of course, but it’s also the fact that this massive cookie, with its fudgy, soft center, kind of qualifies as a brownie. The crisp edges of the cookie hint at those corner brownie edges, and the peanut butter chips offer a little resistance to the otherwise yielding chocolate cookie dough. It is wonderful.
So spotting these chocolate peanut butter bars, a new recipe from Melissa Knific, was like seeing an old friend. Just like those Levain cookies, they’re rich and slightly fudgy, a cookie cosplaying as a brownie. But they’re easier to make than cookies: There’s no chilling or shaping or scooping involved — you just press the dough into your trusty 9-by-13 pan and bake. Adding orange candies makes them especially adorable for any Halloween parties on your calendar. But if you’re reaching for those peanut butter chips in the baking aisle, know you’re not alone.
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Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars
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There’s rain in the forecast where I live, which I don’t mind because it gives me an excuse to stay inside and dig into a cooking project. This bountiful chicken pastilla from Nargisse Benkabbou looks like the perfect way to spend a rainy Sunday: assembling the layers of spiced chicken, caramelized onions, fluffy scrambled eggs and crunchy almonds, folding up my phyllo pie package and sipping a glass of wine on the couch while the pastilla bakes and fills my home with beautiful smells.
Loaded baked sweet potatoes aren’t really a project, per se, but they do take time to cook. Lidey Heuck roasts spiced chickpeas along with her potatoes to give the dish extra protein and a bit of crispy crunch. Cilantro and shredded Cheddar are listed as optional toppings, but I consider them mandatory — I need that herbal freshness and distinctive cheesy sharpness.
On the other end of the cook-time spectrum are Ali Slagle’s chile-crisp shrimp and green beans. Spicy-salty with chile crisp and with a nice sweet snap from the shrimp and the beans, the dish comes together in just 20 minutes. Bookmark this one for when you come home from the pumpkin patch or the corn maze and everyone’s cranky and hungry and wants dinner right now.
Speaking of the pumpkin patch: Here’s Erin Jeanne McDowell’s five-star recipe for baked apple cider doughnuts. If you don’t have a doughnut pan, you can use a muffin tin, which will give you something like extra-large apple cider doughnut holes. This is not a bad thing.
Lastly, if you’ve been invited over for dinner and have offered to bring something (how nice of you!), Carolina Gelen’s smoky spiced eggplant dip, sweetened with shallots and brightened with tomatoes, would be a wonderful option. I love this comment from Alix, a reader: “Followed the recipe as is and it is hella good. I’m eating it with naan. I would like to eat it forever.”
