Home Made Moon Pies!!

These are great!  Start with peanut butter cookies:

Peanut Butter Cookies

3 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 3/4 cups brown sugar

1/2 cup peanut or other vegetable oil

 2 cups +1 T (20 3/4 oz) chunky peanut butter

3 large eggs

2 tsp vanilla

3 3/4 cups (18 oz) all-purpose flour

1 T baking soda

1 1/2 tsp salt

sugar for sprinkling on top

Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt in small bowl and mix (Alton recommends doing this by pulsing the mixture a few times a food processor.)  Mix the butter alone in a stand mixer or with a hand mixer for about one minute.  Add the sugars slowly.  Once all of the sugar has been incorporated, beat the mixture on medium speed until it lightens noticeably in texture and increases slightly in volume.  Drop the mixer speed to low and add the peanut butter and oil all in one dose.  Increase the mixer speed to medium and cream for another 2 minutes until well combined. 

Reduce the mixer speed to low and slowly add the eggs and vanilla, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary. 

Add the dry ingredients to the mixture in three installments, scraping down the bowl as necessary.  Chill the dough for about a half an hour.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Portion the cookies into golf-ball sized balls (mine were a little smaller) and place on cookies sheets.  (I used half-sheet pans lined with parchment paper but greased cookies sheets should work just fine.)  Use a fork to make a criss-cross pattern on the top and then sprinkle with sugar.  Bake the cookies until the cookies are lightly browned around the edges, about 14 to 17 minutes.  (You can bake two sheets of cookies at a time, just rotate them halfway through the cooking time.)  Let the cookies sit for at least 2 minutes on the pans before removing to a rack to cool completely. 

Next we made Marshmallows:

• 3 packages unflavored gelatin
• 1 cup ice cold water, divided
• 12 ounces granulated sugar, approximately 1 1/2 cups
• 1 cup light corn syrup
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

Place the gelatin into the bowl of a stand mixer along with 1/2 cup of the water. Have the whisk attachment standing by.

In a small saucepan combine the remaining 1/2 cup water, granulated sugar, corn syrup and salt. Place over medium high heat, cover and allow to cook for 3 to 4 minutes. Uncover, clip a candy thermometer onto the side of the pan and continue to cook until the mixture reaches 240 degrees F, approximately 7 to 8 minutes. Once the mixture reaches this temperature, immediately remove from the heat.

Turn the mixer on low speed and, while running, slowly pour the sugar syrup down the side of the bowl into the gelatin mixture. Once you have added all of the syrup, increase the speed to high. Continue to whip until the mixture becomes very thick and is lukewarm, approximately 12 to 15 minutes. Add the vanilla during the last minute of whipping. 


Quickly spatula into a roll of parchment paper and pipe it onto the cookies and make sandwiches out of them.


In double broiler melt chocolate chips taking care not to overheat them and destroy the temper.  Dip one side of the sandwich cookies in chocolate.  Allow everything to thoroughly cool and enjoy!