Dark chocolate and peanut butter brownies
The little man’s school doesn’t allow any form of pre-packed sweets or snacks in their packed lunches. That means no crisps, no sweeties and absolutely no chocolate bars. Now I’m not an ogre, and while a healthy sandwich, some carrot sticks and an apple might be the way to go, it’s a bit bloody boring, frankly. So I like to slip in a small something to perk up his lunch a little – on the understanding that all the healthy stuff has to be eaten first, obviously. Home-made snackage is, happily, completely acceptable, so my current obsession is tray bakes, muffins, biscuits and flapjacks – anything to enliven the tupperware, as it were.
This one turned out pretty well, and, as I explained to him, peanut butter is good for you too, which makes this practically a health food (and if he’s not looking, I slip in some finely chopped dates, which add a nice toffee taste as well as being good for him):
175g dark chocolate
100g butter
70g crunchy peanut butter
2 eggs
170g caster sugar
110g plain flour
Preheat the oven to gas 4/180 degrees. Melt together the chocolate, butter and peanut butter in a bain marie (or a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water):
Remember not to let the water touch the bottom of the bowl – you want it all to melt very gently. Turn off the heat as soon as it’s starting to melt and continue to stir occasionally, letting the residual heat melt everything together.
Meanwhile, whisk the eggs and sugar together (spiky hair optional):
When it’s really light and fluffy, sieve in the flour and fold gently through:
Now pour in your melted butter, chocolate and peanut butter mixture and stir gently until just combined, then pour into a baking tin:
Pop it into the oven and bake for about 25 minutes, until even and slightly cracked on top. Remember you want to retain some squish in the middle. When cool, cut into squares and store in an airtight container, ready to enliven the lunchbox (or if you’re feeling all posh, serve warm with whipped cream). I guess you could say they’re nutty but nice. Ahaha.
In other news, EnglishGrandma is a-visiting, and last night I tried out the recipe that I’m going to co-post with Curious Wines (you’re going to love it – they’re going to choose wines for us to complement one of my recipes). Trouble is, after spending a whole afternoon toiling over oven-roasted butternut squash risotto, and chicken breasts stuffed with a sage, apple and red onion stuffing, taking step-by-step photos of the whole process, my camera promptly turned itself off and I lost every single photo. Not. Happy. Still, it came out well. I’ll just have to repeat the whole thing and photograph it all over again. Tsk.
Ooh and in other other news, I’m a Disney Blu-Ray Ambassador! Yay! Lots of film reviews coming your way, including one each from the English Smalls. Be afraid.
28 Responses to “Dark chocolate and peanut butter brownies”
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Wee One: See above. I think a lot of people don’t like it because of the stick-to-the-roof-of-your-mouth thing. It doesn’t do that. I tested it intensively too
Heres a Fairytale just for you, enjoy……..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5Dyke3EHew&feature=related
Lulu: Oh no! What happened with the muffins? Yes, we’re having a lovely time, thanks. Shopping today then she’s back home tomorrow – we have to fit loads in as we don’t see each other very much – it’s like living on fast forward for a weekend
I made some shortcrust pastry last night (from my Cooks Academy book!) and popped in into the fridge for use today. Can you keep pastry overnight for use the next day????? It felt very hard this morning. Should I just take it out of the fridge for a while before use to soften??
I was told that if I made the pastry, himself would make a Chicken and Thyme Pie this evening. Yummm.
Laura: And where’s the brownie photo? Hmm?
[...] even got a mention in The Times… yawn…), as well as churning out some rather fattening dark chocolate and peanut butter brownies and having smutty conversations about how much I love a good [...]