I first tasted Peanut Butter Brownies in Leeds Market. A stallholder had some bite sized samples on his stall. I munched on one as I strolled past, did an immediate u-turn and bought a full sized one. Every mouthful was Heaven. With each bite, I tried to identify the ingredients so I could make them at home. This is what I came up with after many delicious disasters where I had to eat the results of many a mistake. Poor me…
Ingredients
- 175g of Peanut Butter (Crunchy or smooth as preferred, I prefer crunchy in this recipe)
- An additional 50g of Peanut Butter for melting
- 275g of brown sugar (Soft Brown Sugar is best but dark Muscovado can give a good toffee like taste)
- 3 medium free range eggs
- 100g self raising flour
- A bar of plain dark chocolate, 200g.
Method
Melt the 175g of peanut butter with half the chocolate, and all the sugar. This will give you a thick molten mixture (don’t allow it to boil, just a gentle simmer to amalgamate everything). When this has cooled, fold in the beaten eggs before adding the 100g of flour. Stir in well to avoid any floury patches.
Your mixture is now ready to cook. However, this is a sticky mixture, so please remember to line a square tin with foil or greaseproof paper first or you’ll never a) get them out and b) get the pan clean.
Once the mixture is in the pan, melt the 50g of peanut butter with the remaining chocolate and drizzle over the mixture.
Bake in a preheated oven at Gas mark 4 (or 160 degrees C) and bake for around 35 minutes. It is always better to slightly under cook brownies rather than overcook them, so test the middle at around 25 to 30 minutes. Beware though. Molten Peanut Butter is as hot as lava (voice of experience). If firm-ish to touch in the very centre, then take them out of the oven and allow to cool. You often find with brownies that the most central one will be the softest, and the slices from around the edge will have more of a crispy crust. Cut into squares when warmish if you want to serve this with vanilla ice cream (and maybe a drizzle of Golden Syrup?). If you want it as a cake with a cuppa, then slice when cold and apply to mouth.
