It is my firm belief that there is always a need for brownies!! A simple brownie will solve many an emotional ailment, it will satisfy any sweet tooth craving and almost every girl in the world would happily have a brownie as their last meal.
Can you best a devilishly chocolaty brownie, the answer is probably no but it’s a well known fact that girls will strive for perfection, so I experiment. I have a lazy Tuesday afternoon to thank for this recipe; it was my day off and I was sprawled on the couch watching the food network, as usual, barefoot Contessa was on. Ina Garten you are a goddess. Peanut butter swirl brownies…..what…..yes you heard me correctly….peanut butter swirl brownies. As if brownies weren’t sinful enough. Of course I had to try them, lucky thing I had Wednesday off also!
Melt together the butter, 1 pound of chocolate chips, and the unsweetened chocolate in a medium bowl over simmering water. Allow to cool slightly. In a large bowl, stir (do not beat) together the eggs, coffee granules, vanilla, and sugar. Stir the warm chocolate mixture into the egg mixture and allow to cool to room temperature.
In another bowl, sift together 1 cup of the flour, the baking powder and the salt. Once the chocolate mixture has cooled, add the dry ingredients. Now the next step is interesting and I have to say a large thank you to the genius Ina Garten for enlightening me. You toss the chocolate chips in the flour. This stops the chips from sinking to the bottom of the mixture during cooking. I don’t know about you but I hate when that happens as they tend to burn. Make sure they are mixed in well.
Pour the batter into the pan or two it should only come up about ¾ of the way. Now the fun part, spoon big dollops of peanut butter on top of the batter. Now take a knife or a cake skewer and swirl the peanut butter through the mixture making sure to leave big chunks of it everywhere. Bake for 20mins then bang the pan against the oven shelf to let the air out from between the pan and the dough (nifty trick). Bake for a further 10-15mins!
Trust me it is better to underbake the brownies rather than over bake, you want them to be nice and gooey. Once they have cooled cut them into squares, big or small depending on the size you want (tehehehe, bigger the better in my opinion). Now the next step is VERY IMPORTANT, ok, you’ll need a big glass of milk and a very comfortable chair, you see where I am going with this I hope….
Enjoy
xxx
So below is a list of the ingredients you need, with regards to the chocolate feel free to use what ever brand or strength chocolate you like, this should be to your taste. Just a note though, these brownies are very rich and so I find with these and brownies in general a darker chocolate is preferable.
- 1 pound/454 grams of unsalted butter
- 454 grams of semisweet chocolate, I used bournville chocolate
- 340 grams of semisweet chocolate chips
- 170 grams of unsweetened chocolate
- 6 extra-large organic eggs
- 3 tablespoons instant coffee granules (this is optional, I didn’t use it and they were yummy)
- 2 tablespoons pure vanilla extract ( and a little extra, I’m a firm believer of never too much vanilla)
- 2 1/4 cups sugar
- 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, divided
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon of salt
- 3/4 cup smooth peanut butter (less or more depending on how rich you want the flavour)
Preheat the oven to 170 degrees Celsius
Grease a 12 by 18 inch brownie pan. You can generally tell once you start to pour in the batter if it’s going to be big enough; this is where having a kitchenware fetish comes in handy, because you may need 2 pans.
So the recipe calls for a bain marie, I remember the first time I saw that in a recipe I was completely baffled, little did I know that it was just a bowl over a pot of simmering water. I generally never use this to melt chocolate and butter together, I just melt the butter and then pop the chocolate in afterwards on a very low heat. Caution though, a very low heat is needed you don’t want to burn the chocolate. So you melt (in whatever fashion you prefer) the all the butter and the unsweetened choc plus 454 grams of the semisweet chocolate together.
In a very large bowl stir together the eggs, vanilla and sugar. The recipe specifies that it should not be beaten. Once the chocolate mixture has cooled you can pour the chocolate mixture into the egg mixture and mix well. You should allow this to cool to room temperature.
Melt together the butter, 1 pound of chocolate chips, and the unsweetened chocolate in a medium bowl over simmering water. Allow to cool slightly. In a large bowl, stir (do not beat) together the eggs, coffee granules, vanilla, and sugar. Stir the warm chocolate mixture into the egg mixture and allow to cool to room temperature.
In another bowl, sift together 1 cup of the flour, the baking powder and the salt. Once the chocolate mixture has cooled, add the dry ingredients. Now the next step is interesting and I have to say a large thank you to the genius Ina Garten for enlightening me. You toss the chocolate chips in the flour. This stops the chips from sinking to the bottom of the mixture during cooking. I don’t know about you but I hate when that happens as they tend to burn. Make sure they are mixed in well.
Pour the batter into the pan or two it should only come up about ¾ of the way. Now the fun part, spoon big dollops of peanut butter on top of the batter. Now take a knife or a cake skewer and swirl the peanut butter through the mixture making sure to leave big chunks of it everywhere. Bake for 20mins then bang the pan against the oven shelf to let the air out from between the pan and the dough (nifty trick). Bake for a further 10-15mins!
Trust me it is better to underbake the brownies rather than over bake, you want them to be nice and gooey. Once they have cooled cut them into squares, big or small depending on the size you want (tehehehe, bigger the better in my opinion). Now the next step is VERY IMPORTANT, ok, you’ll need a big glass of milk and a very comfortable chair, you see where I am going with this I hope….
Enjoy
xxx
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