Peanut butter and chocolate brownies recipe appeared in The Observer in June 2011 in a recipe column written by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. The photo looked gorgeous, and I have been drooling at it ever since. As I had friends coming for a cup of tea today, I decided to try a new recipe, which I have slightly adapted, cutting down the amount of sugar, butter and cream cheese.
For the brownie layer you will need
220g dark chocolate, at least 70%, (Hugh says chopped, I broke it into pieces, also used a variety of different brands, as I have half eaten bars all over the house, so mine was a combination of Lindt sea salt chocolate, Green & Black dark chocolate and some dark Russian chocolate that stayed in the cupboard for too long)
100g+ unsalted butter
100g light muscovado sugar
2 medium eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
120g self-raising flour
a pinch of salt
Melt the chocolate with butter in a heatproof bowl over a simmering water (or just chuck in the warm oven to melt) until smooth. Set aside to cool a bit, then beat in the sugar and eggs until all fluffy. Mix together with the vanilla extract, flour and salt.
Line a brownie tin with a parchment paper or foil and lightly grease it with butter. Spoon the batter into the tin, keeping a few tablespoons for later.
Now that's one layer sorted.
For the peanut butter layer beat together the following ingredients:
1 tub of cream cheese, room temperature (I used Philadelphia light)
227g jar of Whole Earth smooth peanut butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
100g caster or granulated sugar
2 eggs
3 tbsp single cream
3 tbsp plain flour, sifted
Spread the peanut butter layer over the brownie layer and add the remaining spoonfuls of the reserved brownie mix.
Using a wooden toothpick, make swirls in the batter, so that you get a pretty pattern.
Bake for 35 minutes until the edges are puffed and the toothpick comes clean in the centre.
Let it cool on a rack, once cold, cut into squares.
The process of cooking was enjoyable, especially licking the spoon with the remains of the chocolate and peanut mixtures.