Peanut Butter Brownies

I've had a craving for chocolate lately. Not like a craving for a Snickers bar or something silly and horribly processed but nice truffles or gooey brownies or something full of chocolate chips. You may be thinking that this isn't worthy of a blog post! Everyone loves chocolate! Not me... I'm not a huge chocolate person. It's just been lately.

And I love peanut butter. I may have an addiction.

So these are perfect. Or at least I thought they would be. I hunted for a recipe in all my books, in all my files and nothing. So I Googled. Lots of recipes. None with chocolate. Isn't the whole point of a brownies supposed to be the chocolate? Why a peanut butter brownie recipe with no chips or no cocoa? Does this make sense to anyone else?

So I added chocolate to the recipe. Simples.

P.S. these are not very healthy. I'd be lying and a complete hypocrite if I tried to say that. But enjoy them anyway.

1/2 cup peanut butter

1/3 cup (75g) softened butter or margarine

2/3 cup white sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 cup cocoa

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

Cream butter and peanut butter. Gradually cream in sugars, eggs and vanilla extract.

Stir together flour, baking powder, cocoa and salt. Slowly stir this into peanut butter mix.

Pour into greased or lined pan. Bake at 350F/175C/gas 5 for 30 minutes or until set. If you like your brownies gooey, take them out a little earlier.

I added peanuts to mine as I like them crunchy. If I had chocolate chips on hand, I would have added those to. Experiment! I think the next time I try these, I'll do a brownie base and add a creamy peanut butter top then marble it in. Wish I would have thought of that earlier... :(

Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Reese's Cookies

The biggest thing I love about Aldi, whether in the UK or the US, is the middle section. The random assortment of one-time-only goods that make you wonder if they fell off the back of a truck. Sometimes the merchandise is relevant, sometimes not.

In yesterday's case, I believe the management team were attempting an American promotional sale, loosely linked to 4th of July, which no one celebrates here anyway. 

The amount of pure cheap American tack wafting off the products was enough to make me feel a little ill. Maple syrup, hot dogs in a jar, marshmallows, fried onions and toffee popcorn. Oh, and strawberry creme toffee popcorn. That's not even a thing! Let alone something to epitomize what Americans eat. 

And all decorated in blue with red and white strips, emphasized with white stars. No brand names. I wouldn't even want to know where they were manufactured. 

In spite of my, what I'm sure seems like a pompous and snobby anti-American rant, they were selling Hershey's. Cookies and Creme bars, milk chocolate bars....and....Reese's! Both the peanut-butter cups and the pieces. 

I snagged a few bags of the Reese's Pieces when inspiration struck. Cookies! What better way to a

ttempt a show of appreciation for selling my 'favourite' American foods then by making the cookie, something distinctly not British, but I'm unsure of it's exact origin. Possibly America?

Anyway...

Straight forward recipe. Add nuts if you want. Add peanut-butter or chocolate chips if you want. 

115g butter room temperature.

50g caster sugar

110g dark brown sugar

1 egg

1/2 tsp vanilla essence

170g plain flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/8 tsp salt

170g Reese's Pieces

350F/180C/gas 4

Cream butter and both sugars together until light and fluffy. Beat in egg, then vanilla. 

Sift in flour, baking soda, and salt. Add Reese's Pieces and mix well. 

Bake by teaspoonfuls on baking sheets 10-15 minutes. Cool on wire rack.