Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Peanut Butter Brownies

This weekend I failed to buy the necessary ingredients for the beet risotto I had aspired to replicate from a recent restaurant trip but was itching nevertheless, to muck about in the kitchen.

Stress, listlessness, anxiety, despair, boredom: all treatable with idle time spent amongst ingredients. I find that when other areas of life are less than superb, happiness and passion are only a chop, boil, julienne, sauté or roast away.

Fresh out of delicious cooking ingredients, and devoid of any will to propel me out the door to buy these things, I was left with sad, rejected baking accoutrement and a sprawl of free time. No doubt, the next few hours were more messy experimentation than tidy or gourmet.

But the afternoon produced varying results, some tasty and others questionable, with these chocolate peanut butter brownies taking center stage. Intensely chocolatey but without any cakiness, the peanut butter frosting draws them away from a “death by chocolate” situation to a more well-rounded treat.

I suppose when a cold Hop Devil and a sun drenched patio are not available, the next best combination– chocolate and peanut butter– can offer a suitable substitute.

Yields 9-12.

Brownies

  • Nonstick vegetable oil spray
  • 3 ounces unsweetened chocolate (baker’s), coarsely chopped
  • 2 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate chips
  • 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
  • 3/4 cups sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/4 cup all purpose flour
  • pinch salt

Frosting

  • 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter (needs to be full of junky preservatives, like Skippy)
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 1/3 cup powdered sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

OR 3/4 cup Nutella

Preheat oven to 350.

Drag out that muffin tin you used last week for baked eggs and lightly spray the muffin cups (12 unless you’re a batter freak in which case, I only made 9). If you’re lacking a handy bottle of “Pam” you can also butter and lightly flour the cups, OR just use paper cupcake liners. In a double boiler (just a glass bowl on top of a saucepan of simmering water– heating the chocolate directly usually burns it,) melt the chocolates and butter gently. Once combined, set aside to cool.

Beat sugar, eggs, and vanilla with a mixer on high for a few minutes until slightly thickened. Slowly mix in flour and once combined, fold in chocolate. Fill muffin cups with about 2 tbs. batter each, until halfway filled. Bake brownies 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick, inserted, comes out clean. Let cool for a few minutes, then gently (avoid a fork) lift brownies out of pan.

While the brownies are baking blend your frosting ingredients together until smooth (or just whip out that jar of nutella). After they have cooled, simply frost the brownies and refrigerate until set (about 20 minutes). If you’re going for fancy, decorate with nuts and a sprinkle of powdered sugar

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