Chocolate Peanut Butter Blondies

Okay! 

So I was having a terrible day. Stuff going on at home, at work and the result was a big headache. Bad mood and all I still needed to eat. 

I wanted something that would really perk me up. And this, actually just a spoonful of this (maybe 3 or 4 but who's counting) did the trick! So this is certifiably a mood enhancer incase you wanted one. Actually this is spectacular. Reason or not. Chocolate + peanut butter comes together to make one of the best brownies ever. I mean Blondie cause they don't have chocolate all over them to make them brown. These blondies are not fudge blondies, which only means lesser butter, which makes this healthy. Healthy chocolate butter swirl brownies. Ha! Defy that!! 

For the blondies, I began by making the Chocolate Peanut butter. And trust me when I say this, it is the BEST Chocolate Peanut Butter ever! Try this and you'll never try a store bought one again. 

The peanut butter comes together in less than 10 minutes and its work-free. I made this with freshly roasted and lightly salted peanuts. It just gave an addictional (addictive+ additional) depth of flavour to the Peanut butter. 

For all the peanut butter fiends out there- you know who you are, the richness, the boldness, the flavour and the utter soul soothing-ness of this stuff will make your world go round. I made some peanut butter blondies with this and my day went from 0 to hero in no time! The blondies take on a caramel flavour as the sugar and butter cooks..... isn't that absolutely heavenly! Lets get on to it then! 

Serves: 12, 3" squares

Time taken: 10 minutes (peanut butter) + 30 minutes (brownies)

Complexity: **

You'll need

2 cups skinless peanuts

1 cup dark chocolate

For the Brownie

1 stick or 1/2 cup butter

1 cup flour

1 cup brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla

2 eggs

Pinch of love

Method

I first began by making the peanut butter. For that, you can either buy roasted salty peanuts or you can do it this way. In a skillet, add in the peanuts on a medium heat. 

Dry roast them for 5 minutes or so till they are slightly golden in colour. Add in the salt and your roasted salty peanuts are ready. 

Add them to the food processor. 

Keep the blitzing on. First the peanuts will turn into powder. Then they will turn gritty and start releasing their oils. 

Within a couple minutes of processing, they will start turning smoother. You can either go all the way smooth or stop right here which is what I did. 

Now comes in the decadent part. Take a bar of chocolate 

Chop it up in smaller chunks like so. 

Add those chocolate chunks to the peanut butter. Sneak a small one in your mouth to bite on.... no one will know- I speak from experience

Whizz this for another minute or so till the chocolate is all incorporated and its all a smooth mix. Here's the view from the top. 

Chocolate peanut butter all ready. Please take a spoonful of this just to make sure if the taste is right. We gotta make sure and we need our little treats. At this point feel free to add in vanilla, salt/ honey if you want. I didn't 

Transfer this into an airtight jar and store in the fridge for months. It solidifies a little in the fridge and is of spreadable consistency at room temperature. 

Helloooo gorgeous! 

Now for the brownies. Let me begin by saying that I intended to make fudge brownies but I ran out of butter. So if you do want fudge brownies, in the same recipe just add 2 sticks of butter instead of one. 2 sticks butter is equal to 1 whole cup of butter. That will give you a fudge like texture. 

First preheat your oven at 160C or 320F. Line your baking pan with parchment paper and leave it hanging out on the sides so its easier to pick up the brownie out of the pan later.

In a bowl, add in the butter and sugar. In order to get that cracked flaky crust, the sugar should properly melt in the butter. So beat it quite well. I started with a spatula and whisked some more with a whisk

Here's how it looked. 

Add in the eggs now and the vanilla. Whisk them all together till well combined.

Dump in the flour and very lazily fold in the flour. 

The more you mix the flour, the more cake-like your brownie will be. 

Spread this batter in the baking pan.  

Now comes the oh-so-delicious part. pour lines of that rich gorgeous chocolate peanut butter like this on the batter.

Take a toothpick and make swirls in the batter. 

Now place the baking pan in the oven for 20-25 minutes or till a toothpick inserted comes clean except for a few crumbs attached to it. Baked Golden, Nutty, caramel-y, Chocolate-y perfection. 

I couldn't get my eyes off it! 

Cut the brownies into 3" squares. My baking tray was rectangular and that gave me 12 squares.

So rich and so perfect 

The peanut butter was still gooey when they came out of the oven but then gained structure as the blondies cooled off. 

The pop of peanutty chocolate adds another layer of flavours in this caramel-y blondie. absolutely delightful! 

Can't stop eating them!! I even drizzled some of the extra chocolate-y goodness over my brownies and well...... let me just savour it, until then please go ahead and make them. Indulge!