Peanut Butter Brownies

Brownies are just great... I love the smile on people's faces when I tell them that I brought along brownies. I made a batch this weekend for some friends from the English Seminar - it's a good thing most of the people there share my fondness for peanut butter... ;-) and since they have to listen to me raving about it all the time (because, as you know from this post, that's just what peanut butter addicts do), I thought I might as well bake them something with peanut butter in it.

Recipe:

100g dark chocolate
125g soft butter
250g sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract/1 sachet vanilla sugar
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
80g flour
2 tblsp cocoa powder
100g roasted and salted peanuts
50g chopped dark chocolate/chocolate chips
about 10 tsp peanut butter

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Line a brownie tin (about 18x23 cm) with parchment paper.

Break the chocolate into pieces and melt in a bowl over a hot water bath. Let cool slightly. Put butter in a large bowl and beat with the hand mixer until smooth and creamy. Add sugar and vanilla extract and beat until well combined. Slowly add eggs and chocolate and beat well. Sift flour and cocoa powder into this batter, mix well. Then add the peanuts and the chocolate chips. Fill the batter into your prepared tin. Spread the peanut butter onto the batter with a teaspoon and run a fork through this batter so that you get a bit of a marble effect.

Bake the brownies in the middle of the oven for about 25-30 minutes. Check whether they are done with a wooden skewer. Let the brownies cool down in the tin, then cut into pieces.