Peanut Butter & White Choc Brownies...

This is one of a few things that I made for my birthday. These mini brownies (or blondies) were ideal to take into work to share around. For us it was a given that we'd like them, peanut butter being something of a favourite. To me, the end result is not so much like a brownie, but is a very tasty, dense mini cake with the perfect contrast of salty and sweet from the peanut butter and white chocolate respectively. Moreish.

• Cream the butter, peanut butter and sugar together. Beat in the egg and vanilla essence.
• Sift the flour and baking powders and add to the mixture with the chocolate chipe to form a dough.
• Spread into a square tin and bake at 170°C for 25 minutes until golden brown.
• Cool in the tin before slicing.

Notes:
• Taken from Rachel Allen's Bake

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ChocNut Squares...

Make. These.
I discovered these on Eat and Be Happy, another blog I've been reading. I couldn't resist the temptation of peanut butter and chocolate and promptly gave them a go myself. I had to adapt the recipe from cups into grams, and in so doing made a few modifications to the overall process. This included changing the base from a syrupy krispies to classic chocolate krispies base.

These need some refrigeration to set and are best kept in the fridge as the chocolate topping and peanut butter centre are so good when set and fudgey. As an alternative, you could substitute the fudge topping for straightforward chocolate like a caramel shortbread. I think the crackling of a thick chocolate topping as you bite into a square would seriously add to the eating experience.

• Melt the milk chocolate and 1 tbsp syrup. Stir into the rice krispies and press into the bottom of a lined 20 x 20cm tin.
• Set aside to harden.
• Meanwhile, melt 150g dark chocolate and the peanut butter in a pan over a low heat.
• Pour this over the rice krispie mixture and spread evenly. Place in the fridge to cool.
• After an hour of chilling, make the fudge topping.
• Melt the rest of the dark chocolate, the butter and 2 tbsp syrup in a pan over a low heat. Stir in the cocoa powder once melted.
• Allow to cool slightly in the pan for 5 minutes, then pour into the tin and spread over the top.
• Cool for a further hour until set, then turn out and cut into squares.

Notes:
• Makes about 25 squares
• Best kept refrigerated.

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Fruit, Nut & Seed Flapjacks...

From River Cottage ‘Everyday’ book in the breakfast section. It’s very easy and very customisable to your own tastes.


• In a large saucepan melt the butter, sugar, PB and honey on a low heat
• Add the zests and the fruit for a bit as it is finishing melting
• Stir in the oats and most of the seeds
• Press into a tin (20cm x 20cm is good), drizzle a little more honey and sprinkle the last of the seeds on top
• Bake at around 150-160°C for about 30 minutes (golden brown at the edges)
• Cool in tin, turn out and cut into slices

Tastes even better the next day if you can wait
(makes about 12-15)

Notes:
• For the fruit and nuts use whatever suits your taste. I used figs, dates and raisins and a bag of sunflower, pumpkin and pine nut seeds from the supermarket. The original recipe suggests apricots, linseeds, poppy seeds.
• The orange zest in this recipe really breaks through the sweetness of the honey and the salty peanuts so unless you can’t stand orange I wouldn’t leave it out. That said I’m sure they’d be tasty either way.

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