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| Recipe of the week... ... peanut butter swirled brownies! |
Ingredients:
PEANUT BUTTER BATTER … 200g crunchy peanut butter, 120g
granulated sugar, 1 large egg, half a teaspoon vanilla extract, a sprinkling of
coarse sea salt.
BROWNIE BATTER … 100g chocolate, 120g butter/margarine, 250g
granulated sugar, 2 large eggs, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, a sprinkling of coarse
sea salt, 100g plain flour.
TO FINISH … A generous handful of dark chocolate chips
Time taken: An hour (Half an hour to make and half an hour
to bake).
Serves: 12 decent blocks of brownie.
Hi readers,
How are youu? I hope you’re all well and happy today, you
lovely people. And I hope that the sun is shining where you! We’ve certainly
got the sunshine in Sheffield today. As I write, the sun is streaming through the
window warming my cheeks, and we’ve been treated to three days of good weather
in a row now. It’s incredible. And it really is – after months of cold winter
and short days – the clocks have finally turned so the evenings are lighter,
and the weather’s showed up for the occasion. And it really feels like Spring! Incredible.
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| Spring has sprung this week |
Also incredible – MUMS. Big shout out to all the mums out
there. We celebrated Mother’s Day yesterday and it’s so lovely to see everyone, in
real life and on social media, acknowledging the small miracles mums carry out
every day. Working and houseworking, with childcare and husband-care and
grandparent-care… and all that they do that we never even realise. Mums are
amazing and they deserve their cards, their flowers and chocolates, a million
times over. And breakfast in bed, and a bloody long bath. With champagne and
slaves.
ALSO incredible – what an incredible time it is to be alive –
Comic Relief 2017. The show hit our screens on Friday and has raised over £73
million for those in need. A staggering total. With lots of laughs along the
way, we watched clips of the lives of people enduring the famine in East
Africa. As we all do, I cried and donated money. And was just blown away with
the footage – and with the idea that half the people in Liberia are hungry
right now… that’s crazy! And horrifying.
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| Comic Relief - saving lives and raising smiles |
As well as the footage from the African continent, I was
also touched by the sequel to the film Love Actually. Much as we all chuckled,
I’m sure, watching Rowan Atkinson’s gift wrap scene – was anyone else struck by
the speech from Hugh Grant as Prime Minister?? In light of the Westminster terrorist
attack, on people in London last week.. his words struck a chord. Even though
that clip must have been filmed weeks or months in advance of the attack, and
even though Hugh Grant isn’t our actual Prime Minister (though we may wish he
were), it felt like such a solid address to the nation! A chill ran through me,
just watching.
Anyway, readers, if you haven’t seen this film clip I
recommend you go look it up. This last week certainly has been humbling, with
the terrorist attack and then Comic Relief. Makes you appreciate the things
that MATTER. Like, family and friends. Having food in your belly and feeling
the sun warm your face.
I stumbled upon a blog post this week called ‘How Would You
Describe Yourself in Five Words?’, by Joanna Goddard (which you can read here).
It’s a really simple idea for how to evaluate how you feel about yourself, and
to track how the things that define you
come to change through your life.
I had a go at describing myself in five words this week. Put
‘dieter’ on the list, because I have been trying quite determined lately to shift
some last Christmas weight. Then I looked back over my list and thought: honestly,
that’s pathetic. There are much better things
to concern myself with than the nutritional content of a cereal bar. Like the
famine, Hayley. The crisis in east Africa. So I've ditched the diet, in favour of a humbled, healthy outlook. Regaining perspective.
I then happened upon a blog post for the best-looking
cake recipe I’d seen in a looong while, and decided to make my colleagues happy.
And take down everyone’s diets in one fell swoop. As I’d rather we were happy,
and we could simply use ‘happy’ as one of our five words to describe ourselves
like Joanna Goddard does. The recipe in question is for peanut butter swirled
brownies, and you can find the original on the Smitten Kitchen blog here.
It’s chocolate brownie batter and peanut butter brownie batter,
swirled together with choc chips on top. It’s Andy at work’s birthday and I’ve
brought a batch of these brownies in the office for the occasion. Everyone is overjoyed.
Want to bring similar JOY and HAPPINESS to your own life? You do?? Well, here’s
how to bake up a batch of peanut butter swirled brownies in just twelve simple steps…
1.
Set some cheerful, sing-a-long music playing and
heat your oven to 175°C.
2.
Grease an 8-inch square baking tin with butter
or marg, and line the bottom with baking paper.
3.
To make the peanut butter batter, add all the
ingredients to a small bowl and whisk together using a fork until they’re well
mixed.
ChefBeHere Top
Tip: The original Smitten Kitchen recipe used smooth peanut butter, but that’s sacriledge
in the ChefBeHere household. So, I switched it out. And strongly advise you do
the same. How did the creator of such an
amazing recipe have such shoddy taste in peanut butter?? I wonder.
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| No fight at all, in my eyes |
4.
To make the brownie batter, break your chocolate
up into squares, and melt the chocolate and butter together in a small pan over
a very low heat until only a couple unmelted bits remain.
ChefBeHere Top
Tip: You need to stir constantly to stop your chocolate from burning! Mustn’t
burn the chocolate. Alternatively, you can stick them in the microwave in a
bowl and heat in small bursts until the chocolate and butter melt, stirring
every 30 seconds.
5.
Then when they’re mostly melted, off the heat,
stir until smooth and fully melted.
6.
Add the sugar, eggs, vanilla extract and salt to
the pan/bowl, and stir in using a big wooden spoon. Fold in the flour and then
you’re ready to assemble your brownies!
7.
Spread half of your brownie batter evenly in the
bottom of the prepared baking tin, and then dollop peanut butter batter all
over in big spoonfuls.
8.
Dollop remaining brownie batter in pan, aiming,
if you can, between the peanut butter dollops.
9.
Use fork to swirl the two batters together in
loose figure-8s, and sprinkle choc chips all over to decorate.
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| Brownie batter ready to go in the oven |
10. Bake
your brownie in the oven for half an hour, until it looks nicely baked and your
house smells like heaven on earth.
ChefBeHere Top
Tip: Don’t delay – get your dishes done and clear up your messy kitchen while
the brownie bakes! Good to get these chores out of the way and it means you get
to be near your brownie at all times, checking on it through the oven door. Sending
loving thoughts.
11. Safely
remove from the oven and switch the oven off, then leave to cool in the tin for
at least half an hour (resist eating!!) before slicing up into blocks.
12. Serve
to adoring fans or Tupperware for another day. Brownies keep well at room
temperature, so they’ll be fit to eat for a few days at least… if they last that
long!
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| Baked and smelling dreamy! |
And that, readers, is all there is to it. Quite straightforward,
don’t you think? I got along really well with this recipe! I did wonder, with
having different sections of ingredients and with having two bowls on the go, whether
it was going to be quite tricky – but no! There aren’t any complicated or
skilled steps, and you don’t need octopus arms it’s an easy recipe to tackle
step by step.
I found the recipe easy to follow and my brownie came out the
oven looking good. Smelling godly. I sat myself down, late on Sunday evening,
closing the curtain on the weekend with a warm chunk of gooey brownie to sample
and it. Was. Diviiiiine. Like, ahhhmagaaad. Ahh. Mmm. Ohh. Yeeeeeah!
Readers, if you don’t like peanut butter then go leave me in
peace. If you do like peanut butter, please bake this brownie as a matter of
urgency. And let me know whether you think it's a waste of your precious
resource, just not to your taste, or whether you ate this with your eyes closed
and a smile in your heart. As I did.
Swirl safely,
Hayley
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| Enjoy your life... ... eat brownies before bed somedays. |
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