Peanut Butter Brownies

Although I love late spring and early summer, when I can use the seasonal fruit I grow, occasionally the chocolate urge gets the better of me.

I'm still waiting for my gooseberries to ripen, but in between rhubarb cakes and crumbles, I made these peanut butter brownies, from Taste.com.au. I didn't have crunchy peanut butter, so added 30g finely chopped roasted peanuts (not salted) to 170g smooth peanut butter. I also warmed the peanut butter a little, so that the chopped nuts could be mixed in easily; this also made it easier to swirl the PB through the brownie batter.

The recipe used a slightly unusual, but easy, method of making the brownies. Although quite a lot of excess fat soaked into the baking parchment lining the baking tin, during cooking, the brownies themselves didn't seem greasy. Some of the comments on the recipe thought there was too much PB, but we both liked the fact that the peanut flavour was really strong. My only complaint was that the brownies were a bit thin.

I've previously used my favourite recipe for brownies, and combined it with peanut butter and jam (jelly) to make these brownies, and I think that if I want to make peanut butter brownies in the future I will go back to using that recipe for the chocolate base, as it makes brownies that are just the right thickness and just the right fudginess for my taste. Why tinker with perfection?