January Recipes: Peanut Butter Brownies

A few of my friends like to make Sunday brunch...this usually consists of a baguette, a few kinds of cheese, many mimosas, and jam or quince paste if I'm really lucky. Can I just take a second to tell the world how discovering quince is probably one of the most exciting things that's happened to me lately.

Anyway, I got distracted: the brownies. So one day we couldn't do Sunday brunch so we made Sunday dinner. Dinner consisted of roast chicken, a salad, homemade rolls, and peanut butter brownies for dessert. It was excellent all around. I'll get to the roast chicken in a different post since later I made one all by myself.

A different one of my lovely friends gave me Bon Appetit Desserts for Christmas and naturally I'm just a little bit thrilled. So when Sunday brunch became Sunday dinner, I decided that dinner needed a dessert and I figured why not use my new cookbook! PS- Apologies for the lack of photos, I was at someone else's house and they really weren't thaaaat stunning anyway. They taste great though...

Here goes:
Brownies with Peanut Butter Frosting
(not really at all adapted from Bon Appetit Desserts)
Brownies:
-Nonstick cooking spray
-5 ounces unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped
-4 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate , coarsely chopped
-1/3 c butter, cut up
-1 1/2 c sugar
-4 eggs
-1 tsp vanilla
-1/2 c flour
-1/4 tsp salt

-Preheat the oven to 350. Line a 9x13 metal baking pan with aluminum foil, spray with nonstick
cooking spray.
-Combine chocolates and butter in a small, heavy saucepan over low heat. Stir until melted and let cool.
-With an electric mixer (or a whisk and strong arms) beat the eggs, sugar, and vanilla until thick and pale yellow (about 5 min). Reduce speed and beat in flour, salt, and then chocolate.
-Transfer to baking pan and bake about 20 min until only few crumbs come out with a tester. Cool.

Frosting:
-1 c creamy peanut butter
-3 T unsalted butter
-2/3 c powdered sugar
-1 T vanilla

-Beat peanut butter and regular butter until smooth, add sugar and vanilla, beat until blended. Spread over cooled brownies. Devour.