Brownies with homemade peanut butter and chocolate

Dense and fudgy, moist and a little chewy

Published originally on my blog on 24 April 2018

Before I start talking about these brownies, let me toot my own horn for a bit, because if I don’t do it, who will?? If you’re not following me on social media you probably won’t know this; I was the featured instagrammer on the first issue of National Geographic Traveller Food magazine (UK edition), with a small interview and a few of my photographs. I am so honored, thrilled and excited to be included in such an iconic publication, that I really can’t describe it with words. I should probably attach a photo of my huge smile here instead, but I won’t.

Now let’s talk brownies and the flavor combination of chocolate and peanut butter, which once upon a time I really disliked. I was never a snickers bar person, I always went for the mars, bounty or twix instead. A couple of years ago though, I made chocolate brownies with homemade peanut butter and suddenly I was hooked. I don’t know what it was. Perhaps the real flavor of the homemade peanut butter, the pure, dark chocolate, the flaked sea salt I added to them, the whole peanuts in the batter? Possibly. Or maybe it was just the fact that growing older means your tastes change and I’m good with that. Whichever was the reason I changed my mind about this combination, I’ll take it, because now I get to thoroughly enjoy one of my favorite kind of brownie.

As I have mentioned to you before, I make my own peanut butter, the recipe for which I shared with you a little while ago, hinting that I was going to share these brownies too. Well, the time is now and at the risk of sounding too confident, I have to say, they are in-cre-di-ble! These are for me the best peanut butter and chocolate brownies you can make and they are chocolaty and peanut-y in the purest sense.

There’s two mixtures in these brownies that marry wonderfully together. One is the dark chocolate brownie mixture in which I added chopped peanuts, and the other is the peanut butter mixture to which I added chopped dark chocolate.

They’re dense and fudgy, moist and a little chewy, with a crispy top and a crunchy texture coming from the chopped peanuts inside, and an intense peanut and deep chocolate flavor. They’re like the best snickers bar, but without the cloying sweetness as they’re not too sweet. When warm, they’re soft, melty and moist, and these are the only brownies I prefer eating warm rather than cold. I don’t know exactly why that is and, don’t get me wrong, I would never turn down a cold brownie, but the flavors and textures are so much better and more distinct to me when warm.

Their nuttiness, fudginess and sweetness is perfectly balanced and they are fantastic dipped into coffee or a glass of cold milk, or simply enjoyed on their own as the best cure for all sweet cravings.

Brownies with homemade peanut butter and chocolate

The homemade peanut butter with the pure flavor of the nut without being too sweet or salty or having an overly oily texture, is possibly the best part of the brownie. If you don’t want to make your own peanut butter (which, incidentally, is ridiculously easy to make), make sure to use natural peanut butter, not the highly processed one. It’s not about being healthy, I’m neither a nutritionist nor a doctor and I believe that everyone is and should feel free to eat whatever they find is good for them, it’s just that the texture and flavor is different and, having tried them with the highly processed kind of peanut butter as well, the result is not what I want it to be.