RECIPE: Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Brownies

Hello! Dropping in with a super quick recipe post cause Monday is over 😀 Lessons are over at least.

I made these brownies yesterday, because I haven’t baked in ages, and one of my goals after attending the Hygge the previous Sunday was to make more food from scratch. So what better way than to start with dessert?

These brownies were made using both chocolate chips and peanut butter chips (best invention ever). So no cocoa powder was needed!

And to make them slightly healthier, I used olive oil instead of butter. It’s really killing two birds with one stone cause it’s healthier, and the oil results in a moister brownie. Yummers.

These brownies were the moistest brownies I’ve made so far. Tastewise they were definitely good, but I think using dark chocolate chips would have been ever better to add a bittersweet dimension to them. I was really happy with the crackly top though!

I wanted to do one of those cool stacked brownie shots, but they were so moist that they refused to balance nicely. I managed to snap this in the few seconds they stayed together.

And then I gave up and just lay them down. Haha, I edited the photo below to make it look like one of those retro photos… You know to bring back memories of the brownies your grandma/momma used to make when you were young.

Okay, enough talking, here’s the recipe!

Recipe:
Adapted from here

Serves 16.

Ingredients

• ¾ cup self raising flour
• ½ tsp salt
• ¾ cup sugar
• ¾ cup (olive) oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons boiling water
• 2 eggs, room temperature
• 1 cup chocolate chips, melted
• 1 cup peanut butter chips

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. (About 162 degrees celsius)
2. Melt chocolate chips in a water bath. (Put the chocolate chips in a metal bowl and set it in a larger bowl filled with boiling water. Stir until smooth. If the chocolate seizes after coming into contact with some water, add more hot water and keep stirring over the heat until it is smooth again.)
3. In a medium bowl, sift the flour and salt. Set aside.
4. In a separate bowl, add the eggs, sugar and oil and mix until combined for about 2 minutes. Add the water and the vanilla extract. Add the dry mixture to the wet mixture and melted chocolate chips and stir for about 3 minutes until combined.
5. Stir in 1 cup peanut butter chips.
6. Pour into a greased, parchment lined, or a greased foil-lined 8×8 square pan. Bake for 45 minutes.
7. When finished, remove from oven and allow to cool completely in pan on a wire rack.

   Switch things up!
   -Use chocolate chips instead of peanut butter chips
   -Add some mini marshmallows and maybe chopped walnuts and you’ve got some Rocky Road Brownies
   -Melt the peanut butter chips as well and swirl them in for a marbled effect

   Happy baking!

BREAKFAST SERIES: Egg-in-a-basket

Your mum was right, breakfast is the most important meal of the day, no doubt about that. It doesn’t matter if you are a student, an office worker, or a young kid, as long as you are alive and kicking, you should eat breakfast. Well, try to at least. It boosts your metabolism, it gives you energy for the day, and simply starts your day right.

I’m here to help you start eating breakfast regularly, so that you can enjoy the numerous benefits of breakfast. So without further ado, let’s welcome the launch of the BREAKFAST SERIES, with a fun and easy recipe…

Presenting, Egg-in-a-basket! (Pardon the lack of interesting names, I simply could not think of anything appetizing to name this.. Eyeball toast sounds far from appealing, although it does resemble an eyeball :P)

Egg-in-a-basket

Serves one

You’ll need:

2 slices of bread

1 egg

Ham & Cheese

Butter

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 175 degrees.

2. Take two slices of bread and butter each slice on one side.

3. Cut a hole in one of the bread slices (this will be the top slice)

4. Lay the cheese and ham on the bottom slice, then cover with top slice.

5. Crack an egg into the hole.

6.Bake in the preheated oven for 13 mins.
(The egg may look wobby and uncooked for most part of the baking, but don’t worry! It will turn out runny and delicious when 13 minutes is up)

Switch things up!
To healthify this recipe: use avocado instead of butter.
For a more flavorful substitute: Use pesto to spread instead of butter.
Mix ins to replace ham&cheese: Add mushrooms, peppers, bacon, anything you like!
(Don’t overstack the bottom layer though, or your egg may spill over)

Blueberry bread

Its time for a recipe!

Look at the burst blobs of blueberries! (alliteration)

I came across this recipe on Dawn’s blog a while back, and I decided to give it a go.

Homemade Blueberry Bread

 Recipe (makes 12 slices)

Dry

1 cup bread flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 cup sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen

Wet

1 cup milk

1/4 yogurt

1 tsp vanilla extract (or more if you’re a vanilla fan)

Directions

1. Preheat your oven to 180C/350F.
2. Mix all the dry ingredients EXCEPT the blueberries with a whisk in a large bowl.
3. In another large bowl, mix together the wet ingredients.
4. In the ‘dry ingredients’ bowl, make a well in the center and pour in the wet ingredients. Combine all the ingredients by mixing. Note: DO NOT OVERMIX. About 25 seconds of mixing should do the job. There may seem to be some lumps here and there but it’s totally fine – it’s meant to be like that! 
5. Fold in the blueberries.
6. Grease a baking tin with oil or butter and pour in your batter.
7. Gently tap the baking tin to remove any air bubbles within the batter.
8. Bake for about 40 – 50 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

This is definitely a healthier bread recipe since yogurt substitutes the butter/oil. Of course, that comes at a cost since this bread is denser than most. However, it still tastes good, and is even better eaten when its toasted and topped with peanut butter.

Another suggestion is that you could spread honey on the top of the bread after baking to add some sweetness. 

Do give it a try and let me know how it went! 😀

Have a great day.