Is it weird than on my days off from working in a kitchen, I’ll happily spend hours baking in my own kitchen? I’ve started to ask myself this question more often now that the weather looks as if it might actually approximate a summer. Probably I should be out frolicking in parks rather than scouring the local corner shops for dark chocolate (thank you Polish deli, my unlikely saviour this week!). But, the thing is, I need an outlet for my deepest baking urges, the sort that are suppressed at the day job – the sort that involve peanut butter. Only one other person at work likes peanut butter (albeit she likes it so much she has a special song about putting it on toast). We have tried on several occasions to come up with convincing reasons for the absolute imperative of keeping jars of the stuff in stock, but so far to no avail. So, we’re forced to cheat on PB with Nutella while at work, but in the privacy of our own homes we can do what we like.

I found this recipe in Good Food magazine, with the apt caption ‘Like peanut butter? You’ll love these!’ I couldn’t argue with that sort of logic, especially not with a picture of a chocolate and peanut goo-bespattered brownie in front of me. I do like peanut butter, and I did love these. But I think it’s very possible that even if you didn’t, you still would.

Peanut butter brownies

Makes 12-16 brownies

225g crunchy peanut butter
200g dark chocolate, broken into chunks
280g soft light brown sugar
3 medium eggs
100g self-raising flour

Set aside 50g each of the peanut butter and chocolate for the topping. Heat the oven to 180c/160c fan and grease a 20cm square baking tin.

Melt the remaining peanut butter and chocolate with the sugar in a pan, stirring occasionally until the sugar has almost completely melted. Take off the heat and beat in the eggs, one at a time. Stir in the flour and pour the mixture into the tin, levelling it out.

Melt the reserved peanut butter in the pan for a couple of minutes, or until runny (or use a microvave). Drizzle roughly over the brownie and bake for 25 minutes or so – I recommend checking earlier as I felt mine could have been a little more gooey.

Melt the reserved chocolate and drizzle over the top, then leave the brownies to cool in the tin before cutting into squares.

Taken from Good Food magazine, May 2011