Peanut Butter Frosted Brownies

A couple weekends ago, we spent my friend Amanda's bachelorette weekend up at the cottage relaxing, laughing, and stuffing our faces. We managed to eat half a watermelon in less than a day, a whole lot of chips and of course some (necessary) baked goods. Amanda had mentioned on her own blog that she didn't think there were any recipes that could beat out the fudgey brownie box mixes - I accepted the challenge! I looked through my pins and favourite food blogs and decided on a recipe deemed "the best peanut butter brownies you'll ever have" on A Cup of Jo. She was not kidding. These brownies are dense, rich, fudgey, and of course chocolatey - everything you want in a brownie. All the girls loved them and we were sneaking slivers out of the fridge until they were gone (which didn't take very long). If you need something for a girls night, a family night, a games night or you just want some chocolate - make these, you will not be disappointed.

Chocolate Brownies

6 oz. semi-sweet baking chocolate

3/4 cup salted butter

1 1/2 cups white sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 tbsp of brewed coffee, room temperature

2 tsp vanilla extract

3 eggs

1 cup white flour

1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line a 9x9 square baking pan with aluminum foil and lightly spray with oil. Melt the butter and chocolate together in a small saucepan over a pot of boiling water, stirring continuously until smooth, then remove from heat. Whisk in the white and brown sugar. Mix in the coffee and vanilla. Beat in the eggs. Gradually add in the flour just until it is combined. Gently fold in the chocolate chips and pour the mixture into the pan. Bake for 20-25 minutes until a toothpick comes out (mostly) clean and let them cool.

Peanut Butter Buttercream

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter 

(not natural)

1/4 cup salted butter, softened

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups icing sugar

1/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate, chopped

Beat together the peanut butter and butter until combined. Add in the vanilla and icing sugar and beat until smooth. When the brownies have cooled frost and sprinkle with chocolate. Store in the refrigerator for 4 days.

If you haven't figured it out yet, these brownies definitely came out as victors in the boxed-brownie-mix challenge. They were a great post-dinner, pre-board games treat that made our bachelorette weekend extra special. These brownies are best straight from the fridge and washed down with the drink of your choice - either milk, or some red wine perhaps?

Honey and Oat Chocolate Chip Coookies

If there is one thing to get me in the baking mood it's a thunderstorm. With grey skies, cool winds and rain drizzling outside there were few things left I could do (or even wanted to do) with a day off. After completing some chores I felt a real urge to make cookies - something classically comforting. Another recipe, aside from banana bread (as mentioned in this post), that I nailed in my high school days was oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. They're chewy, sweet, dense and just plain good. Since I was also feeling creative I decided to experiment a little bit and make some adjustments to the classic recipe I had grown to love. After swapping in and out a few ingredients I came up with a recipe that out did my previous one with the simple addition of honey. Honey never fails people, honey never fails.

 Ingredients

1 cup white flour

3/4 cup whole wheat flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

2 cups rolled oats

1/2 cup salted butter, softened

1/4 cup full fat greek yogurt

1 cup brown sugar

5 tbsp honey

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup dark chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Sift together the flours, baking powder and baking soda. Stir in the oats until combined. In a separate bowl, cream together the butter, greek yogurt, brown sugar and honey on medium speed. Beat in the egg and vanilla. Gradually add in the flour mixture until the dough is well mixed and finally stir in the chocolate chips until well combined. Put tablespoons of the dough on a baking sheet, approximately 1 inch apart and bake for 8-10 minutes until the bottoms are golden brown.
Makes approximately 3 dozen.

These are definitely milk dunking cookies. Whether you're drinking whole milk, soy milk or almond milk get on dunking because these cookies deserve it! Baking these cookies made my rainy day off much better and when paired with a good book (I'm currently reading this one) the goodness grows!

Tip: Why not also try a combo made in heaven (peanut butter and honey!) by swapping out the chocolate for some peanut butter chips, sounds perfect right?

Chocolate Brownie Donuts: Three Ways to Glaze

     I've always been a foodie at heart. I remember asking for a blender for my twelfth birthday and the excitement that followed opening it, as well as my beloved Kitchen Aid mixer for graduation and a few other kitchen accessories in between, so it should be of no surprise that on my most recent birthday I received a donut pan. I've seen a few recipes on Pinterest for homemade donuts, and was definitely intrigued after trying out a few in some gourmet donut shops, so this week I put my donut pan to good use and made some of my own.

    Looking through various donut recipes I wasn't sure about the type of donut I wanted to make or how difficult they could be. Assuming (correctly, I might add) that anything chocolate would be  delicious I decided to try out this recipe for Chocolate Brownie Donuts. I am without words. My first attempt at donuts was beyond what my taste buds could handle - in a good way - and was welcomed with high praise from my family (and also exclamations of "why did you cut the recipe in half!?" but twelve donuts just seemed like a lot at the time!). I did try out a peanut butter glaze as the recipe suggested however I felt like experimenting so I added two other kinds into the mix - chocolate coconut and white chocolate peppermint - which brings us back to the title, chocolate brownie donuts: three ways to glaze.

Peanut Butter Glaze: 2-4 donuts

1/2 cup icing sugar, 1 tbsp smooth peanut butter, 

2 tbsp 2% milk, 1/4 tsp vanilla extract

Whisk all the ingredients together and depending on your preferred consistency add more icing sugar, peanut butter, or milk. Dip the cooled donuts in and sprinkle with chopped nuts (I used almonds - mild in flavour but still with a good amount of crunch). 

Chocolate Coconut Glaze: 2-4 donuts

1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips, 2 tbsp coconut oil, 

3/4 cup sweetened flaked coconut, toasted

Melt together the chocolate chips and coconut oil in the microwave, stirring frequently. Add more chocolate or oil, as before, depending on your preferred consistency. Dunk in the cooled donuts and sprinkle with the toasted coconut until well coated.

White Chocolate Peppermint Glaze: 2-4 donuts

1/2 cup white chocolate chips, 2 tbsp vegetable oil, 

1/4 tsp peppermint extract

Melt together the white chocolate chips, vegetable oil and peppermint in the microwave, stirring frequently. Add more chocolate or oil, again, depending on your preferred consistency. Dip in cooled donuts and sprinkle with chopped chocolate pieces or crushed peppermint candies.

Surprise, surprise, the coconut was the favourite donut but that's not to say the peanut butter or white chocolate peppermint weren't equally delicious. These donuts are going into my hall of fame of baked goods for pure decadence. They are best served with a cold glass of milk, but I enjoyed them with what else but a hot cup of tea - and I dare you not to finish them all in one day!

Tip: When filling the donut pan, I found it easiest to fill a ziplock bag with the batter, cut the tip off and pipe them in to ensure they were filled evenly. You could also skip the sprinkling of nuts on the Peanut Butter Glaze by using crunchy peanut butter instead!