Brownies Must Contain Chocolate

Most importantly, if you haven’t yet done so, get yourself over to Culinate and enter the Death by Chocolate contest to win a trip for 2 to Napa Valley and then vote for me so that I can meet you there! Once you’ve done that, come on back to read about some Peanut Butter Blondies with Chocolate Chips.

I got this recipe from the Allrecipes.com Tried & True Cookies book, which I received about a year ago, or rather, I should have received over a year ago. In actual fact it didn’t make it into my possession until this past August. It got sidetracked at my brother’s house. I feared it had taken up permanent residence there too as every time they’d come to visit I’d remind them to bring my cookie book and they never did. Of course there were excuses about why the book never made the journey, the most popular being that the Baby Genius had stolen it and hidden it in his mountain of books, (and I do mean mountain, that kid loves to read). But I didn’t buy it. Baby Genius made me suspicious of this tale as well, when he informed me that he and Mom had made cookies for the car prior to coming to visit. I had a pretty good idea of the source of their recipe. Eventually though, after I pleaded for the return of the book and promised to bake cookies from it and mail them proof, I got it back. After the epic battle that it took to get my cookie book, you’d think I would have baked from it sooner. Instead, it sat on my shelf, mixed into my mountain of books and was forgotten for some time. I discovered it again when I went home a few weeks ago and have since put it to good use. These Peanut Butter Blondies with Chocolate Chips were the first recipe I tried and the results encouraged me to make lots more.

Originally these bars were (incorrectly) named Chewy Peanut Butter Brownies. I changed the name because it was just wrong. I started making these bars, as I often do, without thoroughly reading the recipe and therefore I was expecting, as the title would suggest, a brownie that had peanut butter in it. Well I mixed up the batter and as I looked at the final product before scrapping it into the pan to put in the oven, something didn’t seem right. That something, was the fact that I was looking at a pale batter without any chocolate in it. Someone had the nerve to call this bar cookie, a brownie, despite the total lack of anything chocolate. I remedied this error in two ways. First, I added a cup of chocolate chips to the batter before baking and second, I renamed them so that they wouldn’t fool anyone else. That made everything better.

The second recipe that I tried was for Coffee Liqueur Raisin Cookies. They were a very nice switch up on an oatmeal raisin cookie, although next time I probably would have added some instant coffee powder to the batter give it a more pronounced flavour. Mine may have been lacking though because I halved the recipe as the original made 7 dozen cookies and I didn’t need that many cookies in my life. I wanted 7 dozen cookies in my life, but I didn’t need them. It’s a never ending struggle of good versus evil.

Chewy Peanut Butter Brownies with Chocolate Chips, (Adapted from this recipe submitted by Missy to Allrecipes.com)

1/2 cup peanut butter

1/3 cup butter, softened

2/3 cup white sugar

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

2 eggs

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C ). Grease a 9x9 inch baking pan.

In a medium bowl, cream together peanut butter and butter. Gradually blend in the brown sugar, white sugar, eggs, and vanilla; mix until fluffy. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt; stir into the peanut butter mixture until well blended. Add in chocolate chips.

Bake for 30 to 35 minutes in preheated oven, or until the top springs back when touched. Cool, and cut into 16 squares.

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Cookies + Peanut Butter + Raisins + Blondies