I have a new friend! I was strolling food blogs yesterday, as you do when you should be working but just can’t make yourself do one more thing and I found MamaStephF’s Blog. She’s got the best quote and one I completely relate to.
“Peanut butter is the paté of childhood.” Florence Fabricant
After reading that line and perusing MamaStephF’s recipe for peanut butter blondie bars, I decided I needed to know more about Florence Fabricant. I love peanut butter and I’m old so I’ve decided that I have Peter Pan syndrome and I’ve never grown up. I like it that way. Sure, I like grown up food most of the time but there ARE times when a spoonful of peanut butter makes a day a little brighter.
Florence Fabricant is a famous food writer and columnist who writes regularly for the New York Times dining section. She’s also written 11 cookbooks and that says to me that she’s serious about food. She also has a nifty blog called Diner’s Journal which she posts to often.
The Peanut butter Blondie Brownies call for peanut butter chips which sadly do not exist in Australia. Not yet anyway. Peanut butter isn’t a huge thing here. We don’t have peanut butter cups either unless you go to the tourist spots that have the expensive candy from the US. Yes, I go there enough to be called a regular. You can take the woman out of the US but you’ll never take her childhood cravings away.
So I made them with chocolate chips just like I would have made a normal blonde brownie. Dee-lish! I can’t tell you what they would have tasted like with peanut butter chips, so here’s her recipe. Try it out and let me know how it goes. If you rave I’ll have to order some peanut butter chips.
- 1 cup plain flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 stick (113 grams) butter - melted and cooled
- 1½ cups light brown sugar - packed
- 2 large eggs
- 1 tbs + 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ½ cup crunchy peanut butter
- ¾ cup peanut butter chips
- Preheat oven to 350 and line a 9? square pan with greased foil, letting the foil hang over the sides for easy lifting from the pan after baking.
- Combine flour, baking powder and salt in a mixing bowl. In mixer bowl, whisk butter and brown sugar until smooth.
- Add eggs and vanilla and mix well; then add peanut butter.
- When well-blended, add the flour mixture and mix until just incorporated; then add the peanut butter chips. Mix until evenly distributed. Pour into the pan and smooth the top.
- Bake for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out with relatively few crumbs stuck to it. Cool in the pan for as long as you can stand to wait, then remove using the foil and cut into squares.
- I used a silicone pan and they popped right out.