Peanut Butter Squares

This recipe is taken from Lorraine Pascale’s new book. It’s a lovely book and I’ve made three things so far. Two main meals and this beautiful sweet treat.  I could say many superlatives regarding these morsels of sheer genius, however I just need to stress that if you are a peanut butter fanatic like I am (as you know!) then you must make them.

It’s a brilliantly easy recipe and takes very little preparation – peanut butter, digestive biscuits, melted butter, brown sugar, chocolate, vanilla and chilled in the fridge when all combined. Easy peasy. It’s extremely indulgent, calling for most of a jar of peanut butter, however it does make 16 squares. They are quite large squares too so you could down size even more if you wish. I didn’t want to because they were so moreish and I do have quite a high threshold for sweet things. 

The next time I make these, I am going to cover them in white chocolate instead of milk chocolate. The recipe calls for dark chocolate but I went for milk, simply because I prefer the saltiness from the peanuts against the smooth, sweet milk chocolate – yum! 

I would say that these squares are a hybrid between a biscuit and a Reese’s peanut butter cup. 

Simply fabulous!

Peanut butter obsession continued... including banana loaf cake

So the obsession continues! Peanut Butter Cup cakes... the richest cupcake I've ever tasted and I have a very high threshold for sugar. These cupcakes are the updated and variation on the Mr Hershey cupcakes that I blogged about last year. They are a moist chocolate sponge topped with a gooey peanut butter icing. I used around equal parts of icing sugar to peanut butter. Ina Garten used this method for her peanut butter muffins. I added about three or four tablespoons of whole milk to smooth the icing out. Then topped with miniature Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.  The first time I made them I used crunchy peanut butter in the cake mix.  They smelled absolutely divine as they baked, however was a hindrance to the cake once baked as it seemed to dry it out.  

That being said, they were beautiful. Rich but delicious. Definitely not for the faint hearted! My friend Gemma said that they tasted and had texture like a Snickers bar. I can definitely tell what she means. 

These are the Peanut Butter Cup cakes I made for my amazing sister. She got a new job after a long time trying to better herself. Karma finally was on her side! Aside from the fact that she deserved a break and was perfect for the role.

I made a banana loaf cake today Mary Berry style and look what I did... piled on the peanut butter! I think I need to be sponsored by the stuff!

 

Finally, here's a topical picture for this blog post.  I bought this last year in Selfridge's in Birmingham.  It was like I'd struck gold, I just had to have it!

Peanut Butter Obsession

My love affair with peanut butter has been the longest relationship of my life. Longer than my relationship with my boyfriend! However, it's not always been plain sailing... we've had some tough times. My mum made some peanut butter cookies when I was around six or seven years old and they were a delight to eat. I subsequently ate too many of them and they made me sick after a day out at Bradford's Museum of Film and TV. I don't think I touched peanut butter as a sweet treat for around twelve years after that. Thankfully I got over this and we made up because it's now my favourite treat.

I decided to bake peanut butter cookies Paul Hollywood style, but with a slight twist. You can find the recipe here.

I substituted the peanuts for chocolate chips and used crunchy peanut butter instead of smooth. It made up for my decision to omit the peanuts in favour of chocolate. The orange zest was a stealth ingredient though, as I couldn't taste it that much, but could smell it as they were baking. They aren't the prettiest cookies out there, but that's the appeal. They're what I'd call a 'homely bake' and delicious dunked in a cold glass of milk.