Chocolate Peanut Butter Rock Cakes

Peanut butter is like marmite in my world, you love it or you hate it. Hubby would sit and eat a whole jar, whereas it makes me retch and gives me a mildly itchy tongue. Which made it the perfect ingredient when I felt like baking but didn’t want to be tempted by the results!

I was actually trying to make cookies, but they didn’t melt correctly in the oven, I think more butter was called for. The recipe below has upped the quantities of butter to make more cookie like rock cakes, as these were an odd cookie-rock cake-brownie combo that wasn’t quite hard enough to be a rock cake, flat enough to be a cookie, or damp enough to be a brownie. Recipe is adapted from an American one, so very easy to measure if you have a set of cups.

Ingredients

1¼ cups plain flour
½ cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup (4 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
¾ cup peanut butter
2/3 cup light brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup chocolate chips
½ cup peanuts
Coarse salt for sprinkling

Preheat oven to 180ͦC. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt; set aside.
Beat together the butter, peanut butter and both sugars on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes, scraping the bowl as needed. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the vanilla extract. Scrape the bowl. Add the dry ingredients and mix on low until just combined. Using a rubber spatula, stir in the chocolate chips and peanuts.
Drop by two heaping tablespoonfuls of dough, spacing the cookies about 2 inches apart.

Sprinkle a small pinch of coarse salt on top of each cookie. Bake for about 12 minutes, or until the outside of the cookies are set but the middles are still a little soft. Cool cookies on the baking sheets. Store in an airtight container.

Best Ever Brownies

I've made a lot of brownies in my time, but without a doubt these were the best ever.Everyone has their own brownie recipe, but this one is definately worth a try. Absolutely melt in the mouth, thick and goey inside, crusty and delicate on the top amazing. I made some as individual brownies in the bottom of cupcake tins, and one giant brownie I cut into wedges, I think the cupcake ones were a little better, but it's a close call!

10/10

Chocolate Truffle Brownies

240g dark chocolate (70% cocoa or higher)
100g unsalted butter
3 eggs
135g golden caster sugar
55g plain flour

• Preheat oven to 150C/Gas mark 2. 
• Put the chocolate and butter in a bowl over a pan of boiling water (making sure the bowl does not touch the water)
• Stir until melted then set aside to cool
• Put the eggs and sugar in a mixing bowl and whisk until pale and creamy. 
• Stir in the flour and finally fold in the melted chocolate mixture. 
• Pour the batter into a tin lined with greaseproof
• Check the brownie's with a knife after 15minutes, if it comes out take them out the oven, I found they took 35 minutes but this will depend on how thick they are.

A fresh start

One of my ambitions is to work for myself, and one of my favourite things to do is cook and bake. An extension of this is that I would love to work with food by setting up my own business, either doing catering, or making cakes and cupcakes for weddings.

I love creating unusual flavours or working with less conventional ingredients. I also have a minor cookbook addiction, and read them like most people read fiction, devouring the pictures and savouring the tastes without ever having to set foot in the kitchen. 

At the moment I'm a bit at a loss as to how to start setting up a business to do this, I can't even get the environmental health people to call me back. This blog is going to follow my experiments with baking and cooking, learning what works, and learning how to set up a home based business.

Wish me luck,