Peanut butter blondies

After seeing Rachel Allen make peanut butter blondies on her Bake show the other day I decided to make some to take to work on Monday. They are like brownies, but made with white chocolate. They are so tasty, and are better when left for a day or two before eating. The recipe I use is from Rachel Allen “Bake”, but I have adapted the method a bit. I make it more like a traditional brownie recipe; put the butter, peanut butter and brown sugar in a pan and heat gently. Sometimes I add some of the white chocolate in this part. Leave to cool (this is when I weigh out the other ingredients, chop the chocolate and line the baking tray with baking paper). Once a little cool I beat in the egg and vanilla extract, stir in the flour and pour into the tray. Then I sprinkle the chopped white chocolate over the top (you can add it in before but I find it melts and this way it is evenly dispersed throughout the cake). It then goes straight into a warm oven for around 25 minutes. I also leave it to cool for a bit in the tin, then onto a wire rack, and then leave to cool completely (even overnight) before slicing.

They have a delicious chewy texture and you can really taste the peanut butter (heaven), perfect with a cup of chai (or normal) tea. It does suggest serving them with ice cream, which I think would be lovely, like a dessert in a restaurant, but a bit too much for normal.

Peanut Banana White Chocolate Cupcakes

Cupcakes
Since Christmas I have been working my way through the recipes in the The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook. There has been a banana lurking on the side of the fruit bowl getting browner and browner (and I only like bananas that are still green) so today decided to try the banana and chocolate cupcakes. When I read the recipe I noticed that the only chocolate element was the chocolate frosting, so I have adapted it a bit and made even more delicious:

Peanut butter, white chocolate and banana cupcakes.

In a bowl I mixed 120g plain flour, 140g caster sugar, 1 tbs baking powder, cinnamon (lots) and ginger with a pinch of salt. Then added 40g sunflower spread and 40g peanut butter and mixed up until it looked like sand. Then I poured in 120ml semi skimmed milk, 2 whisked eggs, vanilla extract and that banana (mashed up). Finally I added in 50g white chocolate chips. I spooned the mix into silicone baking cases (all pretty colours) and into the oven (170C) for 22 minutes.

They are cooling on the wire rack now and smell amazing!