Fudge Brownies with a Bit of Peanut Butter

We had a co-op park event earlier this week. The park rangers took the kids around. Showing them how to fish and taking them on a scavenger hunt around the park to find different kinds of birds, fish, plants and insects. Allan's favorite part was fishing. The park rangers patiently showed him how to cast his line into the pond. Nobody caught a fish, but the look on my son's face while he was proudly standing on the edge of the pond, had me making a mental note to buy him a fishing pole as soon as possible.

After all our activities, everyone sat down to enjoy their picnic lunch. For dessert I brought chocolate peanut butter brownies. Half with peanut butter half fudge. Chocolate and peanut butter is one of my favorite combinations, but Allan is one of those rare kids that doesn't like peanut butter. He's never had a PB & J in his life! If you can believe that. So, I only put the peanut butter on one side of my brownie pan. Oh well, maybe one day he will realize what he's missing out on. Fruit is refreshing. But brownies? Brownies are joy. Rich, fudgy, a little gooey in the center, the kind that leaves a bit of chocolate on your fingers and absolutely no regrets.

As we stretched out under the budding trees, nibbling corners off our napkin wrapped brownies, the real show began. A fuzzy parade of baby geese were seen waddling through our picnic aera on their way to the pond. If you've never seen spring goslings before, imagine living pom-poms with tiny beaks and oversized feet, toddling after their ever-watchful parents. They’re clumsy in the most endearing way, bumbling over sticks and peeping like wind-up toys. The older geese honked protectively, but the babies just seemed thrilled to explore, unaware of their effect on the softhearted humans nearby. Diana was thrilled and let out the biggest "awww" you've ever heard!

Ingredients:

4 eggs

106g (1 1/4 cup) cocoa powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon instant coffee

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

227g (2 sticks) butter

447g (2 1/4 cups) white sugar

180g (1 1/2 cups) all-purpose flour

350g (2 cups) chocolate chips

4-6 tablespoons peanut butter (optional)

Link to my wooded bowl

Method:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. and line a 9x9 pan with parchment paper.

In a small pot melt the butter and sugar together. you don't want to boil it just have it hot, so the butter and sugar become one. This will give you that signature shine cracked top to a brownie.

Next, add the eggs, cocoa powder, salt, instant coffee and vanilla together it will be thick and that's ok. Add the hot butter and sugar mixture and mix until everything is nice and smooth.

Lastly, add the flour, baking powder and chocolate chips. Fold the batter together then pour half the batter into the pan and add a few spoonfuls of peanut butter to one side or the whole thing, if you have a family that loves peanut butter. pour over the rest of the batter and add more peanut butter to the top and give it a swirl with a knife. Sprinkle over a few more chocolate chips for extra chocolate.

Bake for 35-40 minuets depending on how gooey you like your brownies. Allow them to cool in the pan for 10 minuets then you can lift them out to cool completely before cutting into these peanut butter fudge brownies.

I couldn't think of a better way to end our park field trip than with a peanut butter brownie and the sweet sight of those baby goslings! I'll buy Allan a fishing pole soon, and we'll be back to catch a fish!

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I sure hope you make these chocolate peanut butter brownies for your next picnic this spring! If you want to stay in the loop and never miss another blog post, subscribe to my email list here.

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