I love peanut butter. It's a particularly indulgent treat here at Bakercourt. Mostly because when I do indulge in a piece of buttery toast with 'peanutter', it's a rare Saturday morning when the sun is shining outside and I just felt like a bit of a pick-me-up of the culinary variety. Otherwise, it is likely to be encased in a tell-tale orange wrapper with the brand 'Reese's' blazoned across the front. Oh, I do like me some Reese's Cups when I've had a bad week and I feel like a nutty treat.
















So, when I spied a recipe for Peanut Butter Brownies in the Australian Women's Weekly biscuits, brownies & biscotti, well, the next step was logical.

















I got baking. This is a slightly unusual brownie recipe because you do it over the stove, rather than in a mixer. But, the end result was delicious.

















I changed the recipe slightly because I didn't have enough chocolate to whip through the mix after the initial 150g that you melt in with the butter. To compensate, I added a very generous helping of chopped hazelnuts to the top. I also baked my brownies in a larger pan which made them thinner, but still delicious.

















And here you go. Peanut butter brownies swirled with extra salted peanut butter and served with a side of crunchy peanut butter ice-cream. Because, really, you can't get better than that.

















Here's a look at the underside of the brownie. I took the peanut butter straight out of the fridge before dolloping it in to the mix so it stayed together really well for little peanut butter bite-sized surprises in each brownie.

And, because I know you can't possibly wait to try this yourself, here's a copy of the recipe from The Australian Women's Weekly website. You can thank me later.


Ingredients:

180g unsalted butter, chopped
150g dark chocolate, chopped
1¾ cups (385g) caster sugar
4 eggs, beaten lightly
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
¾ cup (110g) plain flour
2 tablespoons self-raising flour
1/3 cup (35g) cocoa powder
50g dark chocolate, chopped, extra
1/3 cup (95g) crunchy peanut butter

NOTE: This recipe can be made a week ahead; store in an airtight container.

Method: 

Preheat the oven to moderately slow (160°C). Grease a 20cm x 30cm lamington pan, line the base and two opposite sides with baking paper.

Combine butter and chocolate in medium saucepan, stir over a low heat until smooth; transfer to a large bowl. Stir in sugar, eggs and essence, then sifted flours, cocoa and extra chocolate.

Pour the mixture into the prepared pan. Drop small spoons of peanut butter into the chocolate mixture and swirl through the chocolate with a knife.

Bake in a moderately slow oven for about 50 minutes or until firm; cool in pan.

Cooked brownies suitable to freeze. Butter mixture and chocolate suitable to microwave.

I've been a bit under the weather this week, with long hours of work and a terrible cold. So, what better way to cheer up a rainy day than with a batch of kisses? Of the baked variety, of course.



Here's another one of those amazing Women's Weekly Books (from Amazon, £3.90) that I seem to be using a bit as a baking bible at the moment. These recipes are really great, I haven't gone wrong with their recipes yet (touch wood, or, as my aunt Karin says, spit three times pah pah pah).
















So, back to the Kisses. They're a sort of sponge-cake-biscuit with a distinctly custardy taste - due, largely, to the custard powder you mix into the batter. The two spongey halves are sandwiched together with vienna cream. They're not as light as I thought they would be - imagine a rich custard sponge with a light sweet and creamy filling. You can easily eat three or four of these with a cup of coffee!
















The recipe is quite easy and comes together quickly, and I'd imagine you could adapt it to give them a citrus zing, or half-dip them in chocolate. I found that I baked them in batches because my baking trays weren't big enough. If you do that, let them cool a bit on the tray before you take them off - they'll hold their shape better. Also, leave the sandwiched kisses for a bit before eating so that the vienna cream sets for a better texture.

The recipe is available in the book, 100 Classic Cakes, and I found it online as well (here at RecipeFinder). I've copied the recipe below.

Kisses

Ingredients 
125g butter
½ cup (110g) caster sugar
1 egg
1/3 cup (50g) plain flour
¼cup (35g) self-raising flour
2/3 cup (100g) cornflour
¼cup (35g) custard powder 

Vienna cream 
60g butter
¾ cup (120g) icing sugar mixture
2 teaspoons milk

Note: this recipe makes about 40 cookies and can be prepared three days ahead. Kisses can be filled several hours before serving.

Method
Preheat oven to moderately hot (200°C). Lightly grease oven trays. Beat butter and sugar in a small bowl with an electric mixer until smooth and creamy. Add the egg and beat only until combined. Stir in sifted dry ingredients in two batches.

Spoon mixture into a piping bag fitted with a 1cm tube. Pipe 3cm-diameter rounds of mixture, about 3cm apart, onto prepared oven trays. Bake in two batches in a moderately hot oven for about 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Loosen biscuits and cool on trays. Sandwich the cold biscuits with Vienna cream and dust with extra sifted icing sugar, if desired.

For the Vienna cream, beat butter until as white as possible. Gradually beat in half the sifted icing sugar, then the milk; gradually beat in the remaining icing sugar.

Unfilled kisses suitable to freeze. Not suitable to microwave.

When I first moved to the UK, on my second day here, I discovered British book stores. They're beautiful and big, and filled from top to bottom with glossy covers. There are hundreds of different book stores - from the amazing £2 store (The Last Bookshop) in Oxford to the big brands of the market like Foyles, Waterstone's and W.H.Smith. And lo - it was good. Moving here wasn't so bad, after all.

And I bought my first cook book, too. I began baking.

It was an Australian's Women's Weekly book. The recipes, at the time, were beyond my ability and packed from cover to cover with beautiful pictures that looked like they belong on the the shelves of a la-di-dah cake store. That was two years ago. Arriving home with a baking book was like uncovering the holy grail of kitchenry, and I started a blog (which has since migrated here after my original hosting closed down) to document my progress.

So, when I decided to find a good cake recipe for the wedding, I turned to the Women's Weekly again.






















Ooh, pretty. Now, for some reason, the recipes mentioned on that image aren't the same as the ones in my book. Think: scones, cakes, tarts and sandwiches. Proper British Afternoon Tea. I also couldn't resist adding Cakes, Biscuits and Slices and The Cake Stall to my shopping basket - more on that later.

I've never particularly like scones, and I've only very recently starting sampling whipped cream - occasionally - with strawberry jam on scones/crumpets/buns. But, when I saw the recipe for Pumpkin Parmesan Scones, I knew it was time to expand my baking repertoire.






















They're not exactly wedding cake, but they were oh-so easy to make, so it was a pleasant (and rather tasty) aside whilst I mixed up Marbled Chocolate Mud Cake (which I'll show you very soon, once I've managed to take a picture of a slice without gobbling it up first!).

















The dough is crumbly, but I remember from my mom's scones that this is normal. You knead together to make a flat disc which you then cut into rounds for baking. It is a little bit squishy in places - especially if you're a little lazy with your pumpkin-mashing.
















... and a little sprinkling of parmesan and pepper goes a long way! The scones bake into a golden yellow colour (thanks to the pumpkin) and the crumbling cheese on top is deliciously baked in. Served with butter and cheese for lunch - yum!

I've typed up the recipe for you from the book, and I'd definitely recommend buying your own copy too. I got mine from Amazon for £4.33. It has a lot of good recipes in it (and also in the two other books that got packed up with it!), and I foresee many baking weekends in the Bakercourt household.

Pumpkin Parmesan Scones

30g butter, softened
1/4 cup icing sugar
1 egg
3/4 cup cold cooked mashed pumpkin
2 1/2 cups of self-raising flour
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/3 cup of milk
2 tablespoons finely grated parmesan cheese
pinch of cracked black pepper
pinch sea salt flakes

1. Preheat oven to 220'C and grease a cake pan/tray.
2. Beat butter, sugar and egg in a small bowl with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Transfer mixture to a large bowl and stir in the pumpkin. Add the sifted dry ingredients and milk. Use a knife to cut the milk through the flour mixture to a soft, sticky dough. Turn dough onto floured surface, knead gently until smooth.
3. Press dough out to 2cm thickness and cut out 5cm rounds. Place rounds just touching on the cake pan/tray.
4. Brush scones with milk and sprinkle with the combined cheese, pepper and salt.
5. Bake scones for about 20 minutes and server with warm butter.
6. Scones can be frozen for up to 3 months, if you have any left. They should be thawed in the oven, wrapped in foil.