Hello everyone! I'm so excited to share another recipe with you all today, this one was such a great find! I spend a lot of time on Instagram, to the extent that one of my "Explore" categories is food. One day, I saw the most beautiful picture of these brownies and knew I wanted to make them. They were a Mother's Day gift to my mom, but she was gracious enough to let the whole family enjoy them. I found the recipe on a page called @yogaofcooking, run by Rosana (This is her website!) and her brownies took an afternoon to make, but the results were so worth it. Here's a link to the original page, but I'll sum up the process here too!
(Pro tip, don't wear a white t-shirt like I did. Wear dark colors or use an apron, you'll be working with chocolate and cocoa!)
The ingredients you will need are:
1 cup + 2 tbsp. unsalted butter (I used regular butter and cut down on the salt added!)
2 cups dark chocolate chunks
1 3/4 cup cocoa powder (sifted)
2 cups granulated sugar
5 eggs
1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp salt (since I used salted butter, I used about half a teaspoon)
1 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup powdered sugar (sifted, if you have the patience for it. I do not, but it turned out fine.)
I'm a big fan of the French idea of "mise en place". The phrase translates to "putting in place" or "everything in it's place" and in the context of food preparation, it means portioning out your ingredients beforehand so that they are ready to be used in the moment you need them. For this batch of brownies specifically, I was about 1/2 cup short on cocoa powder, but luckily I bought enough chocolate bars. The chocolate chunks were about two and a half bars of the brand I used, so I just used a full third bar to make up the difference.
If I've got a special baking project going on, I like to try and shell out for good ingredients. Whether that be a $8 vanilla pod or getting "the good chocolate", I find that things like that really do make a difference in your final product.
You'll start by combining your chocolate and butter and melting it together. Any method should work, I used the microwave for convenience but you could also use your stove-top and a pot or make up a double-broiler method. Stir to combine and it will become the most beautiful, glossy mixture you have ever seen.
Add in your cocoa powder, sifted if you're fancy like that. Stir until it's all combined and it will get back to that glossy texture.
Set that aside, and in the bowl of a stand mixer combine your eggs and sugar. Mine turned a smooth, pale yellow. When those are combined, add your oil and the chocolate mixture. I poured mine in batches just to make it easier to handle. The batter will thicken up, but just you wait, we're not done yet.
I started adding the flour with the mixer, but you might have to continue by hand if your mixer isn't that powerful. At this point, your batter will be very thick. Like, hold-the-bowl-upside-down-over-your-head thick. It's not going anywhere. In this next picture, I hadn't even added all the flour but the batter created a connection between the mixer and the bowl that just stood on it's own. Make sure the flour is all combined, but don't over-mix.
Prepare a 9x13" baking pan, I used cooking spray but you could also use butter or somehow wrangle pieces of parchment paper to fit the pan correctly. Pour in your brownie batter, or shovel it in with a spatula like I did since it did not want to pour. Spread it evenly, preheat your oven to 350F, and prep your peanut butter topping.
Take the peanut butter and stick it in the microwave for about thirty seconds. Add the powdered sugar and whisk until smooth, then use a small spoon to drop the mixture onto the brownie batter. Once all the peanut butter mixture is where you want it, take a knife and drag it around the surface of your brownies to marble the peanut butter and brownie batter together. Swirls, spirals, go back and forth, make whatever design pleases you.
The pan then goes into the oven for 30 minutes, which was the perfect time for me. Rosana, the author of this recipe, had a great tip. She says that when the brownies come out of the oven, the peanut butter mixture on top will have a wobble. But if you use the old toothpick method and it comes out clean, your brownies are done. Don't worry about the wobbly peanut butter, it will set as it cools.
I cooled mine for another thirty minutes and then cut them with a plastic knife, which made the cuts very clean. I couldn't resist eating a warm one right out of the pan, so that's exactly what I did! The brownie is rich with a slightly more bitter flavor because I used 60% cacao chocolate. The sweet peanut butter swirl compliments it well, but I'm also thinking of trying to make these again but with a caramel topping!
I'm so in love with these brownies, and I hope you all are too! Be sure to hop on over to @yogaofcooking for even more amazing recipes and beautiful food photography!
If you make these, please be sure to let Rosana know how much you loved them. I'm only just getting into this whole blogging and food photography thing, but she's been doing it for a while and I'm sure she would love to hear that people appreciate her work, because I sure do. People like her inspire me to develop recipes of my own one day!
Thanks for reading, and be sure to check the link to yogaofcooking above to get the full recipe and directions from the source!
xx, Hannah
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