about three weeks ago, it was my friend’s birthday.
he didn’t want anything for his birthday.
you know what?
he didn’t even want cake.
(it had to do with the connotations of cake.
and how it was too sweet. and often too dry.
and how the frosting is the best part.
but then if you eat too much you get sick.)
so i’m sorry i didn’t get him anything. i still am.
but i made brownies!
they were a fail. just sayin’.
i halved the recipe and didn’t halve the flour.
yeah. i’m stupid like that sometimes.
so a week later, i remade them.
he didn’t get any. but i made them with him in mind. (heh.)
and i made modifications! of couuuurse.
the original recipe was just peanut butter cocoa brownies,
from stonesoup.
here’s the original recipe.
peanut butter chocolate brownies
original recipe from stonesoup
150g (5oz) peanut butter, preferably crunchy
225g (8oz) brown sugar
2 eggs
50g (2oz) cocoa powder
75g (3oz) rice flour1. Preheat oven to 160C (320F). Grease and line the base of a loaf pan (see note above) with baking paper.
2. Mix sugar and eggs with the peanut butter. Gently stir through cocoa powder and flour until just mixed through.
3. Pour into prepared tin and bake for 30 – 45 minutes. Or until the top feels just set and a skewer inserted into the middle emerges slightly moist. You want the middle to still be a little squidgy. Cool in the tin.
aaaaaaaand here’s my modification!
Ingredients:
- 150g peanut butter
- 170g honey
- 2 eggs
- 75g flour
Bake for 350-40 minutes.
Preheat oven to 350f/160c.
Mix above mixture with flour GENTLY.
Mix honey + eggs + PB.
aaaaaand because i like to make sure that nobody is as stupid as me,
i like to look up conversions excessively before i use them.
for example, this sugar to honey conversion goes something like this:
you use 25% less honey then you would with sugar.
i used mr google and found this reference page.
since this recipe called for 8oz/225g of sugar, you use 6oz/170g of honey.
now with the math out of the way, let’s get started!
simple simple simple. 4 ingredients, yo. that’s stonesoup for you.
this is what approximately 150g of peanut butter looks like.
note to self: stop eating nut butters so fast,
that your mom freaks out and hides it from you
because GASP you’re going to get fat!
(i am not the biggest fan of my home life at the moment.)
and then you add the eggs.
and then it looks like puke. but you know it’ll be delicious.
right. right?
so set your scale to zero/tare, and then add in the honey.
holy crap, that’s a lot of honey! mix it all up.
it looks like puke again. gosh.
now add your flour.
this is mochi flour, by the way. i’ve baked with it before.
(back in the day, man. when i sucked at blogging.)
it is awesome, but yields some… “interesting” textures.
and NOW it looks like proper batter! awesome.
except sort of lumpy, because i used chunky peanut butter.
pour it into your pan. and bake for about 35-40 minutes, or until set.
you can cut it into squares.
and advertise on facebook that you have sixteen wonderful blondies RIGHT THE -
nom. whoops. fifteen.
anyway. the verdict? this is a very very good recipe.
the peanut butter flavour could have been stronger, though,
and i didn’t taste ANY of the honey.
has anybody ever had mooncakes before?
well, these were slightly sticky but not really.
slightly solid (like red bean paste) but not really.
slightly springy but not really.
slightly chewy, but… they were soft.
i don’t know how to describe it!
it’s weird!
i brought them to school and the first reaction was:
“these taste like peanut mooncakes!”
indeed.
so, shameless advertising and blog-lovin’ ahead:
highly simple. highly basic. highly perfect for people like me.
go!
**
Ever had experience with mochi/glutinous rice flour before? What did you think about the results?
I love mochis and the filling of the mooncake (but not the yolk, ugg)! When I was in china, there was this pumpkin mochi/mooncake thing, corn mochi/mooncake, etc. I say mochi/mooncake because while it was written Yue Bing on the package, there wasn’t any yolk, lol.
I have the same spoon at my house!! Awww my spoons are all the way from China lol.
xoxo
Ah, I haven’t warmed up to the yolk part of mooncakes yet, either. Not all mooncakes have yolks in them, and pumpkin sounds really good! It’s so cool that you have the same spoon. :D
Mmmm, those look crazy good! I tried mochi for the first time this summer in my fro-yo. It kind of tastes like marshmallows. Do you know if they have mochi flour in the U.S.?
-Court
Actually, it DOES kind of taste like marshmallows! Fluffy and light and sugary. Awesome. You might be able to find mochi flour (or “glutinous rice” flour) in Asian supermarkets.
Mmm, those look delicious! I’m a sucker for anything that has peanut butter in them. I actually have a box of mochiko languishing in my pantry, I should give these a try! I don’t normally like mochi-esque textures, but this recipe I have here makes it palatable to me:
http://eats.pinjing.net/2010/04/05/mochi-brownie-two-bites/
Hope you had a great mid-autumn festival! What mooncakes did you eat this year?
You know, that’s EXACTLY where I got the idea from, *you*! Do you remember when I made that recipe? They were really really good. I ate a bit of mooncake this year but not much. We barbecued. :D
I’m loving all the photos here! And I happen to love mooncakes (without the yolks), and wish I had eaten abit more during the mid-autumn festival here :P I’ve never quite heard of mochi/mooncake-esque blondies, so I definitely must give these a go!
Thank you so much! Looks like the yolk isn’t very popular around here, heh. What kind of mooncakes did you have during the mid autumn festival?
this is awesome. i felt like i was back in my high school science class. love the picture of your notes. :-)
High school science class? I’m not sure if that’s a good thing (heh) but thanks for visiting! :)
you can’t blame me for not liking cake.
Yeah, I can blame you. There’s NO REASON you can’t like cake. Absolutely unreasonable. Are you done with your haircut yet? D:<
PS: <3 ;]