Emergency peanut butter tray brownies

When someone I know is hurting, I apply food.

It doesn’t fix things, but it makes me feel like I’m doing something. It’s entirely selfish in that way – a way to get past that feeling of powerlessness.

The bigger the pain, the bigger the portions. So when it’s serious, this recipe is what you need. It’s an industrial quantity of brownie.

I cook these in a disposable aluminium tray, so that the recipient doesn’t have to worry about washing and returning anything. These come in a roughly 30 x 20 x 5cm size at my supermarket, and that’s about perfect.

Emergency peanut butter tray brownies

Ingredients:

• 250g butter
• 250g dark chocolate
• 1 tbsp vanilla
• 4 eggs
• 2 cups caster sugar
• 2 cups plain flour
• 4 tbsp self raising flour
• … like, half a jar of peanut butter

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 160ºc, and line your baking tray with greaseproof paper.
2. Melt butter, and chocoloate with vanilla in a small saucepan over a very low heat. Stir periodically until ingredients are fully melted and well combined.
3. In a large mixing bowl, beat eggs and sugar until thick and creamy.
4. Pour in melted butter and chocolate, mixing constantly until thoroughly combined.
5. Fold in flour.
6. Pour batter into lined baking tray.
7. Spoon generous dollops of peanut butter at random intervals over the surface of the mixture. Do not stir in.
8. Bake for approx. 45mins, or until middle of brownies has just set.

These should be gooey in the middle, and just right for eating directly from the tray with a spoon.

Given the opportunity, these should be served with generous amounts of ice cream, but they’re pretty good straight up too.

Brownies: invented for when you need to eat your feelings.

P.S. If you need an immediate band-aid, you can make my peanut butter mug brownies in five minutes flat. That’ll tide you over while these are cooking…