Recently, Tom and I caught an episode of Throwdown with Bobby Flay on Food Network where Bobby Flay challenged the Vermont Brownie Company to a brownie throwdown. Flay developed a Peanut Butter Caramel Swirled Brownie to put up against the Vermont Brownie Company's signature Dark Chocolate Goat Cheese Brownie. I was really pulling for the goat cheese brownie, but the PB Caramel Brownie looked pretty tasty too... So when I noticed that Flay's brownie recipe was on the Food Network website, I decided to give it a try.
I have made quite a few peanut butter brownies in my time, but what attracted me to this recipe was the caramel element combined with the peanut butter, which is something I haven't seen before. You start out by making caramel on the stove: heating 1/4 cup of water and 1/4 cup of sugar until the mixture turns amber, and then stirring in hot cream, peanut butter, corn syrup, vanilla, and salt. Now 1/4 cup of water and 1/4 cup of sugar makes only a very small amount of liquid and I was really afraid that I was going to burn the mixture, so I didn't let it get too brown before adding the cream. The resulting peanut butter-caramel mixture definitely had a light caramel flavor, but it might have been more caramel-y if I had let the mixture brown a bit more. It was very easily to marble the caramel-peanut butter into the brownie batter, so I got a nice looking brownie.
The recipe instructs you to bake the brownie for 23-25 minutes at 325 degrees, at which point a toothpick will come out gooey. The instructions tell you not to worry about the brownies being underbaked: "be brave! -- underbaking the brownies is one of the secrets to their fudgy texture." After 25 minutes, a toothpick came out covered in completely raw batter. Nothwithstanding the recipe's instructions, I put the brownies back in the oven for another 3 minutes. When I tested the brownies again, the toothpick came out in a 50-50 mixture of cooked batter and raw batter, and I crossed by fingers that the brownie was cooked enough. After cooling the brownies completely and chilling them for a few hours, I was able to cut them cleanly, but the brownies were ridiculously fudgy -- a little too fudgy for my taste. If I make these again, I would bake them for another 3-5 minutes, or maybe bake them at 350 degrees instead.
The brownies tasted fine. Very chocolate-y, especially because there were chocolate chips in the batter as well. It was very sweet. The caramel peanut butter was interesting, but I'm not sure that I liked it better than I would have liked peanut butter alone. All in all, not a bad little brownie, but also nothing spectacular.
Recipe: Peanut Butter Caramel Swirled Brownies by Bobby Flay.
I have made quite a few peanut butter brownies in my time, but what attracted me to this recipe was the caramel element combined with the peanut butter, which is something I haven't seen before. You start out by making caramel on the stove: heating 1/4 cup of water and 1/4 cup of sugar until the mixture turns amber, and then stirring in hot cream, peanut butter, corn syrup, vanilla, and salt. Now 1/4 cup of water and 1/4 cup of sugar makes only a very small amount of liquid and I was really afraid that I was going to burn the mixture, so I didn't let it get too brown before adding the cream. The resulting peanut butter-caramel mixture definitely had a light caramel flavor, but it might have been more caramel-y if I had let the mixture brown a bit more. It was very easily to marble the caramel-peanut butter into the brownie batter, so I got a nice looking brownie.
The recipe instructs you to bake the brownie for 23-25 minutes at 325 degrees, at which point a toothpick will come out gooey. The instructions tell you not to worry about the brownies being underbaked: "be brave! -- underbaking the brownies is one of the secrets to their fudgy texture." After 25 minutes, a toothpick came out covered in completely raw batter. Nothwithstanding the recipe's instructions, I put the brownies back in the oven for another 3 minutes. When I tested the brownies again, the toothpick came out in a 50-50 mixture of cooked batter and raw batter, and I crossed by fingers that the brownie was cooked enough. After cooling the brownies completely and chilling them for a few hours, I was able to cut them cleanly, but the brownies were ridiculously fudgy -- a little too fudgy for my taste. If I make these again, I would bake them for another 3-5 minutes, or maybe bake them at 350 degrees instead.
The brownies tasted fine. Very chocolate-y, especially because there were chocolate chips in the batter as well. It was very sweet. The caramel peanut butter was interesting, but I'm not sure that I liked it better than I would have liked peanut butter alone. All in all, not a bad little brownie, but also nothing spectacular.Recipe: Peanut Butter Caramel Swirled Brownies by Bobby Flay.
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