I am a loyal fan of Skippy peanut butter for baking, and it's also my go-to for eating on toast. But a few years ago I discovered Fix & Fogg peanut butter from New Zealand, and it's my "special occasion" peanut butter. Actually, my favorite product from the company is the Everything Butter, which has all sorts of delicious nuts and seeds. The products are expensive enough that I generally don't use them for baking. But I recently made an exception for Alice Medrich's Peanut Butter Blondies. The recipe requires only one-third cup of peanut butter, and Medrich specifically notes that texture and consistency of natural peanut butters produce better results for the recipe.
To make the blondies, you melt butter and stir in brown sugar and peanut butter (I used Fix & Fogg Super Crunchy); beat in egg and vanilla; and stir in flour, baking powder, salt, and roasted salted peanuts. I spread the batter into a parchment-lined pan and sprinkled on dark chocolate and more peanuts before baking.
I loved these bars. They had a decadent fudgy texture and a strong peanut flavor, which paired perfectly with the dark chocolate. My favorite part was the generous amount of salted peanuts in the bars and on top, which added so much flavor and texture. I really like the combination of chocolate and peanut butter and thought that the two flavors were perfectly balanced here -- delivering something that seemed indulgent and candy-like, without being too sweet. I'm pretty sure these bars would still taste great with supermarket peanut butter, but they were definitely worth the splurge on the good stuff!
Recipe: "Peanut Butter Blondies" from Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy by Alice Medrich.
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