When I last baked for the office these brownies went down really well. I found the recipe in my latest cookbook purchase; Skinny Weeks and Weekend Feasts by Gizzi Erskine. The combination of dark chocolate brownie cake and crispy, sweet and peanutty layer on top works really well!

Don’t worry if the brownie mixture looks almost split when pouring it in the tin; as it cooks it comes together. The cake is really yummy, although not amazing looking on its own.

Peanut butter brownies, 24 st

Adapted from Gissi Erskine’s recipe. I made the full batch of the brownie but halved the peanut butter layer as I didn’t have a lot of icing sugar around. It worked well ratio wise too, but the more peanut butter the better, right?!

250 g unsalted butter

150 g dark chocolate, chopped

200 g caster sugar 

100 g cocoa

70 g plain flour

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp vanilla extract

4 eggs, beaten

Peanut butter layer: 

340 g chunky peanut butter

250 g unsalted butter

200 g light muscovado sugar

1 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla extract

150 g icing sugar

150 g cornflakes

Topping:

200 g milk or plain chocolate

30 g butter

Preheat the oven to 180°C. To make the peanut butter layer; put the peanut butter, butter, muscovado, salt and vanilla in a pan and heat until completely melted and just beginning to bubble. Stir constantly – make sure it doesn’t burn. 

Remove from the heat and add the icing sugar a little at a time, stirring, until completely combined. Stir in the cornflakes, then pop in a blender and pulse until the mix starts to break up but still has crispy shards of cornflake running through. Set aside.

To make the brownies; melt the butter and dark chocolate chunks together in a bowl over a bain marie. Put the sugar, cocoa, flour, salt and vanilla in a separate bowl and mix until well combined.

Stir in the eggs, then add the melted chocolate and mix together with 4 or 5 swift swoops. Pour into a 30 cm x 20 cm greased and lined baking tin and bake in the oven for 20 minutes, or until it cracks across the top but the brownies should still be slightly gooey in the middle.

When the cake is cool enough to touch, spread over the peanut butter layer neatly. Leave to cool.

For the chocolate topping, melt the chocolate and butter together in a bain marie as before. Pour over the cooled peanut butter layer, smooth out and pop it in the fridge to set. Cut into squares and dust with icing sugar before serving.