Pretzel and Peanut Chocolate Brownies

This Peanut and Pretzel Brownie was inspired by one of the new limited edition Dairy Milk chocolate blocks that have been released by Cadbury.
The brownie itself is deliciously fudgy, then the pretzels and peanuts add a little bit of crunch along with a hint of salt (which is such a great compliment to the chocolate).  Top that all off with chunks of creamy chocolate and we have a winner.
The recipe is super easy to make too!

Ingredients:
1 ½ cups flour
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking powder
1 cup brown sugar
½ cup white sugar
⅓ cup cocoa
125g butter, melted
2 eggs, lightly whisked
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
½ cup pretzels (roughly broken into pieces)
½ cup peanuts
120g chocolate, roughly chopped (I used the Pretzel and Peanut Chocolate by Cadbury – I think their plain or Picnic varieties would work well too)

Method:
Heat oven to 180°C. Line a 20cm square pan with baking paper.
Mix the flour, salt, baking powder, sugars, and cocoa together in a large bowl.  Add in the wet ingredients and mix well to combine.  Stir through the pretzels, peanuts and chocolate chunks.
Press the mixture into the lined pan and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until firm. Remove from the oven and cool in the pan on a wire rack. Cut into squares to serve.

Pretzel, Peanut and Chocolate Packed Cookies

These could also be called ‘Blokes Biscuits’, they came about after I wasn’t sure what to bake and started quizzing Shane about what he felt like. The saltiness of the pretzels with the sweetness of the cookie and chocolate is awesome. The broken pretzel bits and peanuts give pops of crunch to the cookie. For the cookie base I used our awesome Chocolate Chip recipe, so if your not feeling as adventurous you should give those a go if you haven’t already!

Ingredients:
250g butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
¾ cup caster sugar
¾ cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 egg
2 ¼ cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1-1½ cup dark chocolate drops
1 cup mini pretzel twists (I didn’t crush mine as they broke nicely in the mixer)
½ cup unsalted peanuts

Method:
Preheat oven to 180˚C.  Grease a couple of oven trays.
Beat butter, vanilla extract, sugars and egg in the bowl of your electric mixer until light and fluffy.
Fold in the sifted flour and baking soda on a low speed. 
Fold in the chocolate, pretzels and peanuts on a low speed.
Roll tablespoons of mixture into balls, place about 5cm apart on the trays.  Bake for 10-12 minutes depending how crispy you want your cookies. 
Leave to cool slightly on the tray before transferring to a wire rack, if you want to decorate the top of your cookie with a pretzel press it into the top of your cookie while it is soft and warm.

Crunchy Peanut Butter Biscuits

This is an easy one bowl recipe, which makes yummy peanut butter biscuits that aren’t too sweet!  I even burnt a tray load (I always forget about biscuits baking faster than muffins and forget to check them in time) and they still got eaten! 

Makes about 20.

125g butter, softened
150g chunky peanut butter
225g sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
150g flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt
75g unsalted peanuts, chopped

Line two baking trays with non-stick baking paper.  Place the butter and peanut butter in a large bowl and beat together.  Gradually add the sugar and beat together well.  Add the egg, a little at a time, until it is combined.  Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into the peanut butter mixture.  Add the peanuts and bring all of the ingredients together to form a soft dough.

Wrap the dough in cling film and chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.  Preheat the oven to
190°C.  Form the dough into small balls (about 20) and place them on the prepared baking trays about 5cm apart.  Bake in the oven for 15 minutes or until golden brown.  Leave to cool on wire racks.

Rocky Road Muffins

I made these last Thursday (treats for the long weekend) along with White chocolate macadamia nut muffins (which I will also write a post about) and some more pecan shortbread (yep, I was a busy little baker).

I found these to taste more like massive lollies than muffins – they aren't very light and fluffy.  Still yum though.

Makes about 12.

¼ cup milk
1 egg
1 cup natural yoghurt
50g butter, melted (I put this in softened, not melted because I wasn’t paying attention, so perhaps this is why muffins were more lolly-like than cake-like)
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ cup sugar
½ cup small marshmallows
½ cup roughly chopped chocolate (I used Nestlé bits)
½ cup peanuts
½ cup jubes (I used a pack of The Natural Confectionary company’s snake lollies, and cut up the pink and purple ones for the muffins)

Mix milk, yoghurt, egg and butter together.  Add the remaining ingredients and mix until just combined.
Spoon into well-greased muffin pans or cases and bake at 180˚C for 12-15 minutes.


For icing: Heat 1 tablespoon of cocoa, butter and milk together with icing sugar to form a paste.

The cases I used came from the ‘1,2,3 + GST’ shop in Auckland City, next to Borders.  While I don’t think they are that pretty from the outside, they are kinda cool because the inside is shiny so the muffins don’t stick to the casing.