Peanut Butter Blondie Bars

At the beginning of the year, I undertook a personal challenge – to promote happiness in my life, everyday. And more importantly, to notice what it is that makes me happy. The basic idea is to share a photo of whatever it is that makes you happy, for 100 consecutive days. Sharing can be as public (Instagram) or private as you want it to be! 

I have always been a staunch believer in the concept that each person’s happiness lies entirely in their own hands. To this end, the 100HappyDays challenge must be undertaken only for ONESELF. It has been about 90 days into the challenge, and apart from a few hiccups (such as lack of internet), I am proud to have (almost) succeeded in this challenge. What my friend and I smartly did was, in addition to emailing the photographs daily, we also CCed each other on it, as a reminder not to forget to send the email, and as a way of sharing our happiness with each other. Sign up for it today, the only result of which will be happiness! 

Here are some things that made/continue to make me smile:

• this exhibition to usher in the summer! LOVE LOVE LOVE the colours
• this cinnamon swirl loaf with a dollop of butter (slurp!)
• Have you seen this? 5 minutes (and 4 seconds) of foot tapping fun in the middle of the day! Who can say no to that? 
• this mayer lemon macadamia nut tart. oh so pretty! 
• I just got my hands on this chic cheese grater (as if I needed any more reasons to use cheese!)
• this marigold rug. I mean, why the hell not?!

And lastly, these amazing almost healthy peanut butter blondies. I say almost because it depends on what type of peanut butter you use – the best being simply processing some roasted peanuts at home with a dash of honey and peanut oil. The rest of the recipe is a great treat for people who want to eat something that doesn’t skimp on taste, but does maintain that skimpy waistline. It is surprisingly rich is flavour, due to the coarseness of the wheat flour and the peanut butter chunks, but all this in the best possible way! The version I made uses 1/2 cup of Demerara sugar, but I think you can go down to 1/3 cup without any adverse result. 

Peanut Butter Blondies

2014-04-01 03:42:30

made with the whole goodness of wheat flour

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Ingredients

1. 2/3 cup peanut butter (I like the chunky kind)
2. 1/3 cup coconut oil
3. 1/2 Demerara sugar
4. 1/4 cup zero fat milk
5. 2 tsp vanilla extract
6. 1 cup whole wheat flour, sifted
7. 1/2 tsp salt
8. 1/2 tsp baking powder
9. 1/3 cup coarsely chopped roasted peanuts (no skins)
10. 1/3 cup dark chocolate chips

Instructions

1. Line an 8" rectangular baking tray with parchment paper. Preheat the oven to 180*c.
2. Whisk together the oil, sugar and peanut butter with a whisk. You needn't get out any machinery for these blondies, just a little muscle goes a long way here. In a few minutes, you will be left with an unpleasant looking slurry. Fret not.
3. Splash in the milk and vanilla and give it another little whisk. Now add in the flour, salt, baking powder and combine using a spatula. You should have a thick-ish dough.
4. Transfer the dough into the prepared baking tray, and sprinkle with peanuts and chocolate chips, pressing down gently so that they stick to the dough. Bake for 25 minutes, until golden on top.
5. Leave to cool on a cooling rack, and thereafter transfer to chill in the refrigerator for 6-8 hours or overnight, before cutting.
6. Once the blondies come to room temperature, they tend to crumble and break, so I would suggest storing in the refrigerator even after they have been cut into squares.

Joie De Vivre http://www.joiedevivre.in/