Peanut Butter Spider Brownies

I'm so excited to be back in the kitchen and baking again. For those who follow me on Instagram, you would have realised that I have been on holidays for the last two weeks. Hope you are all well and ready to try some new recipes.

I discovered this recipe a few months ago and couldn't wait to share it with you.  If you remember, I discovered that peanut butter was so good with chocolate recently.

This recipe can be made just like a regular brownie in one tin but remember, you need to bake it for longer.

I love to make desserts look cute and so instead of making this peanut butter brownie and cutting it into squares, I made them into cute spiders for a Halloween theme.

I made two types of spider brownies. One is a spider and the other is a donut spider with sprinkles.  They are fudgy and topped with a peanut butter swirl.

I think the pretzel sticks for the spiders' legs add a nice flavour to the brownies along with the slight saltiness of the crunchy peanut butter.

Hope you enjoy this recipe.

Happy Baking xo

Peanut Butter Spider Brownies

Ingredients

· 150 grams dark chocolate
· 180 grams butter
· 1¾ caster sugar
· 4 eggs
· 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
· ¾ cups plain flour
· 2 tablespoons self-raising flour
· ⅓ cup cocoa powder
· 50 grams dark chocolate, chopped (extra)
· ⅓ cup crunchy peanut butter.

Decorations

· White chocolate buttons
· Mini choc chips
· Sprinkles
· Pretzel sticks

Basic Icing

· ½ cup icing sugar
· 2-3 teaspoons water

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Line two 15 x 27cm rectangle brownie tins with baking paper, making sure to extend the baking paper about 2cm over the tin.

2. Place the butter and chocolate in a saucepan and melt over low heat until melted. Allow it to cool slightly and transfer to a large mixing bowl.

3. Stir in the sugar, eggs and vanilla extract until combined. Sift in flours, cocoa powder and extra chocolate.

4. Pour mixture evenly amongst the two tins. Drop small amounts of peanut butter into the brownie mixture and swirl through the mixture with a knife.

5. Bake in oven for 25-30 minutes or until the skewer comes out with a few moist crumbles. Keep checking every two minutes. Remove from oven and allow it to cool completely before decorating them.

Decorating

6. Place icing sugar and water into a bowl, mix until combined. You will need to add more water if the icing is too thick and add more icing sugar if it’s too runny. Place icing into a piping bag fitted with a small plain nozzle.

7. Pipe a small amount of icing on the white chocolate buttons and place the mini chocolate chips on top to make the spider’s eyes.

8. Using a 4-5 cm cookie cutter, cut out the spider body for the brownie.

9. If you want to make donut spiders, use a piping nozzle and press in the centre of the spider’s body to create a hole.

10. Place a small amount of icing onto the front of the spider’s body and place the chocolate eyes on.

11. Using the icing, pipe thin strips of icing across the spider’s body and add sprinkles.

12. Cut two pretzel sticks into 4 to create 8 legs for the spider. Press the pretzel sticks onto the side of the spiders' body.

Tips

· I managed to make 16 spider brownies with lots of small bits of brownie off-cuts to eat.

· You can make the brownie in one tin if you don’t want to make the spider brownies. You will need to bake it for about 45-50 minutes.

· Make sure the brownie has completely cooled down before decorating. Best to make it the day before.

Did you bake this recipe?

Remember to tag @youcanbakeittoo on Instagram & hashtag #youcanbakeittoo 

so I can see your wonderful bakes.