College Candy

Quick! What’s one food you could live off of? For me, it’s peanut butter. I dream of a peanut butter that’s fat-free, calorie-free, and sugar-free, so I can just eat scoop after scoop without feeling any guilt. Alas, that is probably a dream that will never come true; but it doesn’t stop me from eating scoop after scoop. And since I’m eating it anyway, I figure I may as well combine it with another delicious love of mine: chocolate.

I started drooling the second I saw the recipe for Peanut Butter Blondies with Chocolate Ganache. And I didn’t stop until I had made them and ate the entire plate. Come to think of it, I still haven’t stopped. They are that good.

So, if you consider yourself even a slight fan of peanut butter and chocolate, you should probably make these now. And figure out a way to healthily add a tray of them into your food pyramid. And when you figure it out, please let me know.

Here’s what you need for the blondies:

2 sticks un-salted, softened butter

1 3/4 C sugar

1 C creamy peanut butter

2 large eggs

1 large egg yolk

2 t vanilla extract

2 C all-purpose flour

1 1/2 C semisweet chocolate chips.

For the chocolate ganache:

1 1/2 C semisweet chocolate chips

1/2 C heavy cream

1 T unsalted, softened butter

And here’s how to make them so you can start devouring them as soon as possible.

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees and butter the bottom of a 13×9 inch baking pan lined with parchment.

2) Beat together butter and sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Then add the peanut butter and beat the mixture together. Now you’re ready to beat in the whole eggs, the single egg yolk, and the vanilla. And with your mixer on low, beat in the flour.

3) Mix in the chocolate chips and spread the delicious mixture into the baking pan.

4) Bake it for about 45 minutes (I KNOW. It’s not easy waiting as your apartment fills with the aroma of peanut butter and chocolate). Then you have to wait for it to cool, which could take up to 1 1/2 hours. Pure torture.

Now you’re good to go on the chocolate ganache:

1) Put the chocolate chips in a heat-proof bowl.

2) Bring the cream to a boil in a sauce pan and pour it over the chocolate chips. Let mixture stand for 1 minute (which might feel like a whole hour).

3) Now whisk in the butter until everything is nice and smoothly melted.

Finally. Spread the chocolate ganache on the blondies. And…wait again. Ugh, I know. But stick them in the fridge and you might only have to wait about 15 minutes, until the chocolate hardens.

And finally for real! Cut them into squares (big ones!) and eat them. And fall just a little bit deeper in love with peanut butter.