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When you want something different from the usual fudgy or cakey brownie recipe, turn to these delightful crunchy peanut butter brownies. I’m not typically interested in brownies with nuts, but when used as a topping, well, that’s a different story.
These peanut butter swirled brownies satisfy and, even better, they are one of 100 recipes geared toward shipping homemade food gifts in a cookbook I’m happy to add to my cookbook collection.
At the time of this writing, my oldest son left for the Drexel Engineering Leadership Transformation Academy (DELTA) Summer Bridge program before his freshman year officially begins at Drexel University. You could say “The Flying Brownie” cookbook is more than a little timely.
Table of Contents
- The Flying Brownie Cookbook
- Inside The Flying Brownie Cookbook
- Baking Peanut Butter Crunch Brownies
- Recipe for Peanut Butter Crunch Brownies
- Cookbooks by Shirley Fan
- Related Recipes
The Flying Brownie Cookbook
This is more than a 7.88 x 1.13 x 8.25-inch hardcover cookbook filled with a handful of brownie recipes. It’s a cookbook offering 100 recipes of homemade brownies, cookies, and other baked goods perfect for shipping.
No matter where your friends or family live, “The Flying Brownie” cookbook can help you give them a taste of home. Images accompany some, but not all, of the recipes in the 176-page book.
Once you get comfortable shipping out baked goods, you’ll have a better feel for whether your favorite baked goods are shippable. When in doubt, flip to the “Care Packages 101” chapter for a detailed rundown of shipping considerations, food safety, and how to wrap it up best.
Inside The Flying Brownie Cookbook
I consider a care package to be a box of cookies and fun, unexpected surprises. When I was in middle school, one of my oldest friends and I spent one week at Valpo University for a summer choir program, Great Lakes Music Camp, two summers in a row.
My mom sent a care package of chocolate chip cookies. That container of cookies was the fastest way to make new friends. Any kid tromping around the hall of a dorm, offering perfect homemade cookies, can’t help but make pals. Guess what I sent my son off to college with?
Care packages aren’t a new idea. People have shipped off things from home as long as people have traveled away from friends and family. However, the term “care package” originated in the 1940s, according to author Shirley Fan.
The Cooperative for American Remittances to Europe, or CARE, a humanitarian organization sent the first care package May 11, 1946, to World War II refugees in Le Havre, France, to get the unused food items distributed to the roughly 60 million Europeans displaced during the war, Time shared.
At the end of World War II, with much of the world in ruins, Arthur Ringland and Dr. Lincoln Clark approach 22 American charities to propose a non-profit corporation to funnel food packages from Americans to loved ones in Europe.
The charities agree and on November 27, they incorporate the Cooperative for American Remittances to Europe (CARE).
After negotiation with multiple government agencies, CARE takes possession of 2.8 million “10-in-1” military food rations.
These rations become the world’s first CARE Packages® and an American symbol is born.
CARE’s History: A Timeline, Care, Accessed August 20, 2024.
This book focuses on how you can best ship homemade treats, such as a batch of brownies or an assortment of cookies, to your loved ones near and far. It’s a genius idea. If you’ve never shipped baked goods before, this book makes a wonderful guide.
Chapters inside “The Flying Brownie” include:
- Introduction
- Acknowledgments
- Care Packages 101
- High-Flying Brownies and Bars
- Cookies for the Road
- Confections that Go the Extra Mile
- Packable Loaves and Breads
- Shippable Savories
- Light as Air
- Assemble Upon Arrival
- Measurement Equivalents
- Resource Guide
- Recipe Index
Stick with travel-friendly cookie recipes, such as Chocolate Cherry Ranger Cookies (an interesting play on the usual Ranger Cookie recipe), Double-Ginger Molasses Cookies, Lemon-Cardamom Meltaways, or Raspberry-Lemon Linzer Cookies.
Tricolored Peppermint-Striped Cookies are so pretty, I am going to bake them for Christmas this year. You won’t find those in a Christmas cookbook, but wow are they lovely. I am thinking it might be fun to crush freeze-dried strawberries and swap that out with the peppermint for a summery-themed treat.
As you can see, this book includes far more than cookies. Breads, crisp biscotti, bars, and snacks would help add a little diversity to any care package.
Pack up a box of Cinnamon-Spice Popcorn, Chocolate-Ginger Rum Balls, Garlic and Dill Seasoned Pretzels, or Autumn Spiced Pumpkin Loaf. I’m eyeing the recipe for Dickie’s Nuts and Bolts. It sounds like an interesting snack for a kid studying in his dorm room — especially since that kid prefers savory over sweet.
Baking Peanut Butter Crunch Brownies
I had to use a 9″ baking pan for my batch of brownies. The recipes calls for an 8″ pan. Using a 9″ works, but the brownies don’t have the height. As with any good brownie recipe, watch the baking time.
An over-baked brownie is a sad brownie. Set your kitchen timer for a range lower than that listed in the recipe and keep an eye on it. They should look set and like something you want to eat.
These brownies keep for up to five days. After that, it isn’t as though they go bad, however, the texture will change and they lose a little something in the flavor. Keep them covered and don’t slice into them until you go to serve or eat one. Pre-slicing brownies dries them out.
Recipe for Peanut Butter Crunch Brownies
Peanut Butter Crunch Brownies from “The Flying Brownie”
Equipment
- 1 8" baking pan (I used my 9" baking pan)
Ingredients
- 8 Tablespoons Unsalted Butter I used salted butter, fyi.
- 4 ounces Unsweetened Chocolate
- 1 1/4 Cups Sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon Salt
- 2 Large Eggs at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- 1 Cup All-Purpose Flour
- 2 Tablespoons Natural Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
- 1/2 Cup Creamy Peanut Butter or Crunchy Peanut Butter I used creamy peanut butter
- 1/2 Cup Lightly Salted Peanuts, Crushed
Instructions
- 350* oven.
- Grease an 8" baking pan with Pam for Baking with Flour or Baker's Joy and set aside. Note: I used a 9" baking pan because that's what I have. The result? Thinner brownies that bake a little faster.
- Melt the unsalted butter and chocolate in a glass bowl over a pot of simmering water, stirring until all the lumps disappear. Remove from the heat.
- Stir in the sugar and the salt. Set aside to cool to room temperature. Note: why? If you added the hot melted chocolate mixture to eggs, it would cook the egg white, and you would end up with white streaks in your brownies.
- While the mixture is warm, not hot, add the eggs one at a time. Mix well.
- Add in the vanilla extract.
- Fold in the all-purpose flour and the baking cocoa. Mix until it is just combined.
- Place the peanut butter in a small bowl. Melt in a glass bowl over a pot of simmering water or in a microwave until the peanut butter is runny.
- Fold in the peanut butter to the brownie batter, but don't stir to combine. You want to leave streaks here.
- Pour the chocolate and peanut butter brownie batter into the prepared baking pan. Scatter the crushed peanuts over the top.
- Bake for 24-30 minutes or until a tester in the middle has a few not dry crumbs and you notice the edges pulling away from the sides of the pan.
- Let the brownies cool in a pan on a wire rack.
- To Ship: after completely cooling the brownies, layer unwrapped brownies in an airtight container. You could also wrap the peanut butter brownies in wax paper, parchment paper, or plastic wrap and set them inside a plastic container. You could use a bag, but you risk crushing them during shipping.
Cookbooks by Shirley Fan
The Flying Brownie: 100 Terrific Homemade Food Gifts for Friends and Loved Ones Far Away (2013) by Shirley Fan
Full Belly: Good Eats for a Healthy Pregnancy (2014) by Tara Mataraza Desmond and Shirley Fan
Related Recipes
This looks interesting and delicious. I like brownies b/c they don’t need frosting– just good as is!