Chocolate Hazelnut (Nutella) Peanut Butter Brownies

Man oh man, do I have a lot of recipe posts to catch up on! I made these Nutella Peanut Butter brownies as a little birthday treat for my brother in late May, and I'm finally getting around to sharing the recipe. 

Now before we start, I want to make a little disclaimer: I do not personally support brands that use palm oil as an ingredient -- I made this decision after researching for my article, "Say No to Palm Oil". At the same time, I'm also a firm believer in not wasting. My brother, a fan of Nutella (which is made of palm oil), had about 1/4 jar left -- and what was left was the grainy, not-so-spreadable stuff. So in order to not waste what was left in the jar, I combined the nutella with this classic brownie recipe. For future recipes, however, I would either make my own chocolate-hazelnut spread or buy one that doesn't include palm oil as an ingredient. So the bottom line of this disclaimer - I'm not a supporter of Nutella, but we had some leftover, and I didn't want to waste it, so I did use it in this one batch!

Recipe: Nutella Peanut Butter Brownies
By: Hannah Claudia
____________________________________________

For the brownies:
1/2 cup of coconut oil, melted (you can use butter too, but my brother actually liked the subtle coconut flavor!)
3/4 cup of white sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tablespoons chocolate-hazelnut spread, warmed in the microwave at 10 sec. intervals, until runny
1/2 cup all-purpose flour

For the swirls:
1/4 cup of peanut butter, warmed in the microwave at 10 sec. intervals, until runny
1/4 cup chocolate-hazelnut spread, warmed in the microwave at 10 sec. intervals, until runny

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

1. Preheat the oven to 350*F. Line an 8" square baking dish with greased wax paper.
2. Thoroughly mix the coconut oil, white sugar, eggs, and vanilla extract.
3. Add the salt, baking powder, and cocoa powder. Mix thoroughly.
4. Mix in the warmed up chocolate-hazelnut spread.
5. Fold in the flour.
6. Pour the brownie batter into the prepared baking dish.
7. Use a large spoon to drop dollops of peanut butter on top of the brownie batter. Follow with the chocolate-hazelnut spread.
8. Use a toothpick/chopstick/skewer to swirl the peanut butter and chocolate-hazelnut spread.
9. Bake for 20-30 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out with only a few crumbs.
10. Allow the brownies to cool completely (several hours -- cutting in too early will leave you with dry, cake-y brownies!) before cutting and serving.




xoxo, han