Promises, Promises

I am a a woman of my word. At least I try to be. Especially when it comes to food. If I say I am going to make something, I do it.

Take last Friday when I took a very little bit of leftover egg salad to the farmers market with me for a snack. Everyone loved it! So I promised a few fellow farmers market vendors I would make egg salad (using my homemade mayo no less) and we could have egg salad sammys at the Sunday market. I think they were more than surprised when I actually showed up with a big container of homemade egg salad yesterday. Go figure.

And when I promised Shauna James Ahern and Danny, The Gluten-Free Girl and the Chef, I would make their chocolate peanut butter brownies and blog about them today to help promote their new cookbook, Gluten-Free Girl and the Chef: A Love Story with 100 Tempting Recipes, aqui estoy (here I am).

It never amazes me how the world presents you with opportunities. You can either accept the offer, friendship, recipe, invitation, etc. Or not. I am one who always opens the door to see what's inside. Call me curious, naive or just stupid, but I want to believe the best.

When I received the peanut butter chocolate brownie recipe (and instructions for blogging) they sent via email, I knew she would not lead me astray. Actually, she calls this exercise we are participating in "Dancing in the Kitchen with Gluten-Free Girl and the Chef."

As I began making this one-dish wonder, it became even more clear to me how exquisite these pb brownies were going to be. There is just enough chocolate, eggs and sugar to make the texture soft but not wet. There is just enough sweet rice and gluten-free oat flour (I used almond meal) to hold the brownies together but not make them dry. There is just enough peanut butter swirled on the top to make you swoon.

I literally made this recipe in one microwave-safe bowl. I melted the chocolate and butter in the bowl and then added the sugar, eggs and dry ingredients.

It was as simple at that. Baked it at 350 degrees for 30 minutes and let it cool.

We had a foodie friend over for dinner last night who absolutely begged me for the recipe. When we ate them, we decided all that was missing was a lovely quenelle of vanilla ice cream.

We all praised the fact that the texture was just right, the flavor combination perfect and that the brownies were neither overly rich nor too sweet. I mean, if you want, you could probably eat two brownies in one sitting. And that's a good thing.

So, cheers to Shauna and Danny and their new cookbook! I promise you're going to love it.

Buen provecho!