Brownie trio: PB, hazelnuts and plain Jane...

A friend hosted a totally awesome party this past weekend, where she made scrumptious pork-filled Filipino spring rolls among other things. It was a fun-filled event with a lot of horsing around the karaoke Magic mike, the Nintendo Wii console and hangin' out. I decided that any great par-tay needs chocolate, so I contributed a trio of brownies. As usual, I got the basic recipe from Allrecipes. I've tried the brownie recipe once before and it was immensely popular among my friends, so I used the same recipe again with slight modifications.

To make the trio brownies, I followed the recipe for the brownie batter. The modifications I made were only to the topping/filling. One-third of the brownie got a drizzling of creamy peanut butter on top before baking; the second third had chopped hazelnuts in the bottom and top of the batter; and the last third is plain jane!


The brownies baked up beautifully and I left it in the oven for the lower range of baking time. I find that for cookies and brownies (especially brownies!), underbaking tends to yield better-textured goodies than overbaking. It gives the baked goods an ooeey-gooeeyer mouth feel that most people enjoy. Then again, there are some who prefer drier, snappier cookies but hey, to each his own, right?

For easy snacking during the party, I cut up the brownie trio to individual bite-size portions. Here's a shout out to Mark and Frances, the host and hostess with the mostest, for an uber-fun party, giving me an excuse to bake up this yummy brownie trio!