Peanut Butter Nutella Brownies

    It's amazing how you can walk into a room of complete strangers and by the time you walk out, it's as if you've been friends forever, bonded by common experience, drive, and passion.  That's what happened to me this week.  I was able to reconnect with a group of people I met in May at Part One of a seminar to prepare to be a presenter for Responsive Classroom training.  You may recall that I blogged about going on my first business trip.  Well I just returned home from Phase Two and what an amazing experience it was!  It was fun to have a chance talk to teachers from all over the country about kids, teaching, and life.  On top of all of that, we learned how to be presenters and had a lot of chances to practice and receive feedback.  It's not every day you can get a group of teachers together, during summer vacation, to work really hard and then in the end be sad to leave.  I learned so much and feel so fortunate to have had such a rewarding experience.
     Somehow along the week, I mentioned my blog to the group.  They were thought it was a real hoot to hear about how I make Arnauld wait for me to take a ton of pictures of our meals before we eat and how before this I never really enjoyed cooking at all.  I promised that when I got home, I would dedicate a post to them.  So despite returning to a house that felt more like a sauna, I cranked on the oven and mixed up a batch of Peanut Butter Nutella Brownies.  I wish I could share them with all of my new friends, but rest assured Presenters, I'll taste enough for all of us!  Thanks for an awesome week and all of your support along the way.  Good luck as you take all of your new learning back to your schools.  The people you get to present to will all be very lucky to have learned from some of the best!

Peanut Butter Nutella Brownies

These don't look that bad in the pan.  However, I don't think they'll ever come out of the pan resembling anything close to a brownie.  Better luck next time!

Ingredients
1 cup unsalted butter, melted
2 cups sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
4 large eggs
1 cup flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup Nutella
1/2 cup peanut butter

Method
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
1. Mix the melted butter, sugar, and vanilla together.
2. Beat in one egg at a time.
3. Mix in the flour, baking powder, cocoa, and salt. 
4. In a microwave safe bowl, soften the Nutella and peanut butter together until it is a runny consistency.  Stir this mixture into the brownie mix.
5. Pour mix into a greased 9x 13 glass baking dish.
6. Bake for 30 minutes.
7.  Allow to cool before attempting to cut.

Confession
    I'd love to be able to say these were the best brownies ever.  During the week, someone asked me about cooking disasters I have experienced and I couldn't really think of any.  Well, I take that back.  I haven't been home in a week, so when I went to the fridge to grab the eggs, we were all out.  I had already melted the butter and mixed in the sugar.  I quickly weighed my options, run out to the store or toss the mix and try again some other time.  Then I remembered I had some egg substitute in the pantry from a time I made vegan muffins for a friend.  I thought you just scooped the mix in and that was the same as using an egg-so that's what I did.  Upon closer inspection of the box, I realized the directions said to mix the egg substitute with water before adding it to the mix.  No wonder my brownies came out bubbling and boiling like chocolate soup.  If you follow the directions above, you will probably have better luck than me!