Peanut Butter Swirl Brownies

And now! Back to where we last left our heroes, struggling with the big bad evil villain, “Real Estate”.

Since we last joined in this epic tale, a condo was being put on the market.

It is now off the market.

I feel like I should be happier.

I mean, I’m happy. One more loose end has been tied. It forks into a million other loose ends, because the closing of a house never goes smoothly, but it’s a big end to tie.

The problem is the buyers.

Since the initial offer, instead of being the beacon of light we were hoping for, they’ve been a bit of an antagonist to our real estate plot.

3 days after we listed they low-ball offered us, $37k below our extremely reasonable asking price.

Really? Really?

We countered with something much more reasonable while strangers continued to file in and out of our home, judging its worth and desirability.

They countered back again, $27k below asking, claiming it to be their final offer.

Still not too fabulous, causing a gut reaction amongst us of “heh… no thank you.  Let’s move along now.”

But then people stopped showing up to judge my home. Interest just… petered off.

And suddenly the tiny offer didn’t seem so bad.

Trevor and I sat down with our real estate agent and made a calculation that made me sad. What was the least amount of money we could ask for that would pay off the remainder of what we owed the bank, with some extra left over to pay sellers fees? It came up to $17k below asking.

And because we were worried, we countered with $22k below asking. All that separated us and them was measly $5000.

And so they split hairs and countered by going up a mere $2500.

Really? Really?

We took it.

We didn’t want to. We felt like we were in a movie where we were the main characters who had been pushed around all movie, and at the climax, the audience was just yelling at us to just say no to working with the big bad villian… and we said yes.

I was an emotional wreck.

But then Trevor took me to visit our new house.

It has drywall up in it now. Its outside is covered in siding and the deck is huge and finished.

It’s starting to be a real house.

It’s been a ridiculous process… but maybe it’s actually going to be all worth it.

P.S. Sorry for the move away from talking about food for awhile, but I honestly have trouble forming thoughts around anything that isn’t work or house related these days, so you’ll just have to bear with me. These brownies are decadent, dense and incredibly fabulous and you should know that. I hope my real estate stories don’t take away from that. :)

Adapted from Bless This Mess

I successfully doubled this recipe into a 9×13 inch pan.

Ingredients

• 5 oz. bittersweet chocolate, chopped coarse
• 2 oz. unsweetened chocolate, chopped coarse
• 3 tablespoons Dutch-processed cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces
• 1 cup sugar
• 3 eggs
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 cup flour
• 1/3 cup creamy peanut butter

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line an 8-inch square baking pan with foil, letting the foil over hang the edges by a few inches; grease the foil with butter or cooking spray.
2. In the top vessel of a double boiler (or in a heatproof bowl set over barely simmering water), add your chocolates, cocoa, and butter. Melt, stirring often, until the mixture is smooth.
3. Whisk the sugar into the chocolate mixture while still over heat for about 1 minute. Remove from heat and let cool for 5 minutes.
4. Add eggs, one at a time, whisking constantly. Whisk in vanilla, and salt.
5. Stir in the flour with a rubber spatula until just incorporated. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth out the top.
6. Drop the peanut butter on top of the brownie batter by little spoonfuls all over the top. Use a knife to cut through the peanut butter and pull it through the brownie layer.
7. Bake the brownies until a tooth-pick inserted into the middle comes with just a few soft crumbs attached, 30 to 35 minutes.
8. Let the brownies cool completely in the pan; set on a wire rack. Remove the brownies from the pan by using the foil, cut into squares to serve.

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