Salted peanut butter and jelly blondies, two great guys left out of the Oscars and a mediocre movie

When it comes to the Oscars apparently every year there is a very talented person (or more than one) left out of the competition, and I’ve written about it already. This year both Tom Hanks and Paul Greengrass were “forgotten” for their remarkable work in Captain Phillips, which is really unfair to me. I wouldn’t say Hanks’ performance was the best among the nominees – that title still belongs to Leo – but it is certainly superior to Christian Bale’s in the mediocre American Hustle and to Matthew McConaughey’s in Dallas Buyers Club.

As far as directors are concerned, David O. Russell’s nomination is just a bad joke and to think that he was included in the game at the expense of Greengrass makes this year’s competition even more ridiculous (I think you’ve already noticed how much I hated American Hustle). :D

After wasting 138 minutes of my life on such a lame movie I needed something tasty and quick to put together – the halfway-through jar of raspberry jam in my fridge (left from the cookies I baked a while ago) and the recently bought jar of peanut butter were combined to create these blondies. As I sliced them into squares and thought of the movie, it hit me that Bradley Cooper – the poor actor who stars in things like The Hangover – is a two-time nominee in a two-year period (for two below the average movies) while it took the Academy more than twenty years to first nominee the best actor in the world – that made me so mad I had to eat a blondie right away. :D

Salted peanut butter and jelly blondies
slightly adapted from Bon Appétit magazine

½ cup (1 stick/113g) unsalted butter, melted
1¼ cups (175g) all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon table salt
2 large eggs
200g light brown sugar
¾ cup crunchy peanut butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 ½ tablespoons raspberry jam
flaky sea salt (such as Maldon)

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F. Lightly butter a square 20cm (8in) baking pan, line it with foil leaving an overhang on two opposite sides and butter the foil as well.
In a medium bowl, whisk together all-purpose flour, baking powder, and table salt. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, brown sugar, peanut butter, butter, and vanilla extract; fold in dry ingredients. Scrape batter into prepared pan. Dollop with the jam. Bake for about 30 minutes or until a tester comes out clean. Sprinkle with flaky sea salt. Cool completely in the pan, then cut into squares to serve.

Makes 16