Peanut Butter Brownies

Our kitchen designer, S, for our renovation project was AMAZING. Granted, we had to “break up” with two designers before finding her, but boy are we glad we did! She had so much patience with us me and my indecisiveness. And she tackled our kitchen with all it’s funky angles and obstacles as a challenge not a burden. It was her last minute idea to put a countertop over our radiator to almost double our counter space in the room. We owe her. Big time. But how do you thank someone for all their hard work and patience? In an attempt to show our gratitude, I did what I do best. I baked for her.

The day we went to deliver these brownies, S said she was so glad we love the kitchen and that this is what makes her day. Happy customers coming in smiling say they love the design she came up with. If anyone in the Boston area is looking for a kitchen designer, let me know, because she was awesome.

And now, on to the brownies. I had some leftover frosting from the Chocolate Peanut Butter cupcakes and I wanted to incorporate that frosting into the treat for S. Then I decided that I’d stick with the chocolate-peanut-butter theme but make brownies. Now ever since I made these Oreo Brownies, an Ina Garten recipe, I’ve been in love with the brownies. I also made them into Brownie Pops for Hubby’s mom’s surprise birthday party. The brownies are delicious. But I decided I’d try a new brownie recipe just to mix things up.

I asked around and decided on this recipe from What’s Cooking in the Orange Kitchen. These brownies do not disappoint! They’ve got a great texture. Be sure to follow the tip in the recipe to get the nice shiny top to your brownies. I mixed some chocolate-peanut-butter swirled chips into the brownie batter prior to cooking.

Once the brownies were fully cooled, I spread about a 1/2 cup of the leftover frosting onto the brownies. I also had some leftover ganache in the fridge, so I decided to slather that over the peanut butter frosting.

These brownies are very rich and tasty. The peanut butter flavor was not overwhelming, but more of a subtle flavor mixed with the delicious chocolateness of the brownies. Hubby didn’t want to actually deliver these to S because he wanted to eat the entire batch himself.

Don’t forget to enter in my 2nd blogiversary giveaway by midnight on August 13th!

Print Save

Perfect Brownies

Yield: 16 brownies

Ingredients:

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
1 cup + 2 Tbsp sugar
1/2 cup + 2 Tbsp Dutch-process cocoa
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp espresso powder, optional
1/2 Tbsp vanilla
2 large eggs
3/4 cups flour
1 cups chocolate chips - I used chocolate-peanut-butter swirl chips

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a 8x8 pan

In a medium-sized microwave-safe bowl, or in a saucepan set over low heat, melt the butter, then add the sugar and stir to combine. Return the mixture to the heat briefly, just until it's hot, but not bubbling; it'll become shiny looking as you stir it. Heating this mixture a second time will dissolve more of the sugar, which will yield a shiny top crust on your brownies.

Transfer the sugar mixture to a medium-sized mixing bowl, if you've heated it in a saucepan. Stir in the cocoa, salt, baking powder, espresso powder, and vanilla.

Whisk in the eggs, stirring until smooth.

Add the flour and chips, again stirring until smooth.

Spoon the batter into a lightly greased 8x8 pan.

Bake the brownies for about 30 minutes, until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean, or with just a few moist crumbs clinging to it. The brownies should feel set on the edges, and the center should look very moist, but not uncooked. Remove them from the oven and cool on a rack before cutting and serving.

    Pin It

17 Responses to “M&M Surprise Cookies”

  1. #
    1
    stephchows — December 4, 2009 at 2:01 pm

    WOW total sugar coma! I love that it’s a PB cookie with a whole PB cup put into it!! Such a fun idea 🙂

  2. #
    2
    birdutmasali — December 4, 2009 at 3:32 pm

    and peanut butter
    and chocolate
    and aMrshmallows
    süpppppeer 🙂

  3. #
    3
    Jelli Bean — December 4, 2009 at 3:38 pm

    Considering it’s not even 10am and I’ve just polished off my 4th cheesecake brownie, I’d better stay as far away from these cookies as possible. They look phenomenal.

  4. #
    4
    Ingrid — December 4, 2009 at 7:01 pm

    Looks good. I bet they’d be super festive looking with the holiday m&ms.

    Happy Friday!
    ~ingrid

  5. #
    5
    nutmegnanny — December 5, 2009 at 1:26 am

    These look sugary and delicious 🙂 I tend to find mini M&M’s either in the check out lane or at Christmas I find them over where they have little stocking stuffer candy.

  6. #
    6
    Molly Jean — December 5, 2009 at 2:49 am

    I have the sugar shakes just thinking about these 🙂 They are waaaay too cute!

  7. #
    7
    Julie — December 5, 2009 at 4:16 pm

    I’d love that sugar party in my mouth…wow!

  8. #
    8
    oneordinaryday — December 8, 2009 at 1:53 pm

    My kiddos would be all over this. All that candy PLUS a cookie?! They’d love it! LOL

  9. #
    9
    oneordinaryday — December 8, 2009 at 1:54 pm

    Oh – the mini m&ms? I can usu. only find them in the check-out aisles in the small tubes. I haven’t seen them in bags in a long time.

  10. #
    10
    Jen — December 8, 2009 at 2:36 pm

    I’ll have to look up by the checkout next time I need mini M&Ms. I was definitely looking for a bag…

  11. #
    11
    Amy — December 8, 2009 at 10:12 pm

    OMG your pictures are TDF

  12. #
    12
    Lisa — December 8, 2009 at 11:33 pm

    The only place I can find M&M minis now is in the bulk candy aisle. I haven’t seen them in any sort of packaging in ages.

  13. #
    13
    bridget {bake at 350} — January 3, 2010 at 1:03 am

    “super sugar overload cookies” sound good to me! 🙂 Thanks for linking!

  14. #
    14
    Diane {createdbydiane.blogspot.com} — January 3, 2010 at 3:40 am

    Very Clever!

  15. #
    15
    Katie — January 7, 2010 at 5:04 pm

    Wow those look great, I’ll have to try them. I love your photography!

  16. #
    16
    sasa — December 5, 2016 at 8:09 am

    Warm Greetings All, Coming Promo ya !!
    BONUS STOCK
    RCMS
    BONUS
    Refferal 1%

    DISCOUNT
    4D: 66%
    3D: 59%
    2D: 29%

    BONUS BALL
    CashBack 5% – 10%
    LOSE AT LEAST 1 JT – 10 JT = 5%
    LOSE AT LEAST 10 JT – 30 JT = 7.5%
    LOSE AT LEAST 30 JT and above = 10%

    CASINO BONUS
    ROLLINGAN 0.7% BONUS AND AUTOMATIC ENTRY INTO ID
    pin bb: d620fc96
    bandar togel sgp yang paling aman

  17. #
    17
    sasa — December 18, 2016 at 5:14 am

    Greetings All, Coming Promo y, bigung find the city toggle reliable and secure. Let us join together in
    BONUS STOCK
    RCMS
    BONUS
    Refferal 1%

    DISCOUNT
    4D: 66%
    3D: 59%
    2D: 29%

    BONUS BALL
    CashBack 5% – 10%
    LOSE AT LEAST 1 JT – 10 JT = 5%
    LOSE AT LEAST 10 JT – 30 JT = 7.5%
    LOSE AT LEAST 30 JT and above = 10%

    CASINO BONUS
    ROLLINGAN 0.7% BONUS AND AUTOMATIC ENTRY INTO ID
    pin bb: d620fc96
    togel sgp

Leave a Comment