PEANUT BUTTER FROSTED BROWNIES
Anyone who likes peanut butter and brownies, will love these!
I really love peanut butter brownies. When I think about creating a peanut butter brownie recipe though, I get overwhelmed, because I start thinking out all of the possible variations. I usually experience decision-paralysis and end up making something else.
This time, I decided to just start making it, and whatever I thought of in the moment, I would do. So I noticed I had a bag of Reese’s Mini Peanut Butter Cups. I decided I would chop those up and add them to the brownie batter.
Next decision was whether or not I would bake the brownie with peanut butter in the middle, or wait until it was done baking and add a peanut butter frosting. I went with the latter. The deciding factor was that I had an abundance of extra homemade Peanut Butter Cookies, and I thought I could crush the cookies into crumbs and top the frosting with them.
The brownies themselves are a cross between the fudgy and chewy brownies; they were dense, but not quite as dense as what you would think of when it came to a typical fudge-like brownie.
For the peanut butter frosting, I used Reese’s Creamy Peanut Butter. It conveniently coordinated with the theme of the mini peanut butter cups in the batter. And the frosting was more peanut buttery than sweet, which was what I was going for, as to not be sweetness overkill with the cookie topping.
And the cookies added a very nice finishing touch, if I do say so myself. But if that sounds like too much, you don’t need to add the cookies.
I thought these were particularly yummy. Try them out for yourself.
Recipe:
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Ingredients Section:
PEANUT BUTTER FROSTED BROWNIES
- 1 cup butter
- 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips or chopped dark chocolate
- 2 eggs
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup cocoa
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 1/4 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 cup mini peanut butter cups, chopped
- Peanut Butter Frosting
- 1 cup peanut butter cookie crumbs (store-bought or homemade), optional
PEANUT BUTTER FROSTING
- 1/2 cup half & half
- 1/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
- 1 TBS butter
- pinch of salt
- 1 cup marshmallows (see notes)
- 1 cup creamy peanut butter
Directions:
PEANUT BUTTER FROSTED BROWNIES
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Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
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Coat 9×9 inch square pan with non-stick cooking spray.
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Melt together butter and chocolate and stir to combine.
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Let cool slightly, then add eggs, egg yolk and vanilla.
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Stir to combine.
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Whisk together flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
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Add to the chocolate mixture and mix well.
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Stir in chopped peanut butter cups.
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Pour batter into pan.
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Bake for 25-30 minutes (Mine took 28 minutes).
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Do not overbake.
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Cool, and frost with Peanut Butter Frosting.
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Top frosting with peanut butter cookie crumbs, if desired.
PEANUT BUTTER FROSTING
- Whisk together half & half, light brown sugar, salt and butter.
- Whisk over medium heat until butter melts and sugar is dissolved.
- Turn heat to high.
- Boil for 1 minute without stirring.
- Remove from heat and immediately stir in peanut butter and marshmallows.
- Keep stirring until smooth.
- Immediately pour onto brownies.
- Top with peanut butter cookie crumbs, if desired.
Notes about this recipe:
- I used Reese’s brand creamy peanut butter, but any brand should work well. I have not tested this with natural peanut butter, so I don’t know if that would work just as well as regular.
- I used Private Selection brand 85% Dark Chocolate, chopped up, for the brownie recipe. Dark chocolate chips should work just fine and would probably be easier!
- One cup of mini marshmallows can be substituted for the large marshmallows in the frosting. Mini marshmallows would probably melt better, but I used 10 large marshmallows because that’s what I had.
