Outrageous Brownies with Peanut Butter Swirl Recipe

 

With all the home baking we've been doing lately, we've developed some favorite recipes.  And this is a big favorite!

Plus, we dote on peanut butter in our house.  All of us, including the puppy and kitten love it!  Peanut butter and chocolate is a perfect combination.  (Just don't share the brownies with your beloved pets!)  Since I do share peanut butter with my animals, I often buy the natural, sugar free, salt free organic type.  I have come to love the more authentic taste, too.  There are lots of good brands of this type available, such as Kirkland from Costco, Whole Foods 365, Adams, Trader Joe's, etc.  These types tend to be more runny than processed peanut butter, so we can sweeten it up with some confectioner's sugar to make a great filling.  The sugar combines with the oil and quickly firms up the peanut butter, so I add a bit of half and half to thin it back down a bit toward filling consistency.  It's up to you how firm you want it. 

I buy Ghirardelli Cocoa powder.  It has a great flavor.  But I prefer the Guittard chocolate chips.  They have a great flavor and a smooth velvety texture, not waxy.  Adding a cup pf these chips into the brownie batter before spreading it in the pan would really make these brownies over the top!

Mixing the brownie batter

 

 

 

 

 

 

Brownie batter in pan

Filling spooned and swirled on top

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Outrageous Brownies with Peanut Butter Swirl

Ingredients

         Brownies

1 c. butter melted

2 c. white sugar

1 T. vanilla

4 eggs

1 c. all-purpose flour 

2/3 c. Ghirardelli unsweetend cocoa powder

1/2 t. baking powder

1/w t. salt

     

            Peanut Butter Filling 

3/4 c. runny organic peanut butter, such as Trader Joe’s, Kirkland, or Adams

1/2 c. confectioner's sugar

2 - 4 T half and half

1 t. vanilla

Directions

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease a 9 x 9 inch baking pan with butter.

    

2.  Mix together melted butter, sugar, and vanilla.  Beat in eggs one at a time.  

   Combine flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt then gradually stir 

   into sugar/egg mixture until well blended.  Spread batter into buttered pan.

    

3. Make filling:  mix peanut butter and confectioner’s sugar.  

   Stir in enough half and half to make the filling workable.  

   This depends on how runny the peanut butter is to start with.  

   I like to use it all so that the filling is more spreadable.  Stir in the vanilla.  

   Dot the peanut butter filling by spoonful around the top of the brownies in the pan.  

   Swirl a bit with a knife, if you like.

    

4. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until the brownies start to look done at the edges and the center is set. 

   Cool as long as you can wait.  

    

   Attack!