Peanut Butter and Jelly Brownies
I love putting a new spin on a classic recipe. I had the pleasure of enjoying these Peanut Butter and Jelly Brownies when I was hanging out with my friends Fiona, Aimee, and Katie one night a couple months ago. Fiona had whipped up quite the unique recipe. Her recipe involves cutting the brownies in half after they’ve been baked and cooled. When it came right down to it, I was just too lazy to commit to that kind of effort.
I know, it really isn’t that much additional effort, but that’s the decision I made. Instead of following Fiona’s recipe exactly, I decided to just use peanut butter chips in the brownies and top it with jelly, just like Fiona did. The outcome is a great combination of the classic peanut butter and jelly flavors mixed into a brownie. These were a huge hit, as to be expected.
One Year Ago: Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls and Indian Spiced Beans
Two Years Ago: Cranberry, Caramelized Onion, and Goat Cheese Dip
Peanut Butter and Jelly Brownies
Yield: 16 bars
Ingredients:
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
1 cup + 2 Tbsp sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup + 2 Tbsp cocoa
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp espresso powder, optional
1/2 Tbsp vanilla
3/4 cup flour
1 cup peanut butter chips
1/2 cup red raspberry jelly
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a 9x9" pan
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 pan.
In another pan or microwave dish, heat the jelly until warm and melted. Spoon warm jelly on top of brownie batter. Use a knife to swirl around to mix into brownies.
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 completely prior to cutting.
Recipe adapted from A Boston Food Diary
I am Jen the Beantown Baker. Engineer by day and baking maven by night. Hubby serves as my #1 fan and official taste tester. We got hitched back in 2006. Barefoot. In the sand. With the waves crashing behind us. It was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. 
This is heavenly!!!
This looks amazing!
I LOVE Boston Cream pie, and I do love the custard filling but… I never turn down a good cheesecake! This is lovely.
OMG, it looks SO scrumptious! Trying it very soon!!
Yum! I’d love a slice of this right now
Mal @ The Chic Geek
Yours looks fantastic! So funny we both had a similar idea.
beantownbaker — November 28th, 2012 @ 9:34 pm
I know! It’s always crazy when stuff like that happens.
Being from Boston, I appreciate this Boston Cream Pie Cheesecake!
such a great-looking dessert! great minds 😉
That looks amazing. I love pastry cream and am kind of surprised you don’t like it… even really good pastry cream? (There’s a lot of bad pastry cream out there.)
beantownbaker — November 30th, 2012 @ 10:38 am
Yea, it’s really a texture thing for me. I don’t like yogurt for the same reason. Although, maybe I’ve just never had good pastry cream…
I love the look of this pie/cake! Seeing the sponge layers and the cheesecake layer makes for an impressive looking cake!
Hi there ! I was wondering after refrigerating the cheesecake overnight, how much do i have to freeze it for ??? Thank u ! 🙂
beantownbaker — May 17th, 2014 @ 6:10 pm
Just for a couple hours. It is just to make it more firm.