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.
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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.
Recipe from What's Cooking in the Orange Kitchen originally from King Arthur Flour
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. 
I’ll take any leftovers! They sound amazing. I keep saying dessert recipes with bacon and bookmarking them, but I haven’t tried any yet. Adding this one to the list now too. 🙂
These look so terrific. I love the flavor combinations!
I’m intrigued!
interesting! I have a recipe for chocolate bacon fudge or maybe pb bacon fudge but I’m afraid to try it
The frosting sounds amazing. I honestly still can’t bring myself to get behind bacon in desserts. Maybe someday I’ll try a bacon cupcake if I’m given one though. 🙂 I can only resist so long.
YUM! These look so good! I haven’t tried the bacon / sweet combo yet, but I’m sure I would love it!
This looks delicious but I’ve got to ask….what is a pirate party?
Fun and Fearless – It’s exactly like it sounds… Everyone dresses up as a pirate (or something related – Hubby and I went as Treasure maps last year). They even hire this guy who looks like Captain Jack Sparrow to come and there’s a prize for best costume. One of the best parties of the year!
Sounds great! The problem I’ve seen with bacon is that sometimes it is chewy in cupcakes. That’s not good. I like that this recipe says to cook until crispy. Extra crispy for me!
My favorite candy bar is bacon chocolate!!! I can’t wait to try this 🙂
Wow, those look and sound amazing!
oh yum. after putting bacon in last years cookies this might need to be next 🙂
I’m so curious to try bacon in baked goods, but do you think turkey bacon would work?
Corrine – I’m sure turkey bacon would work if you could get it nice and crispy. I’ve heard that if the bacon isn’t super crispy, it has a really weird chewy texture in baked goods.
Thanks Jen! I’m going to give it a try!
This has just about everything that I would want to go together. Awesome recipe!
This is certianly a unqiue mixture of tastes and textures, but it comes together nicely. Definatly a must try!
Chocolate..caramel…bacon…PERFECTION.
I am infatuated with the perfect smoky/salty addition of bacon into sweet baked goods. So delicious. Of course, I’m kind of a fan of adding bacon into just about anything.
Great pics, def wanna try these out!
Sorry the cupcakes didn’t turn out like you wanted. Have you ever tried the bacon/chocolate cupcake at Cherry Bomb Bakery in Brighton? They are fantastic!