10 February 2009

Peanut Butter Cup Brownies


Oh my goodness! Where in the world does the time go?? Sorry for the week’s delay, it’s been chaos here. I’ve been working 12+ hour days and trying to keep up at home and spending actual time with other humans in-between, so I haven’t had much time to bake or blog unfortunately. Thank goodness I have this little gem of a recipe left over from SuperBowl time!

There isn’t much of a trick to these brownies – they are Dorie’s signature recipe, which I hadn’t tried before. Rich and much softer than this version, so I am still on the hunt for the perfect chewy-yet-rich brownie recipe. We shall find it one of these days, I have faith.


To up the ante on these, I decided to add some TJ mini peanut-butter cups. There isn’t a Trader Joe’s anywhere near me, but fortunately my sister Anne keeps me hooked up with all their goodies so that we don’t die from TJ withdrawals out here in Larryville. And FYI, the TJ peanut-butter cups are deemed clear of that whole Salmonella scare, so no fear in baking with them either. They added just the right amount of peanut-buttery goodness to these brownies.

Unfortunately I cut them while still a wee bit warm, so the cups oozed out all over the place. Only really a problem in the photogenic sense, though, the oozey goodness was just fine in a brownie…


Peanut Butter Cup Brownies
(adapted from the lovely Ms. Dorie Greenspan)




Ingredients:
2 sticks unsalted butter, cut into 16 pieces
9 oz. bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 1/2 c. sugar
4 large eggs
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. salt
1 c. all-purpose flour
1 container Trader Joe's mini peanut butter cups (for you poor slobs with no TJs: that's about 3/4 c. chopped regular peanut butter cups)

Getting Ready: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 325 F. Line a 9-x-13-inch baking pan with foil, butter the foil and place the pan on a baking sheet.

Set a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Put the butter in the bowl, top with the chopped chocolate and stir occasionally until the ingredients are just melted - you don't want them to get so hot that the butter separates. Remove the bowl from the pan of water.

With a whisk, stir in the sugar. The mixture might get grainy, but it will even out. Whisk in the eggs one by one, then add the vanilla and whisk enthusiastically to smooth the batter. Finally, gently whisk in the salt and flour, stirring only until incorporated. Scrape the batter into the pan and smooth the top with a rubber spatula. Gently stir in peanut butter cups.

Bake the brownies until the top is dull and a knife inserted into the center comes out clean, usually about 40 minutes. Transfer the pan to a rack and cool the brownies to room temperature.

When they are completely cool, turn out onto a rack, peel away the foil and invert onto a cutting board. Cut into 32 slender rectangles, each roughly 2 1/4 x 1 1/2 inches.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

These look delicious! But if you like them chewy you might give this recipie a try:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/dave-lieberman/candy-bar-chocolate-brownies-recipe/index.html

The Snickers bars increase the chewy factor quite nicely. :)

Snooky doodle said...

wow these look so fudgey. I love these :)

Anonymous said...

I can not wait to try these...Thank you!!

Elyse said...

ooo, i cannot wait to try these! they look delicious! i just bought two bags of pb cups and have been looking for recipes in which to include them. guess i just found the perfect recipe!

Lisa Smith-Overton said...

I stumbled across your blog and I absolutely love your photos. I am dying to try the recipes you post. See your photos is enough to get me back into baking.

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