Chocolate is good by itself. So is peanut butter. But they’re both better together.

I hoard Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. For this recipe and this recipe alone. After Halloween, I bought at least 10 bags of them on sale. Hopefully they’ll last for most of the year.

These peanut butter cup brownies have been begging to be posted for about a year now and I’ve never gotten around to it…in large part because I never got around to writing down the exact recipe. One of the pictures here was posted on Slashfood’s Feast Your Eyes blog yesterday so I now feel the need to follow up that mention with a proper recipe.

I brought baked goodies to people at my old job pretty frequently and these were one of the most requested items. Even the guys that worked in the kitchen begged for them on occasion. As a last treat before I left that job, I baked a batch for them.

The base recipe for these is from Baking Illustrated’s Chewy, Fudgy Triple-Chocolate Brownie recipe. I’ve made a few alterations.

Peanut Butter Cup Brownies

Ingredients

• 8 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into chunks
• 4 tablespoons cocoa powder (I use a mixture of Hershey’s regular & Penzey’s Dutch Process)
• 1 1/2 tablespoons instant espresso powder
• 3 large eggs
• 1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup creamy peanut butter
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup all-purpose flour (I only use unbleached)
• 8 or 9 regular size Reese’s peanut butter cups, coarsely chopped

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray an 8″ square baking pan with nonstick cooking spray.
2. Microwave chocolate chips and butter in microwave for about 45 seconds. If not mostly melted, microwave for 20 more seconds. Stir until smooth. Whisk in the cocoa powder and espresso powder. Set aside.
3. Whisk together eggs, sugar, vanilla extract, peanut butter and salt until combined.
4. Whisk the warm chocolate mixture into the egg mixture.
5. Stir in the flour until just combined.
6. Fold chopped Reese’s peanut butter cups into batter.
7. Pour mixture into prepared pan, spread evenly and level the surface with a rubber spatula.
8. Bake approximately 35-40 minutes. Brownies will be slightly puffed and a toothpick inserted into the center should come out mostly clean.
9. Cool to room temperature for about 2 hours. Cut into 1″ squares. Store in a tightly sealed container, preferably in the refrigerator.

A couple of side notes that you don’t necessarily have to listen to:

• I freeze the Reese’s cups. Freezing them works well as they’re easy to chop when frozen..especially if it’s summer and your kitchen is blazing.
• You really shouldn’t cut these into squares larger than 1″. They’re really rich and decadent and one small square is more than ample.
• You could use fancy chocolate in these but I don’t. Nestle chocolate chips work just fine.
• Don’t overbake them…or any other brownies. Brownies should be moist and sort of chewy. Not dry and hard.

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