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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White Chocolate & Raspberry “Brownies”, originally uploaded by the boastful baker.

I really shouldn’t call these “brownies” at all since there’s pretty much nothing brown about them. But they’re adapted from Dorie Greenspan’s “White Chocolate Brownies” recipe in Baking: From My Home to Yours.

When I got this book last month, this was one of the recipes I immediately wanted to bake. However, her version was thinner & denser and called for a soft meringue top. I knew I didn’t want that as I prefer my meringue a bit crunchier. I also didn’t really see the need for meringue at all because the batter has ground almonds, white chocolate & raspberries…there’s enough going on there without the meringue.

I set out to bake these early one afternoon before heading off to work…but I didn’t have enough eggs in the house to bake them. I didn’t particularly feel like running out to the grocery store…so I edited the recipe. This could have been a complete failure. Luckily it was not. These did take a while to bake and seem almost underbaked despite a nice crunchy top. I like the underbaked thing…if you don’t, bake them a little longer. I stored them in the refrigerator as they were pretty fragile at room temperature. I’ll definitely make these again in the future as they were a nice change from normal brownies…still just as good but far less decadent tasting.

Here’s my slight adaptation of the recipe (once again, the original is in Dorie Greenspan’s Baking: From My Home to Yours):

Ingredients:

• 2/3 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
• 2/3 cup finely ground almonds
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 6 ounces white chocolate, chopped
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon lemon extract
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup fresh or frozen raspberries
• 3 ounces white chocolate chips

Directions:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Spray an 8-inch square baking pan with nonstick cooking spray. Line baking pan with two sheets of aluminum foil arranged perpendicular to each other. Spray foil with nonstick cooking spray.

Whisk together flour, ground almonds, salt and baking powder.

Melt butter in microwave.  Add the 6 ounces white chocolate to the melted butter and whisk until smooth. If butter is not quite warm enough to melt the white chocolate, microwave for just 10-15 seconds more (since white chocolate is finicky! It scorches easily!). Set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle or whisk attachment, beat the sugar and eggs together on medium-high speed for about 3 minutes (they should be pale and foamy).  Beat in the lemon and vanilla extracts and sour cream. Reduce the speed to low and blend in the melted butter and white chocolate mixture. With mixer still on low, mix in the dry ingredients, stirring only until they are just mixed. Fold in the 3 ounces white chocolate chips. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and sprinkle the raspberries evenly over the batter.

Bake until the top is light brown and the brownies start to pull away from the sides of the pan, about 40-45 minutes (a toothpick inserted into the center of the pan should come out mostly clean). Cool completely on a wire rack. Remove from pan and cut into bars of desired size. Store in refrigerator as they’re very soft at room temperature.

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