Let's not get all crazy technical here by telling us that a brownie isn't a cookie. We already got all kinds of heat about dictionary definitions, etc when we told the lucky recipients that they were receiving the results of our cookie-baking chaos. "Cookie baking?" they asked? "Cookie?" These are brownies!
Ungrateful little *censored*. We had it in our minds to snatch the batch back and run off with our "brownies."
If we have to get technical about it, let's just say that these Peanut Butter Cream Brownies are peanut butter cream and chocolate fudge "bar cookies" and be done with it. The bottom layer is a standard fudge brownie recipe that uses cocoa powder, but if you have your own favorite recipe, use it, keeping in mind that the brownies bake in a smaller pan. In other words, if your recipe goes into a 9x13 pan, make half of it.
The top layer is a peanut butter and cream cheese mixture, hence the name Peanut Butter Cream. We used crunchy peanut butter, not because we think tiny chopped hard things tainting peanut butter is okay, but because we used all the smooth peanut butter making regular peanut butter cookies.
Creamy Crunchy Peanut Butter Brownies
Preheat oven to 350°.
Grease and flour a square baking pan. We used a 9" pan because that is all we had, but an 8" pan means that the bake time will be longer and the brownies will be taller.
Sift together ½ c. all-purpose flour with 6 Tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder, ¼ tsp. baking powder, and a pinch of salt into a medium bowl.
In a separate bowl, stir together ½ c. (1 stick) melted butter, ½ c. granulated sugar, ½ c. packed brown sugar. Add 1 tsp. vanilla, then beat in 2 large eggs, one at a time, until well-blended.
Stir flour/cocoa mixture into butter/sugar mixture until well-blended. The batter is supposed to be super thick, so don't freak out. Spread into baking pan. It may require patience and muscle.
In a third bowl, beat together 1 8 oz. pkg. softened cream cheese, ½ c. crunchy peanut butter, ¼ c. granulated sugar, 1 large egg, 1 Tbsp whole milk, and ¼ tsp. vanilla until smooth and creamy. Pour on top of brownie batter in baking pan.
Bake for 40 minutes. Cool completely before cutting into bars.
1-25-2008 @2:33PM katie said... why????....wow
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12-13-2007 @3:01AM mr. O said... Hey...why isn't this filed under Food Porn, too? I haven't seen a brownie look that good EVER. I'm actually contemplating a trip to the market and it's midnight!
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12-13-2007 @5:22AM Tim said... My friends kid, Ethan, makes these. He calls them brookies. Ethan makes them with a chocolate chip topping.
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12-13-2007 @9:37AM thefishie said... It's almost time for my annual goodie delivery to several friends and this look so good I may have to change my menu to include it!
Thanks for sharing!
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12-13-2007 @1:07PM K said... I agree, Food Porn is long neglected and these qualify. Wow these look good. I have a box of frozen Trader Joe's "ready to bake" brownies and I bet I could just use the peanut butter topping right on top. Hmmmm.
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12-14-2007 @3:17PM Rita said... I made these last night, after I saw that picture and read the recipe I couldn't stop thinking about them. They're quite tasty, however I think the chocolate needs to be beefed up some, it gets lost behind the peanut butter. I even added a chocolate topping to mine and it still tastes more like a pb bar than a chocolate brownie- probably could use a bit more sugar too, as they're not very sweet to begin with, but the salty of the pb nearly cancels out any sweetness that did exist.
I'm going to try them again with semi-sweet bakers chocolate replacing the cocoa as well as some chopped chocolate in the brownie mix for texture and flavor.
Thanks for posting the recipe!
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12-14-2007 @3:20PM sarah said... thanks for trying them out, rita, and for coming back and giving us your review!
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12-23-2007 @8:19PM Timi said... These Brownies look delicious. I have a question...
I plan on making these tomorrow for a Christmas party at my job. I'm not a fan of using Cocoa powder. So I want to use real chocolate instead.
If I sub 3 cups of chocolate chips for the 6 TB of cocoa powder, will I need to reduce the sugar that's needed for the recipe?
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