Hello hungry readers!  I didn’t forget about you, it’s just a little thing called “tax season” that I’ve been occupied with.  I hope you are all having a great week following Super Bowl Sunday!  I want to share a recipe for Peanut Butter Crunch Brownies I made this past weekend.  They were DELICIOUS!  Ridiculously gooey on the bottom with a crunchy peanut butter middle and topped with thick mound of peanut butter/chocolate goodness with pops of Rice Krispy cereal.  I’m drooling just thinking about them.  You HAVE to try these!  Without further ado…

Peanut Butter Crunch Brownies             Print Recipe

From howsweeteats

Ingredients

Brownies (bottom layer)

2-3 squares baking chocolate
1/2 lb butter
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon vanilla

Peanut Butter Crunch Topping

1/2 cup salted peanuts (if don’t have salted, add sea salt)
1 cup chopped Reese’s peanut butter cups    *I used a 10 oz bag, why not?!
1 1/2 cup milk chocolate chips    *I used 6, 1 oz squares of baking chocolate squares and a small handful of white chocolate chips because I forgot to buy chocolate chips
1 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 tablespoon butter
1 1/2 cups Rice Krispies Cereal

Directions

Brownies (Bottom Layer)

Melt butter and baking squares in a microwave safe bowl. In the mixing bowl, cream melted butter and chocolate mixture. Add in sugar and vanilla and beat until fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. Add in eggs, beating one at a time. Add flour and stir just until combined. Pour Batter into a greased 9×13″ baking dish and bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 25-30 minutes, until the center of the brownies are almost set. Remove pan from oven, but leave oven on.

Peanut Butter Crunch Topping

Top with peanuts and peanut butter cups and bake for 4-6 more minutes. Meanwhile, melt the chocolate chips with the peanut butter and butter in the microwave. Stir in the cereal.  Remove brownies from the oven and pour the chocolate cereal mixture over the top.

Place in refrigerator for 2 hours before serving.  Slice, serve, & enjoy!

Melt butter and baking squares over a double boiler or microwave

Add sugar and vanilla to the creamed butter & chocolate mixture

Beat until fluffy

Add the eggs, beating one at a time

Add the flour and stir until just combined

Pour into a 9×13″ baking dish and bake for 25 minutes or until the center of the brownies is fairly set

Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups are quite possibly my favorite candy

Chop the cups up

Take the brownies out of the oven (mine took about 30 minutes)

Top with peanuts and peanut butter cups

Melt chocolate chips (or baking squares), peanut butter, and butter

Stir in cereal

See the Rice Crispy cereal? It adds great texture to the top of the brownies!

The brownies after 5 more minutes in the oven. Melty goodness

Top with the chocolate cereal mixture and refrigerate at least 2 hours

Ready to eat!

Look at them!

Swoon

Yep, pretty much amazing.

In other news…

As I mentioned, it’s tax season.  So far it’s been going smoothly and I hope it remains so!  This is my 6th tax season and by now I know that it’s a 2 and a half month marathon.  I found a great idea for a visual motivator on Pinterest; the idea that I saw was for weight loss but I thought it would work great for a tax season countdown.   I started my countdown with 78 days remaining last Monday.  I took 2 glasses and started by filling up one glass with 78 beads, each bead represents one day of tax season.  At the end of the day I place 1 bead in the other cup.  That way I can visualize how many days I have left and how many days I’ve made it through!  It’s a nice to see the other cup fill up…11 beads so far!  Nerdy?  Probably.

My countdown glasses. The ribbons show where the line started at the beginning of my countdown. The glass on the left is how many days are left, the glass on the right is how many days I’ve gotten through!

11 days down!

Save