PB&C
I’m in the midst of peanut butter and chocolate withdrawal. Not in terms of eating the two ingredients, because they are both on my menu regularly. But rather in terms of just gravitating more towards the gorgeous fruits that are available right now when I head into the kitchen to bake.
I guess I knew it was time to bake a PB&C dessert when I started taking spoonfuls of peanut butter and piling chocolate chips on top. This does make for a mighty fine snack, but I thought it would be best to add some other ingredients into the mix.
I had some cream cheese leftover from a recent cheesecake recipe but I didn’t want another cheesecake. I was also in the mood for chocolate brownies, but this would not satisfy my need for peanut butter.
Finally, the light bulb in my mind went on and I knew what I needed to bake…PB&C Brownies. I know that there is cream cheese in the recipe, but PBCC&C just seemed like a really long name and now people can be surprised with a ‘secret’ ingredient…that isn’t really very secretive at all.
Peanut butter can, at times, take over as the flavor most remembered in some desserts. I did not want this to happen here, so I added a lot of chocolate chips to the peanut butter mixture. The PB simply had to make room for the C!
The end result is a moist brownie packed with the deliciousness that the star ingredients showcase best. Withdrawal is now officially over!
| PB&C Brownies | Print |
- Peanut butter layer:
- 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
- 1½ cups creamy peanut butter
- ¾ cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 egg, room temperature
- ¾ cup semisweet chocolate chips
- Chocolate brownie layer:
- 12 tablespoons (1½ sticks) unsalted butter
- 3 ounces unsweetened chocolate
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- ⅓ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 3 eggs
- 1¾ cups sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Preheat oven to 325°. Line 9” x 13” glass baking dish with aluminum foil and set aside.
- For the peanut butter layer:
- Place cream cheese, peanut butter, sugar and vanilla into large mixing bowl. Beat until blended together, about 3 minutes, scraping down the bowl as needed. Add egg. Mix in chocolate chips. Set aside.
- For the chocolate brownie layer:
- Melt butter and unsweetened chocolate together. Set aside.
- Whisk flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt together in a small bowl and set aside.
- Beat eggs and sugar together in large mixing bowl. Add vanilla. Blend in ½ of the dry ingredients, followed by the butter/chocolate mixture. Lastly mix in remaining dry ingredients.
- Evenly spread brownie layer onto bottom of prepared pan. Spoon peanut butter layer onto brownie layer. This will not spread.
- Use a spoon to marbleize the brownies, with an under/over motion. Do not overwork this or the end result will be blended brownies rather than marbleized.
- Bake in middle of oven at 325° for 45 minutes, rotating pan front to back halfway through.
- Remove from oven and cool completely before cutting.
- Betsy's tidbit:
- Don’t worry if you end up mixing the two layers together. The brownies will still be delicious, just with a different look.
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