Peanut Butter Cup Crunch Brownies

It’s the last day of the year for us at work at the graduation ceremony is tonight! I still work in the summer but a lot less, and I am really looking forward to a little more time off. For this week’s cookie, I wanted something nice and decadent. This brownie recipe came up in my Pinterest feed recently and they looked perfect. 

These care certainly decadent and they require a lot of ingredients: lots of chocolate chips, unsweetened chocolate, peanut butter, peanut butter cups, crispy rice cereal. They are made in a couple of stages, the brownies, then the peanut butter cups, then the topping. It would be difficult to make these and cut them on the same day, especially if you typically bake in the evening like I do. These are not bars that you want to try and cut when they are even the least bit warm. The brownies are fudgy and cut best when room temperature (or colder).

These bars, as they have so many ingredients, weigh a ton. Thankfully, they cut beautifully, and you want to cut them into small squares. The bars are soft, with the fudgy brownies and peanut butter cups, but the crunchy peanut butter and the crispy rice cereal add a good crunch. You can use whatever chips that you have on hand for the topping, but I used regular semi-sweet chocolate chips. I really like these decadent bars, and they are a perfect way to end the school year. 

Peanut Butter Cup Crunch Brownies

3/4 cup butter

4 ounces unsweetened chocolate

1 cup chocolate chips

4 eggs

3/4 cup sugar

1 cup packed brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 cup cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

10 Reese’s peanut butter cups, Chopped

1 1/2 cups chocolate chips

1 1/2 cups chunky peanut butter

1/2 tablespoon shortening

1 1/2 cups crispy rice cereal

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9” x 13” baking pan with foil and spray the foil with nonstick cooking spray.

 In a small saucepan, combine the butter, unsweetened chocolate, and chocolate chips. Heat on medium low, stirring frequently, until the mixture is smooth. Set aside.

In a large mixer bowl, using the whisk attachment, beat the eggs, sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla on medium until light. The mixture will be a pale yellow. Add the melted chocolate mixture and beat again on medium until combined.  Add the flour, cocoa powder, and salt and mix on low until combined. Spread the batter in the prepared pan. 

Bake the brownies for 25 minutes. Remove from the oven and sprinkle with the chopped Reese’s peanut butter cups. Bake for an additional 5 minutes. 

As the brownies finish baking, make the topping. In a medium saucepan, combine the chocolate chips, peanut butter, and shortening. Head on medium low, stirring frequently, until smooth. Remove from the heat and stir in the crispy rice cereal.     

When the brownies come out of the oven, spread the topping evenly over the brownies. Cool overnight, or in the refrigerator for at least two hours before cutting into bars. 

Recipe from Serena Bakes Simply from Scratch