Two-Bite Peanut Butter Brownies

Seeing as today is Remembrance Day and a statutory holiday, my whole family spent the day at home relaxing. I decided that I would use the opportunity to bake and revisited the idea of peanut butter brownies. This was not my first attempt; previously I attempted making peanut butter swirl brownies. I don't know what went wrong last time but somehow the brownies turned out extremely greasy. Of course my brother and his friends didn't mind, and ate up the entire pan, but I personally couldn't handle more than one bite.

Even so, I decided that I would attempt to make this tasty little treat once more. This time the brownies turned out much better, although they were quite difficult to remove from the pan. I baked them in a mini muffin tin and I didn't feel like making two batches so I kind of overfilled them. I think this contributed to the difficulty in later removing them from the pan because the edges puffed out and created little muffin tops which were kind of sticky due to the peanut butter. Still, it was yummy and that's what I was going for.

Two-Bite Peanut Butter Brownies

For the brownies:

• 5 oz. (150 g) bittersweet chocolate
• 1/2 cup butter
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt

For the peanut butter:

• 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
• 8 oz. (1 block) cream cheese, softened
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 tbsp milk
• 1/4 tsp vanilla

1. In a double broiler, heat the butter and chocolate until evenly melted and combined. For set up of the double broiler see the chocolate covered strawberries post.
2. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour and baking powder. Add the salt and mix together.
3. In a large bowl, whisk the sugar into the melted chocolate. Whisk in the eggs and vanilla.
4. Slowly whisk in the flour mixture and continue until all of the dry ingredients are well incorporated.
5. Spray the mini muffin tin with nonstick spray and then evenly divide the batter amongst the cups. I made 24, filling them quite full, but if you fill them only halfway (like you're supposed to) it actually makes close to 40.
6. Beat all of the peanut butter ingredients together until creamy. Spoon on top of the brownie mixture in each cup, covering so that you can't see any chocolate underneath.
7. Bake for 10-12 minutes at 400 degrees Fahrenheit, or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. The tops will start to crack, making it easy to slide a toothpick into the chocolate alone.
8. Cool before removing from the pan.

Note: You can also make this in a large 8 x 8 pan by pouring out the entire brownie batter and then evenly spreading the peanut butter over top. Bake for about 40-45 minutes at 400 degrees Fahrenheit.