Hershey Kiss Pumpkin Spice Stuffed FAT WITCH Brownies

It’s funny how the older my children get the more lessons that I learn from them.  Isn’t it supposed to be the other way around?  Aren’t I supposed to be the one TEACHING the lessons, not learning them?

A Pretzel Twist on the Peanut Butter Brownie Thing

If you’ve been reading my blog for any amount of time, then you know about my extreme love of brownies.

If not, you can read about it here…here…here oh and here.

I love brownies.

They are God’s sweet special gift just for me.

Bake Me Happy - Peanut Butter Swirled Brownies

It seems that lately the only thing on my mind is desserts. 

What kind can I make and when am I gonna eat them. 

That's it. 

Everything else seems to get lost in my thoughts of chocolate, cakes, brownies, truffles and the occasional cupcake. 

Like yesterday...it was Super Bowl Sunday and everyone around me was getting all caught up in the Pre-Game shows and the chips, dips, wings and big bowls of chili. 

I, on the other hand, was lost some where in a swirl of peanut butter and chocolate.  I dug through my kitchen frantically looking for some Reese's peanut butter cups to satiate my craving. 

But found none.  UGH! 

When out of the corner of my eye, I spotted my jar of Peter Pan Honey Roasted Peanut Butter.  Have you had this stuff?  I seriously love it.  Like floating red hearts in the sky kinda love.  It is totally swoon worthy! 

I figured I would just dunk a chocolate bar in the jar of peanut butter and shovel it in my face.  You know, old school style.  Pre-Reese's Peanut Butter cup style.  I admit it, I've been known to do this on occasion.   

Its cool, I'm not embarrassed about it.

One problem, NO CHOCOLATE BARS!  What tha?  I started to jump in my truck and drive off to the nearest grocery store and buy a pound of them when it hits me...

BROWNIES!  Oh yea bay-bee!  My fail safe dessert.  They never fail to deliver all my hearts sweetest desires of rich dark, gooey chocolate.  They are faithful like that and I love them for it.

So I busted out my tried and true recipe.  I've talked about this here in case you missed it :)  And mixed it all up and dumped it into my brownie pan.

I seriously saw the jar of peanut butter give me the "come hither" look while curling its finger at me gesturing for me to come and get it.  It begged me to put it into my brownie batter.  How could I deny it this wish?

And so I did!  And then I ate them...and felt good about it.  So good, I even shared a few...and they felt good about them too :)

Peanut Butter Swirled Brownies

by AKM designs and delights adapted from King Arthur Flour

Keywords: peanut butter chocolate brownie

Ingredients (12 large brownies)

• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
• 2 1/4 c. sugar
• 4 large eggs
• 1 1/4 c. Double-Dutch Dark Cocoa
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp espresso powder - I use Starbucks Via
• 1 TB vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
• 2 c. Ghirardelli dark chocolate chocolate chips
• 1/4 c. Peter Pan Honey Roasted Peanut Butter (or any other kind you may have)

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a 9" x 13" pan

In a medium-sized microwave-safe bowl, or in a saucepan set over low heat, melt the butter, then add the sugar and stir to combine. Or simply combine the butter and sugar, and heat, stirring, until the butter is melted. Continue to heat (or microwave) briefly, just until the mixture is hot (about 110°F to 120°F), but not bubbling; it'll become shiny looking as you stir it. Heating the mixture to this point will dissolve more of the sugar, which will yield a shiny top crust on your brownies.

While the sugar heats a second time, crack the 4 eggs into a bowl, and beat them with the cocoa, salt, baking powder, espresso powder, and vanilla till smooth.

Add the hot butter/sugar mixture, stirring until smooth.

Add the flour and chips, again stirring until smooth. Note: If you want the chips to remain intact in the baked brownies, rather than melting in, let the batter cool in the bowl for about 20 minutes before stirring in the chips.

Spoon the batter into a lightly greased 9" x 13" pan.

Melt Peanut Butter in a microwave safe bowl for approximately 30 seconds. You want in to be the consistency of syrup.

Drizzle thick lines over brownie batter and pull through with a knife to "infuse" into batter.

Bake the brownies for about 30 minutes, until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean, or with just a few moist crumbs clinging to it. The brownies should feel set on the edges, and the center should look very moist, but not uncooked. Remove them from the oven and cool on a rack before cutting and serving.

Enjoy with an ice cold glass of moo-juice (milk)!

Powered by Recipage

So where has your head been lately?  Are you dreaming up new decorating ideas or ways to decorate your your dessert ideas?

You may find this post partying in the following places:

Monday:  Debbie Doos - The Girl Creative - Skip to My Lou - Craft O Maniac - Lisa's Craft Blog - The DIY Show Off -Everything Under the Moon

Tuesday:  Not Just A Housewife - My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia - Clean and Scentsible - Crazy For Crust - recipes - Uncommon Designs

Wednesday:  Savvy Southern Style - Blue Cricket Design - Seven Thirty-Three - Someday Crafts - Michele Raven Designs/

Thursday:  Delightful Order - Something Swanky - Recipes - The How To Mommy - A Little Nosh          

Friday:  Finding Fabulous - Chic on a Shoestring Decorating - Fingerprints on the Fridge - Shabby Nest - Whipperberry – Miss Mustard Seed - French Country Cottage - Sweet Tooth Friday (Alli-n-son), 

I'm Lovin' it Fridays (TidyMom), Friday Favorites (Simply Sweet Home), Latest & Greatest Friday (Days of Chalk and Chocolate), Bacon Time, Fusion Friday (Jane Deere Blog). 

Bake me Happy - Dark Chocolate Brownies

Dark Chocolate Brownies

●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●

(infused with Raspberries and White Chocolate)

Are you the type of person to make the same New Years Resolution every year?  You know the one…the one that says that THIS. IS. THE. YEAR. that I will get in shape and lose weight.  Do you do that?  I do!  I always resolve that I will give up desserts but then that makes me all stressed out and unhappy.  You do know that desserts spelled backwards is stressed right?  I consider that to be a sign myself.  It doesn’t take much to make me give up on that resolution now does it?  HECK NO!  But!  I have made a valiant effort this time to get in shape…and I don’t mean the shape of an apple.  I do choose to go for a more hour-glass type of shape.  I don’t need to get all twiggy as I would have to give up food entirely and work out 12 hours a day to obtain that figure…and I still believe that I would look more “roundish” than “twiggish” even if I did the above mentioned types of torture to myself.  NOT COOL! 

However, I did start my resolution well before the New Year came into play this time.  I did this through December to help combat all the “holiday” eating that I succumbed too.  It’s a new type of torture.  They call it TRX (Total Body Resistance Exercise).  I call it the Try Really (hard to not die) Exercise.  It’s CRAZY HARD!  Its 45 minutes of butt busting, sweat pouring, can I actually die doing this, don’t laugh at me for crying kind of hard.  But I. LOVE. IT!  Yes, it’s true…I admit it.  Even though I have spent the better part of a month walking around like Gumby with every single inch (to include my hair follicles) hurting.  Note to self:  Don’t ever let yourself get so out of shape that your body hurts like this again.  Got it!?

So….while I was having one of my moments during TRX that caused my eyes to water because the sweat that was dripping into them was stinging…NO…I WAS NOT CRYING (that’s my story and I’m sticking to it)…a thought popped into my head.  It was the thought of super rich, ooey gooey dark chocolate brownies infused with raspberries and white chocolate and drizzled with more dark chocolate.  OH. EM. GEE!  Suddenly my eyes were “stinging” a little less…my butt was “lifting” a little higher and the “Burpies” (an actual form of exercise) were a touch easier to do.   I kept telling myself that if I could just make it to the end I would treat myself to just a bite of one of these decadent treats.  One measly little bite…I can do this!  *Do not judge me for my thoughts.  It beats sitting in the corner in the fetal position sucking my thumb crying for my mommy now doesn't it*  Alas, I survived yet another series of Try Really (hard to not die) Exercise.

Thus the brownies came to be. 

It started with my all time favorite brownie recipe.  You can find it here on King Arthur Flour's Website.  Then a jar of this...

     And a bag of these....

I love Ghirardelli chocolate don't you? 

So just whip up your favorite brownie recipe...or you can use the boxed kind.  In a pinch my go to brownie in a box is Ghirardelli's Double Chocolate.  I can't tell the difference between that and the homemade stuff so if your feeling lazy or just prefer the boxed stuff thats ok! 

Once you have your brownie batter all mixed up, add about a cup of the white chocolate chips in.

Mix it all up and pour the batter into your favorite pan.  My all time favorite is this one from Chicago Metallics.

Do you have one like this?  If not you simply MUST go get one now before going any further.  Its ok, I'll wait for you.  Go on.  This pan makes the BEST brownies ever if your addicted to the corners like my family is.  Every. Single. Brownie. has FOUR corners to enjoy.  Count that...FOUR!  YUM! 

So now that you've got your brownie batter in the pan, heat up about 1/4 cup of the Raspberry Preserves in the microwave to "loosen" the consistency.  You don't want it runny just a little smoother than straight from the jar.

Then drop them here and there by tablespoons on to your batter like so...

After that drag a knife through the batter to "infuse" the raspberry preserves into it.

Pop them in the oven according to the brownie baking directions and pace the floor while you wait for them to finish baking.  You'll want to pace for the full time as it burns calories so that you can eat more brownies.  This step is VERY important!

Let them cool, remove from pan and proceed to eat as many as you can with a glass of ice cold milk, or coffee or even a glass of wine.

But most of all...Enjoy them!

So tell me, what do you dream up during your killer work-outs...or just killer days in general.  Do you dream up new recipes or decorating ideas?  I'd love to hear about them!

You may find this post partying in the following places:

Monday:  Debbie Doos - The Girl Creative - Skip to My Lou - Craft O Maniac - Lisa's Craft Blog - The DIY Show Off

Tuesday:  Not Just A Housewife - My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia - Clean and Scentsible

Wednesday:  Savvy Southern Style - Blue Cricket Design - Seven Thirty-Three - Someday Crafts - Michele Raven Designs/

Thursday:  Delightful Order

Friday:  Finding Fabulous - Chic on a Shoestring Decorating - Fingerprints on the Fridge - Shabby Nest - Whipperberry – Miss Mustard Seed - French Country Cottage