Buckeye Brownies

Sometimes I want to eat brownies.  Sometimes I just want to eat brownie batter.  

Seriously, though. I LOVE brownie batter.  Yes, with the eggs.  This is the only reason I buy boxed brownie mixes, as the recipe I have for brownies from scratch is so easy to make.  When I want to actually eat brownies, I use the recipe for Evil Brownies - so called because you can't eat just one.

The past few weekends the hubby has asked for brownies.  I would bake a batch from a mix, sending some on the road with him when he leaves and taking the rest in to work for my coworkers to enjoy. I really don't eat a lot of brownies.  But, this weekend I realized that the only mix in the cupboard was for dark chocolate brownies.  I knew this wouldn't fly with the hubby.

The finished product.

The hubby loves peanut butter.  We go through several 40 oz jars of creamy Jif every month.  So, when I realized that I would have to make brownies from scratch, I decided to spruce them up a bit by adding some peanut butter chips to the mix. 

I knew I was going to frost these babies with some medium flavored chocolate buttercream; however, I decided they needed some more peanut butter goodness. So...before making the chocolate buttercream frosting, I made some peanut butter frosting.  Instead of washing my mixing bowl another time, I just made the chocolate frosting in the same bowl. 

Here are the recipes I used. I will admit - I guesstimated on the peanut butter measurements.

Evil Brownies

Evil because you can’t eat just one!

½ cup vegetable or canola oil

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 eggs

½ cup all-purpose flour

1/3 cup Hershey’s cocoa

¼ teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

Chopped nuts, chocolate chips, etc. (optional)

Preheat oven to 350*F

Blend all.  Stir in nuts, chips, etc.

Spread in a greased 9” square pan.

Bake at 350*F for 20-25 minutes or until brownie begins to pull away from pan edges.

Cool in pan.  Frost if desired.

Peanut Butter frosting

1 1/2 cup peanut butter

1 cup powdered sugar

½ teaspoon vanilla

3 Tablespoons unsalted butter

Mix well.

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

(Double batch measurements in parentheses)

Hershey’s cocoa

Light flavor 2 teaspoon (1/4 cup)

Medium flavor ¼ cup (1/2 cup)

Dark Flavor 1/3 cup (3/4 cup)

1 cup powdered sugar (2 2/3 cups)

3 Tablespoons unsalted butter (6 Tablespoons)

2 Tablespoons milk (4-5 Tablespoons)

½ teaspoon vanilla (1 teaspoon)

Put all ingredients in mixing bowl and mix well. 

For a glossier frosting, add 1 Tablespoon corn syrup.

Single batch makes 1 cup.  

Side note:  If you add nuts, they are boy brownies.  Without nuts - girl ones. My mom is the one who first told me that. lol