We’re not on a diet today. This is the real deal. The obnoxiously fudgy dense brownies completely overloaded with chocolate and swirled with an awesomely rich peanut butter filling and—wait for it—filled with chopped peanut butter cups. If you listen closely, you can hear your bikini running away in fright. I label them “mega” because they’re one of the richest desserts to come out of my oven. The base of the brownies is this homemade brownies recipe, though I add a little more chocolate. If you’ve tried that brownie recipe before, you can imagine how “mega” the peanut butter swirl version is! I made the first batch of mega peanut butter swirl brownies nearly a month ago when our friends came to visit. I knew neither Kevin nor I could be trusted with an entire batch just to ourselves and I’m going to warn you now—make sure you’ve got company coming over or a large group to help you snack on these! Self control seems to run for the hills. So here’s how we’re going to make them… Whip up the homemade brownie batter. That’s easy. Curious about the ingredients and why each is important? You can review my homemade brownies post for more. Add chopped peanut butter cups. ♥ And if you love them in these brownies, you’ll love them in my peanut butter cup crunch brownies, too! Prepare the epic PB swirl next. There’s a lot of it because we want mega peanut butter swirls in every single bite. Clearly, we’re not skimping on anything today. Only 4 ingredients needed for the peanut butter swirl: creamy peanut butter, confectioners’ sugar, butter, and vanilla extract—pretty much the same ingredients we use for peanut butter balls and peanut butter eggs, too. You’re using butter and vanilla in the brownie recipe anyway, so really it’s just 2 additional ingredients. The easiest way to combine them all is using a mixer.
How to Perfect the Swirl
Since we’re making a super mega dessert, we want to make sure it looks pretty darn good too. The swirling part is an art, but one you can easily master on the first try. All you do is randomly drop spoonfuls of brownie batter and spoonfuls of peanut butter batter into the lined brownie pan. It’s going to be super haphazard like so: Save a couple spoonfuls of brownie batter to fill in any gaps or cover any heavy peanut butter sections. Then take a knife and run it up and down both horizontally and vertically, creating swirls of the two batters like so: Easy stuff, right? Sprinkle the pan with a couple leftover chopped peanut butter cups and pop into the oven. This brownie recipe, without the peanut butter swirl, takes about 30-32 minutes. The peanut butter swirl adds a couple minutes to the bake time. But I urge you to watch the brownies themselves—not the clock. The bake time is simply a guideline and you shouldn’t be surprised or alarmed if the brownies take longer or shorter. You’ll know the brownies are done when the top looks set. Test them using a toothpick. If there is wet batter on the toothpick, the brownies need more time. If there are a few moist crumbs on the toothpick, the brownies are done. If the toothpick is clean, the brownies are overdone. So keep your eyes on these!
How to Neatly Cut Brownies
Another art you can master on the first try! That’s all, folks! My last piece of advice: have a mega glass of milk handy. Or at least some sweatpants.
