Well, this was supposed to be a Cinqo de Mayo post, but Nate took the pictures I needed off of his camera and put them on his computer before I had a chance to get them. I was excited about being so blog-conscious, doing a mexican-inspired meal on Cinqo de Mayo, but he screwed it up :( (don’t worry, Nate, I forgive you, but you better not do it again) …so instead, I bring you dessert.
I decided on a whim the other day to reward Nate with some homemade brownies. I rarely make them from scratch, as I find the boxed ones to usually be superior. However, i thought I’d give them a shot.
Nate loves chocolate-mint, so my first inclination was to make an andes mint brownie. Sounds tasty, right? But then I remembered that we had tons of leftover, stale cookies that are basicaly the TJ’s version of Tagalongs. They were ok, but I thought that in a brownie, they’d taste much better :) To amp up the peanut butter flavor, I also decided to make a layer of pb swirl on top.
Let me tell you, these turned out totally delicious. You could definitely substitute another cookie in here…although I happen to think that a chocolate covered cookie would work best so that it melts a little.
And you could easily omit the pb topping. But that would be stupid.
Enjoy!
Peanut Butter Tagalong-Wannabe Brownies
Recipe by Me
Makes 16
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine, melted + 2 Tbsp, butter melted
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
1/2 cup all-purpose flour + 2 Tbsp flour
1/3 cup Cocoa
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
12 Tagalong (or similar) cookies
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup confectioners sugar
Heat oven to 350°F. Grease 8-inch square baking pan.
Whisk together 1 stick melted butter, sugar and vanilla in bowl. Add eggs; whisk well. Stir together 1/2 cup flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt; gradually add to egg mixture, beating until well blended.
In a smaller bowl, microwave peanut butter and 2 Tbsp butter for 30 sec – 1 min or until melted. Whisk in confectioners sugar and 2 Tbsp flour.
Pour 1/3 of chocolate batter into pan and spread out. Place the 12 cookies evenly over the batter and press lightly down. Put rest of chocolate batter evenly over cookies and lightly spread without disturbing the cookies.
Put blobs of the pb batter on top of the chocolate. Don’t worry about it looking nice. Using a knife, drag it through the pb and chocolate batter, creating a marbling effect. Tap pan on counter to get all air bubbles out.
Bake 25-30 minutes or until brownies are set and a toothpick comes out clean. Cool completely in pan on wire rack before cutting.
