Peanut Butter Crunch Brownies

Last week I tweeted that I wanted to bake Brown Eyed Baker’s Peanut Butter Cup Crunch Brownies. Not long after, a coworker responded that they sounded like heaven and I needed to share. Obviously that meant I had to bake them, and I had every intention of doing so – in a couple weeks. However, those plans changed when three days later, I gave my boss my two weeks’ notice.

I never anticipated staying in my job forever, but resigning is still such a weird thing to go through. It’s even harder when you’re happy in your job and love your coworkers. I started where I work four years ago and grew from an intern into a part-time employee and finally moved into my first full-time job, and I’ve definitely grown up a lot there. I’m excited about my upcoming opportunities though.

That said, I’m losing some of my best tasters by leaving my job. (Sure, I know I could take in baked goods to my next job, but I think I should wait a bit. I think it would be a little weird to show up on my first day with a bunch of cookies or brownies.) What this means is that I need to bake a lot of things to take into work the next couple of days. The first project? Brown Eyed Baker’s Peanut Butter Cup Crunch Brownies.

These brownies are nothing short of incredible – incredibly rich and decadent. It really is like biting into a giant Reese’s cup, except even better with the crunch from the peanuts and rice krispies!

I started with one of my favorite brownies recipe, King Arthur Flour’s Whole Grain Brownies. Yes. Brownies with whole wheat flour. That makes this recipe sort of healthier, right? Ha! I’m including that recipe here since it’s what I used.

Peanut Butter Crunch Brownies Recipe
Adapted from Brown Eyed Baker

• 1 9″x13″ batch of brownies (I used King Arthur Flour’s Whole Grain Brownies and highly recommend them!)
• 1/2 cup salted peanuts
• 8 Reese’s cups or about 20 bite-size Reese’s cups, chopped (easier if they’re slightly chilled)
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter (NOT natural peanut butter)
• 1 Tbsp butter
• 1 1/2 cup rice krispies cereal

1. Follow your brownies recipe as you normally would, but bake them about 5 minutes less than called for (18 minutes in my oven but yours may be different)

2. Remove the brownies from the oven, then top with the peanuts and chopped Reese’s cups. Return to the oven and finish baking.

3. While the brownies are finishing up, melt the chocolate chips, peanut butter, and butter over low heat. It should melt fairly quickly and be a little runny.

4. Stir in the rice krispies cereal.

5. When the brownies are done, pour the warm chocolate/peanut butter/cereal mixture over the brownies.

6. Cool for 20 minutes, then move to the refrigerator for at least 2-3 hours to finish cooling and setting.

Note: When you cut into the brownies, I suggest a rolling pizza cutter, if you have one. The crunch topping was a little tougher to cut into – though still very possible, but the rolling pizza cutter made slicing the brownies much easier.

Just look at that amazingly thick layer of peanut butter, chocolate and rice krispies on top of the brownies. Seriously.

I’m confident my coworkers will miss me just a little more because of these brownies. Mission accomplished.

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