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Brownies with Peanut Butter Cups

Prep 15 min · Cook 30–35 min · Makes one 9×9 pan (16 brownies) · Life stories: 0 · Convection: yes
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Ingredients

  • ¾ cup (12 Tbsp; 170g) unsalted butter
  • 4-ounce (113g) semi-sweet chocolate bar, coarsely chopped and divided
  • 2 cups (400g) granulated sugar
  • 3 large eggs, at room temperature (pocket eggs works here too)
  • 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
  • 1 cup (82g) unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1 cup (125g) all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 150g Trader Joe's mini peanut butter cups or Reese's peanut butter cups, roughly chopped (the original recipe calls for 225g semi-sweet chocolate chips — we know what we did)

Steps

  1. Heat the oven to 350°F on convection. Grease a 9×9-inch pan with butter.
  2. In a microwave-safe bowl, combine the butter and half (2 oz / 57g) of the chopped chocolate. Melt in 22-second increments at 50% power, whisking after each, until completely smooth. Yes, 22 seconds. The number has been calibrated.
  3. With the stand mixer's paddle, beat in the sugar at medium speed until completely combined, then whisk in the eggs and vanilla.
  4. Add the cocoa powder, flour, salt, the remaining 57g of chopped chocolate, and the peanut butter cups. Fold it all together with a silicone spatula or wooden spoon. The batter will be very thick — that's right. Spread evenly into the pan.
  5. Bake about 30 minutes, then toothpick-test the center: wet batter = not done; a few moist crumbs = done. Real-world calibration: about 25 minutes at 350°F convection, then another 5–10 at 325°F so the top doesn't get over-done.

✏️ The endless debate over whether cookies or brownies are better — and this, with peanut butter cups melted through it, tips the whole thing decisively toward brownies.

TIPS — from a person who has actually made this

  • Sift the flour through a colander — and send the cocoa through with it; cocoa clumps worse than flour.
  • Room-temp eggs: the pocket eggs technique (see cinnamon rolls) is fully approved here.
Brownies with Peanut Butter Cups
The cross-section, held aloft. Note the peanut butter cup pockets, and the storage container it is statistically unlikely to reach.
⚠ AI-Generated Nostalgia — 0% True

The Family Story Nobody Asked For

Every food blog has one. Ours is at the bottom, where it belongs, and was written by a robot with no family. Reading it is strictly optional and mildly discouraged.

Every brownie recipe descends from an Original Recipe, and the Original Recipe is always watching. This one called for 225 grams of semi-sweet chocolate chips, stated in the confident tone that originals use. We gave it 150 grams of peanut butter cups instead. What follows are the consequences.

My neighbor Gene — retired, permanently stationed at the fence — warned me the day the substitution was planned. 'You don't amend an Original,' he said, pruning nothing, holding shears he had brought for effect.

The butter and chocolate went into the microwave in 22-second increments at half power — a rhythm my family has kept for generations without knowing why, the way other families keep a folk dance, or a fear of specific birds.

Gene came over the day the first amended batch cooled. He ate one at the fence, facing away, out of respect for the Original. When he turned back around, he had signed nothing but agreed to everything. He took four more 'for Carol,' who does not live with him, and who — readers of the cinnamon roll page will understand — has done nothing to deserve them.

The Original Recipe never acknowledged the change. Originals don't. They sit in their cookbooks, confident and unrevised, while in kitchens across the Midwest their descendants quietly improve.

In conclusion, these brownies are a bridge between obedience and peanut butter, between 225 grams of what you were told and 150 grams of what you knew. The toothpick decides when it's over. The recipe is above, where you found it.

The End. The recipe was above, where you already found it.