Apron Free Cooking ~ Peanut Butter Brownies

Bethany Gar­ber

Feb­ru­ary is a month ded­i­cated to choco­late. If you don’t believe me, take a walk through any store and take a look at all the pack­ages wrapped up in Valen­tine col­ors of red, pink and pur­ple. Choco­late of every style, fla­vor and com­bi­na­tion is wait­ing on the shelves tempt­ing you to put it all in your cart.

If you have a small level of resis­tance, you’ll be able to pass by the major­ity of these choco­late temp­ta­tions. Some­times, it’s nearly impos­si­ble to walk on by and not load up your bas­ket with these caramel and nut filled treats. I’ll admit I suc­cumbed to the lure of a bag of Milky Way candy bars on Saturday.

I’m think­ing it had a lit­tle bit to do with the red and shiny pack­ag­ing of the bite sized bars and a lot to do with the stress lev­els at work last week. I bought the bite sized bars, think­ing that I could share with other mem­bers of the fam­ily. At least, that’s the story I’m stick­ing with.

My friend, Amy, has a brownie recipe that tops even the pret­ti­est wrapped can­dies when it comes to irre­sistible choco­late. Hon­estly, there’s not much out there that can top choco­late and peanut but­ter com­bi­na­tions. The only thing that comes close is the choco­late and caramel com­bi­na­tion. I’m afraid that if some­body invents a choco­late, caramel, peanut but­ter com­bi­na­tion, I’ll be a lost cause of choco-holic-sugar-induced-comatose-zombie haze.

Peanut But­ter Brownies

1 pack­age brownie mix

¾ cup smooth peanut butter

2 cups frozen whipped topping

1 cup chopped wal­nuts or pecans

Pre­pare the brown­ies accord­ing to pack­age instruc­tions. Bake in an 8x8 inch bak­ing pan. Allow brown­ies to cool before spread­ing peanut but­ter on top of brown­ies. Top the peanut but­ter with a layer of the frozen whipped top­ping. Sprin­kle with chopped wal­nuts. Chill until ready to serve. Cut into 2 inch squares to serve.

Approx­i­mate Nutri­tional Val­ues: Serv­ings 9, Calo­ries 401, Total Fat 33g, Sat­u­rated Fat 7g, Cho­les­terol 28mg, Sodium 232mg, Total Car­bo­hy­drates 21g, Dietary Fiber 3g, Sug­ars 4g, Pro­tein 12g. Note that these val­ues are approx­i­mate and will vary based on the ingre­di­ents you select.

Make it a meal: Serve with your favorite cof­fee. Be pre­pared for peo­ple to beg for a sec­ond serv­ing. If you really want to make the dessert com­pletely deca­dent, driz­zle some choco­late or caramel syrup over the brownie.

A com­pletely irre­sistible dessert, peanut but­ter brown­ies will be a hit at your house. If you take them to a potluck, you’ll be bring­ing home an empty dish! The nice thing about this dessert, you can claim the pro­tein con­tent of the peanut but­ter as part of your nutri­tional require­ment. I’m not sure that will excuse eat­ing the entire pan in a sin­gle sit­ting, but if you wash all the dishes and there’s no evi­dence then who’s the wiser?

Noel Lizotte is break­ing free of cor­po­rate stress with con­ve­nience cook­ing! www.apronfreecooking.com

Posted by Noel Lizotte on Feb 21 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.