Peanut Butter Fudge Pretzel Brownies.
Dear Monday.
Why must you ruin lives?
You do things like fling entire pots of coffee on the floor while leaving ugly droplets on that pretty white dress and don’t even apologize. Then you take a certain someone’s keys and lock them inside while that person is outside… and the oven is on with a big fat chicken roasting in pan way too small. Not cool.
I also hear that you silence alarm clocks and blow out flat irons and hide the toothpaste. And this morning you made my bed feel eight million times warmer and more comfortable than it already is and you made me hit snooze and you made me eat that piece of coffee cake while standing over the sink in my workout clothes. Then you made me lay on the couch with a second piece of coffee cake while I searched for Nick and Vanessa’s Dream Wedding and you even threw that cashmere blanket from Restoration Hardware on top of me and made me take a nap… even with my shoes still on.
And really… was it you that made Ari Gold run to Dana Gordon?? Probably. You’re a life ruiner. You and Regina George.
So now here I sit covered in cake crumbs with my eyes half shut and no sweat or remnant of a workout to speak of. Which you know… doesn’t really matter because I ate SO MUCH HEALTHY STUFF WHILE ON VACATION. Lots of salads and grilled chicken and steamed fish and tons of broccoli. That sort of stuff I eat everyday.
Or not.
But seriously Monday… what really ruffles my feathers is that you just couldn’t make that stupid wedding appear on TV one more time for me. Whatever. I even scrolled through the guide until August 12th and that took a whopping 13 minutes and guess what? No sign of it. Not that I want to see that mess but really… I do.
Even with the coffee cake and skipped exercise, this other thing you made me do is far worse. I wanted to talk about a healthy dinner recipe today but you made me post these pretzel brownie thingies that I made last week. Yeah. Those ones. The ones that are the perfect mix of sweet and salty. The ones that are easily reversible. The ones I planned to take on our trip but then… ate. All of them.
You probably made me do that too. You’re such a bad influence.
Peanut Butter Fudge Pretzel Brownies
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup butter, at room temperature
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 2 eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 3 tablespoons cocoa powder
- 2/3 cups chocolate chips, optional
- 1 1/2 cups creamy peanut butter
- 1/3 powdered sugar
- 1 3/4 cups crushed pretzel pieces
- 6 tablespoons butter, melted
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour an 8×8 baking dish and set aside.
- Combine melted butter and pretzel crumbs in a bowl until moistened. With the back of a spoon, press pretzels into the 8×8 pan making a crust. If pretzels seem loose, drizzle some additional melted butter over top of hit with a quick shot of non-stick spray.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, then add vanilla. With the mixer on medium speed, add in cocoa, flour and salt, mixing until combined – about 2 to 3 minutes. Fold in chocolate chips. Using a spatula sprayed with non-stick spray, evenly spread brownies on top of pretzel crust. Set pan on a baking sheet and bake for 25-30 minutes, or until brownies are baked through.
- When brownies have about 3 minutes left baking, melt peanut butter (I melted mine in the microwave in 30 second increments then stirring) in a bowl. Once melted, stir in 1/3 cup powdered sugar and mix until no lumps remain. Pour over warm brownies and spread evenly. Refrigerate brownies for 1-2 hours, then cut into bars and serve.
Notes
Did you make this recipe?
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I appreciate you so much!
Bye Monday. Go back from where ever you came from. [/donotprint]
279 Comments on “Peanut Butter Fudge Pretzel Brownies.”
These are AMAZING!!!! Just made them, and it appears that my husband just might propose to me for a second time….
Hahaha! This comment sealed the deal–definitely making these today!
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these look amazing! do these keep well? i want to ship them to a friend
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for the powder sugar you have 1/3 cup in one place and 2/3 cup in another how much sugar should it be
oops sorry, it is 1/3 cup. fixing now!
I’m in the process of making this recipe right now. My brownie batter looks significantly lighter than yours does. I followed your measurements exactly. Do you why this could be? Do you think I needed to add more cocoa powder?
I used dark cocoa powder which is probably why it appears darker. You should be good!
Why do you taunt me with such wonderful looking fudge brownies……..ooooooo
I LOVE this. Love love love.
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I made these last night to send to my friend for her birthday. I would advise against using natural peanut butter. I didn’t even think about it, so I used whatever PB I had and it would not firm up. The bars were in the freezer for hours, then in the fridge overnight and the PB layer was still gooey. They taste great but cutting them was a huge mess. Also, my peanut butter layer was way, way too thick. It may have been the type of PB I used (or maybe they wouldn’t firm up because this layer was too thick?), but I ended up having the peanut butter layer almost as thick as the brownies! Ultimately I would totally make these again, adjusting the type of peanut butter, and maybe the amount I spread on top.
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I made these yesterday and took them to work for my colleagues. They all loved them and I got several requests for the recipe. Not being American I had a few problems with how much of the ingredients to use.
I used 200 gram of peanut butter at most but the one homepage that I found that had a conversion value for peanut putter actually would have gotten me to 365 gram. Also not sure for the pretzels, I crushed about 100-150 gram of pretzels. Hope that helps other Non-Americans that would like to try the recipe.
after the second paragraph or so, i forgot you were blaming mondays for everything bad in the world and started to feel guilty and sad and confused because i didn’t know what i did to warrant such hate.
but then i realized that those brownies look divine and you can yell at me all you want as long as i’m eating one.
some time after that was when i realized the whole monday thing again. yeah.
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I made these last night and although I forgot to grease the pan before cooking (which made getting them out a nightmare), these were a hit at work! One question though. My peanut butter mixture didn’t harden. I left the entire thing in the fridge over night and it was still a gooey mess. Do you have any suggestions?
Oh man. So I’ve had this weird brownie craving for the past three days, but since brownies aren’t my usual sweet craving, I didn’t have a recipe on hand. I did, however, remember salivating over several recipes that you had posted for brownies over time. Alas, here I stood in my kitchen early this morning, mixing, measuring, and doing a little too much pretzel-dipped-in-batter-tasting. I KNOW these are going to be amazing because sweet and salty is the best combo everrrrr.
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I tried this over the weekend and as much as I wanted to like them, they were just bad! The brownie was mediocre at best, everyone thought the peanut butter layer was way too thick, and the pretzel crumbs didn’t stick at all and I ended up having to press them into the peanut butter on top. Great concept, but they were just messy and bland.
If I were going to try again (and I probably won’t), I would use a better brownie recipe, something that starts with melted chocolate rather than just cocoa powder. I’m not sure how I would fix the pretzel crust – maybe use more butter, completely pulverize the pretzels (rather than leaving some chunks like shown in the pics), and try baking it in advance like you would do a graham cracker crust.
Anyway, hope those tips are helpful for someone else.
I agree with you. I was excited to try them and they did not turn out well. Our three layers separated. We all agreed it needed a better brownie
Oh they look decadent! ok a guilty ramp up…. Filthy Brownies!
Cookie dough, rolos (add salt to make it like salted caramel), brownie mix. Layered. Baked. Served warm.
The recipe is here http://www.coffeetoastandlondon.com/2012/04/filthy-brownies.html and is a certain winner! Oh and one more thing… try them with Reeses Peanut Butter cups!
Laura x
Im in heaven. Your blog and recipes are the best.
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Umm, these definitely took care of my Monday blues. But how do you get your layers so perfect?! I have a giant mess, in my pan. . . luckily, I think I can call them “chocolate pretzel peanut butter swirl brownies” and pretend that’s what they were supposed to look like!
Also, I could not stop eating the batter. Hope the eggs don’t have salmonella . . .
DELICIOUSSSS. I wanted to eat the whole pan for myself. Wow so great, my family LOVES it. such a perfect combination with sweet, salty and uber nuttiness. :D
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Best ever! Yaaas perfect for the whole family!
Very sticky and thick brownie batter. It’s hard to spread over the pretzels without ruining them. I wasn’t expecting that so FYI.