Peanut Butter Nougat Brownies

We are buried. For real we've gotten about 7 feet of snow in 3ish weeks and I keep finding myself stuck in the house. Even when I can go out, I'm kind of afraid because the snow banks are so tall it's a hazard to go to an intersection. Unless I'm in Dave's bright orange Jeep. But being stuck in the house means I have to occupy my time, so I might as well bake. Sigh. As a result I ended up with these delicious brownies with a layer of peanut butter marshmallow nougat through the center and I swooned. The brownies are a cross between fudgy and cakey, with a perfect chocolate flavor. And the peanut butter filling  shows up in every bite, so it's almost like the brownie equivalent of a Reese's cup. Which is to say these brownies are amazing.

Flipping through the King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion I found myself examining all the brownie recipes before settling on this on. The brownies start with the KAF On-the-Fence Brownies, part cakey and part fudgy because I couldn't decided which way to go. Then there's a layer of peanut butter nougat made with marshmallows and powdered sugar. The result is a cross between a brownie and a candy bar, and I'm totally ok with that. I use milk chocolate chips in the brownies, but I think next time I'd go with semi-sweet since the milk chocolate just melted away. I might even add some peanut butter chips to amp up the peanut butter flavor. Really can you go wrong with more chips of any kind?

Peanut Butter Nougat Brownies

Ingredients

1 cup butter
2 1/4 cups sugar
1 1/4 cups cocoa powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
4 eggs, room temperature
1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup chocolate chips
3 cups mini marshmallows
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/3 powdered sugar


Prepare brownie batter by placing butter in a medium saucepan and melting over low heat. Add sugar and stir to combine, stirring over low heat for a 30-45 seconds to melt the sugar. Mixture should become shiny but not bubble.

Remove from heat and stir in cocoa powder, salt and baking powder. Whisk in vanilla then eggs, one at a time, until smooth.

Stir in flour until combined, taking care not to overstir.

Fold in chocolate chips.

Pour half the batter into a lightly greased 9 x 13 inch baking pan, smoothing to an even layer. Set remaining batter aside.

In a medium saucepan, combine marshmallows, peanut butter and powdered sugar and melt over medium-low heat, stirring until smooth.

Spread in a layer on top of brownie batter, as evenly as possible since the peanut butter mixture is very sticky.

Top peanut butter layer with remaining brownie batter to coat.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 28-30 minutes or until top is set and a tester inserted in center comes out clean.

Remove from oven and cool in pan on wire rack before cutting into bars.

Makes 24 brownies.

Happy Baking,
The Cookie Princess

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