Mom's Cooking Club: January 2012

I'm back!!!!! Wow! It's been over 2 months since I last posted anything. I attempted to do the 12 Weeks of Christmas Cookies. I only got to week 7. I tried to keep up. I wanted to add recipes to my blog. But then, life happens. Since August I had been studying for a huge certification exam for work. It took over all my spare time. There wasn't much cooking or baking going on. Honestly, on top of all my other responsibilities (full-time job, teenage daughters, husband, home), I just couldn't blog anymore.

Well, I'm happy to report that I passed my certification test a few weeks ago. I earned my PHR certification! (Professional in Human Resources) It was really a big accomplishment for me. I graduated college 25 years ago (yikes!) so it's been quite a long time since I've had to study. But it's over and now I can get back to my "normal" life.

I hope I still have some visitors to my blog. Because you don't want to miss these fantastic little peanut butter and chocolate brownie bites. Can I just say they are AWESOME! They are very rich. I had to down 2 glasses of milk after I just ate one.

Perfect bite size dessert for this weekend's Super Bowl. These will be making an appearance at my office Super Bowl food day later this week.

I found this recipe on Pinterest. I am new to Pinterest and it is really fun and addicting. This is a simple recipe. It uses a box brownie mix. I recommend Ghirardelli Double Chocolate Brownie mix but I'm sure any boxed mix or even a from scratch recipe will work just fine.

Mini Peanut Butter Brownies

Recipe by Baked Perfection

Makes 30-40 mini brownies

Ingredients

1 box of your favorite brownie mix (I used Ghirardelli Double Chocolate)
1/2 cup peanut butter chips
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
3/4 cup creamy peanut butter

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray or grease 30-40 mini-muffin cups.

Prepare boxed brownie mix as directed. Spoon batter evenly into muffin cups (about 1 heaping teaspoon). Bake for 13-15 minutes or until top is set and a toothpick inserted into center comes out slightly wet. After brownies are out of the oven, wait for centers to fall. This will happen upon cooling. If not then tap the centers with the back of a teaspoon to make a hole for the peanut butter.

***I had to use a back of a spoon to push down the centers to form a well to hold the peanut butter and chips. Do this while the brownies are still warm.

Place peanut butter in a small microwave-safe bowl. Microwave on high for 45 seconds then stir. While brownies are still warm spoon about half to one teaspoon of peanut butter into the center of each brownie. Top with semi-sweet chocolate chips and peanut butter chips. Cool completely in pan.

To remove brownies, take a sharp knife and go around edge of brownies to loosen from pan. They will pop out easily. They also need to cool in the pan before removing or they will fall apart.