Chubby Hubby Brownies

Real Life Fact #1: I'm obsessed with chocolate.
Real Life Fact #2: People flip over these truffles.
Real Life Fact #3: I love baking, hence this whole blog thing.
Real Life Fact #4: I'm in a wedding this weekend and need to fit into my dress that I purposely ordered too small.

What does all this mean to you? You get delicious brownies inspired by the aforementioned truffles.  What does it mean to me? That I love baking so much that I managed to make these AMAZING brownies, all while not having a single sample and sticking to my fruit-and-veggie only cleanse.

I'm pretty sure I'm a masochist.  Damn that bridesmaid dress.....

I kinda feel like a bit of a hypocrite by posting something I haven't even tasted, but trust me- I had plenty of sample testers and they all went away extremely happy.  Plus it's pretzels, peanut butter, and chocolate- how could it go wrong.

Inspired by this recipe, adapted from here

What You'll Need:
For the Brownies

• About 2 cups Pretzels (any shape- I used window pane)
• 1 stick (1/2 cup) Butter, chopped
• 2 oz Unsweetened Chocolate, chopped
• 4 oz Semi-Sweet Chocolate, chopped
• 2/3 cup Flour
• 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
• 1/4 tsp Salt
• 3/4 cup Sugar
• 3 eggs
• 2 tsp Vanilla

For the Filling

• 4 Tbsp (1/2 stick) Butter, melted
• 1/2 cup Powdered Sugar
• 3/4 cup Creamy Peanut Butter
• 1/4 tsp Salt
• 1/2 tsp Vanilla

What To Do:

1. Butter an 8x8 pan and then line with parchment (overhang by 2 inches on each side). The butter parchment (no need to butter overhang).  Preheat oven to 325F.
2. Melt butter and chocolates in a heat-proof bowl over simmering water, stirring until smooth.  Let cool. Then whisk in sugar, then eggs, and finally stir in vanilla.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. Add to chocolate mixture and stir until fully incorporated.
4. Set aside to make filling. Stir together butter, powdered sugar, peanut butter, salt, and vanilla until smooth.
5. Line the bottom of your prepared baking pan with pretzels.  Pour half of the brownie batter on top of the pretzels and smooth out.  Drop the peanut butter filling on top of the batter, about 1 Tbsp drops spaced 1 inch apart.
6. Top with the remaining brownie batter and then drop the remaining filling. Gently swirl peanut butter filling into batter with a butter knife, running the knife lengthwise and crosswise through layers.
7. Bake until it passes the clean toothpick test, about 45 minutes.  Allow to cool for at least 15 minutes before lifting out of the pan.  Cool completely before cutting and serving.

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