Peanut Butter Truffle Brownies

My roommate and her boyfriend had a dinner party the other night after decorating a Christmas tree and having a festive day. They made a ham and everything. I, of course, was designated to bring dessert. I picked this peanut butter truffle brownie recipe that I had saved earlier because it looked so delicious. It was fairly easy to make, which I was a little worried about because it looks so nice and fancy. But really, besides the time consuming part of waiting in between each layer, it was not hard to do. I got the recipe from this beautiful blog and followed the instructions almost entirely. The only thing I didn’t have was shortening for the top truffle layer, and I was thinking I could just use butter instead, but honestly the whole recipe used sooo much butter I couldn’t bring myself to even add more so I just left it out altogether. I also didn’t wait quite as long between layers for them to cool as I should have, because I was in a rush to get to the dinner in time. But it still worked out perfectly.

The brownie layer itself was so good that I will be using this recipe just for my normal brownies from now on. I think it was because the butter was still warm when I mixed in the sugar and eggs and everything and it was so gooey and thick.

Before beginning, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking pan with tin foil. I used an 8x8 because it was all I have.

This is the brownie layer:

1 cup butter

2 cups sugar

3 eggs

1 tablespoon vanilla

2/3 cup cocoa powder

1 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

I melted the butter in a pot on the stove and tried to let it cool a little before adding the sugar and eggs. Mixed it a lot extra vigorously, mostly just because I wasn’t positive that the butter wasn’t too hot to cook the eggs so I needed them to mix in fast. Then added the vanilla, cocoa powder, salt and baking powder and mixed them in too. Once that was all combined I added the flour slowly and mixed until combined. Poured into the pan and baked for about 35 minutes (I like brownies pretty moist, but you want to make sure they are firm enough to hold the other layers).

While they cool you make the peanut butter layer by just mixing together all ingrediants until smooth:

1/2 cup butter, at room temperature

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

2 cups powdered sugar

2-3 teaspoons milk

Spread it on top of the brownies. Be careful that the top of the brownies doesn’t get stuck to the peanut butter/knife and tear apart. Smooth flat and refrigerate until set.

While it’s chilling make the truffle layer by melting the ingredients together in a pot on the stove until smooth:

2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter

2 tablespoons heavy cream

Pour on top of peanut butter layer and spread to smoothly cover completely. Replace in refrigerator until hardened.

Slice into small squares, it’s very rich!