Peanut Butter Blondies

Honestly, this one has been a long time coming. I first made these as a Secret Santa present for someone before Christmas. I meant to write the blog, but never got around to it. Fortunately, another opportunity presented itself in the form of a birthday party for Mary and a few of our friends. We decided to make it a dessert party, so along with these we had many other tasty things to eat.

We also had a bounce house and a piñata, but that’s another blog altogether.

The pictures at the top and bottom of the finished product are from this past weekend. The process pictures are from the Secret Santa. They both turned out pretty much the same though.

Anyway, here’s how to make these. The majority of this recipe comes from Joy the Baker. Any tweaks I might have added probably came from me not wanting to measure correctly.

Enjoy!

 

YOU WILL NEED:

For the blondies…

• 10 tbsp butter
• 2 cups brown sugar
• 1 cup peanut butter
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla
• pinch salt
• 2 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking powder

And for the frosting…

• 6 tbsp butter
• 3 tbsp cocoa powder
• pinch salt
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• ~3 tbsp milk
• 1 cup chocolate chips

YOU WILL NEED TO:

1. Preheat oven to 325.
2. Melt the butter and sugar (from the blondies list) in a largish saucepan. Remove from heat when the butter is completely melted. Let cool for a few minutes.
   
3. Stir in the peanut butter until it is completely melted. Let cool for a few more minutes.
   
4. Whisk in eggs and vanilla. (The cooling was to prevent the egg from cooking when added.)  
5. Add salt, flour, and baking powder and stir together until all dry ingredients are mixed in. Don’t overstir!
    
6. Pour batter into a greased 9x13 pan. You can also spread some parchment paper underneath it – but be sure to grease that as well. It’s pretty thick, so you’ll have to do some spreading. (These pictures are from the first time I made it. The second, more recent time, I did not use parchment paper, and they came out just fine. So you have options!)
    
7. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Use a toothpick to check for goop. If you have goop, keep cooking.
8. While the blondies are baking, start on the frosting. Put the chocolate chips in a microwave-safe bowl, then into the microwave for 30 seconds. Stir until melted. 
9. In a different bowl, beat together the butter (helps to soften it first), cocoa powder, and salt.
10. Add the powdered sugar and milk. Continue beating.
11. Add melted chocolate from step 8. Beat it up. Add more sugar/milk if you need more thickness/runniness, respectively.
     
12. Spread over the top of the blondies.
    My method here is to heat up the frosting slightly, then pour it over the top of them. If you need these right away, though, that is not the best idea. If you need them the next day, or in a couple of hours, then go for it. It should cool down enough by the time you need it.
13. Cut them up, and eat them up. Sprinkle some more powdered sugar over the top of them if you like.