Peanut Butter Blondies with Milk Chocolate Frosting

peanut butter is delicious.

do i really need to say more than that?

i guess i'll give you a little bit more of a preface. good new buddy of BOOF, Scrimalls, was taking her big test and so I wanted to make sure that I made her something special and delicious to celebrate the culmination of the end of that test. I subtly asked her what her favorite flavor profiles were to get an idea of what i would make. she told me that she enjoyed mostly anything but especially peanut butter. Clearly, we were meant to be friends. So, I got to baking. I knew that I would make some standard Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip cookies but I also wanted to make something a little more special than that. I got to searching and found this gem...

Not only was I really excited to just make these from a pure "peanut butter gives me joy" standpoint, but I also was excited because I think this was actually the first thing that I made from Joy the Baker. Needless to say, I love her.

Ingredients
For the Blondies:

10 Tablespoons unsalted butter cut into 5 cubes

2 cups dark brown sugar

1 cup smooth and natural peanut butter

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

For the Icing

6 Tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

3 Tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 – 2 cups confectioners (powdered) sugar

3 Tablespoons milk

3/4 cup milk chocolate chips, melted-- I actually omitted this because I was lazy and just added some more cocoa as needed.

Directions

For the Blondies

1) Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

2) Grease a 9×13-inch pan (you can also line it with parchment paper...if you choose to do so)

3) In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt butter and sugar together until the butter is just melted.

4) Remove from the burner and allow to cool for 5 minutes, then add the peanut butter. Stir until incorporated.

5)Allow to cool for 5 minutes more, then whisk in the eggs and vanilla extract. Make sure it is cool because you don't want scrambled eggs!

6) Whisk together salt, flour and baking powder.

7) Add dry ingredients all at once to the wet ingredients. Stir until just incorporated.

8) Pour the thick batter into the prepared pan and smooth out. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a skewer inserted in the center of the blondies comes out clean. Remove from the oven and allow to cool (really, let it cool).

Directions for the Milk Chocolate Frosting

1) In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat together the butter, cocoa powder and salt.

2) Add 1/2 cup powdered sugar followed by 1 tablespoon milk. Beat well.

3) Add another cup of powdered sugar, followed by 2 tablespoons of milk.

4) Add cocoa powder as necessary and beat to incorporate.

5) Add the final 1/2 cup of powdered sugar if you need a bit more thickness. Spread evenly over peanut butter blondies.

6) Oh my goodness, please go Share and ENJOY!!!

These were delicious. yeah, they were really good. If you don't like peanut butter, than you obviously will have some issues with this but really, these were delicious. go make some. I'm also going to try and attempt to find away to make these gluten-free...I feel like it wouldn't be that hard with all the peanut butter.




Posted: 12/29/10
Made: 10/06/10