Cookie butter cup fudgy brownies

Love chocolate and cookie butter together? This is the recipe for you. Cookie butter cups evenly spaced throughout the batter provide a surprise in every brownie bite.

So the name for these might be a little awkward. The original name was chocolate peanut butter surprise brownies and I used the base of that recipe for these because it’s one of my favorite brownie recipes ever. You know how I love my brownies, so that’s saying a lot.

But instead of peanut butter cups, I went with these cookie butter cups, another product extension I found when I was at Trader Joe’s. You’d think they’d run out of ideas of what to do with cookie butter but they keep proving me wrong. Once again, those Trader Joe’s people know what they’re doing.

The original recipe for these brownies calls for aligning the candy cups in 3 rows of 4 or 4 rows of 3, it doesn’t matter. If you want to have one candy cup in the center of each brownie square, that actually makes for rather big pieces. I try to do at least 4 rows of 4 or, if you want decently small brownie squares just a little bigger than the candy cup, 5x5 works as well. The tricky part is cutting them so that each candy cup is at the center of each square. This is the stage I often mess up. Especially if I’m not doing 4x4 or 5x5 arrangements.

To increase your chances of cutting these correctly, use slightly more than half the batter as the bottom layer, arrange the candy cups evenly spaced then cover with the remaining batter. However, don’t cover it so thickly that you can’t see the indentations or “lumps” where the candy cups are. When done properly, after the brownie has baked, you should see enough of an indentation from most of the candy cups that you know exactly where to slice the brownie. If you cover them too much and the batter smooths into an even top, it isn’t the end of the world though. It just won’t be a “surprise” that there’s a candy cup inside the brownie because you’ll be able to see it from the cut edge.

As you can see, I didn’t follow my own advice in not covering the candy cups completely. Yup, messed up the cuts. Oops. I can’t say taste-wise that this experiment with the cookie butter cups was a success either, at least not to my taste buds. The brownie itself I still loved because it has the best fudgy texture and rich decadent chocolate taste. The cookie butter flavor, so beloved when I’m eating it with flavors more on the vanilla side of the spectrum, didn’t work for me in a dark chocolate brownie. Turns out I’m rather consistent that cookie butter and chocolate don’t go together for me. It’s time for them to break up. But, still, it was worth trying and I got an excuse to make one of my favorite brownies again. 

Cookie butter cup fudgy brownies 
Recipe adapted from The Good Cookie by Tish Boyle

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
5 ounces unsweetened chocolate
1 cup all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons Dutch-processed cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 large eggs
1-1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
16 miniature peanut butter (or cookie butter) cups

1. Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Line a 9-inch square pan with aluminum foil so that the foil extends 2 inches beyond 2 opposite sides of the pan. Lightly spray with nonstick cooking spray.

2. Place the butter and chocolate in the top of a double boiler over simmering water and heat, stirring occasionally, until melted and smooth. Remove the pan from the heat and cool the chocolate mixture until tepid.

3. Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt into a medium bowl. Stir until blended.

4. In the bowl of an electric mixer, using the whisk attachment, beat the eggs at medium speed until blended. Gradually beat in both sugars, mixing just until blended. Using a wooden spoon, stir in the chocolate mixture and vanilla extract. Stir in the flour mixture, mixing until blended.

5. Scrape half of the brownie batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Arrange the peanut butter cups evenly over the batter, in four rows of four cups each. Press down lightly on each cup. Scrape the remaining batter over the cups and carefully spread it into an even layer, without moving the cups. Bake for 45 to 50 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of the brownies comes out with a few moist crumbs clinging to it. Cool the brownies completely in the pan on a wire rack.

6. Using the ends of the foil as handles, lift the brownies out of the pan. Cool completely before cutting into squares.

Related post on The Pastry Chef's Baking: Chocolate Peanut Butter Surprise Bars