Peanut Butter Cup Brownies

My little guy has recently learned the word, "no." Or "no, no" to be exact. He says it all the time. Some examples:

"Let's go change your diaper." His response? "No, no."

"Please eat your green beans."
"No, no."

He will act like he is going to bite me, stop, pull back, and then say, "no, no." At least he has that one right. :)

Anyway.... recently, one of the wonderful bloggers I follow posted these brownies. Which are based on THESE brownies by my favorite blogger ever, Pioneer Woman. If you don't know who Ree is, get your hiney over to her site ASAP. She is amazing. I love, love, LOVE her site. I hope to one day win a cooking weekend at her ranch. But until then, I will keep reading her blog and anxiously await the start of her show on the Food Network.

Ree titled these brownies "Knock You Naked Brownies." And for good reason. They are spectacular. So, Kristan adapted those brownies and used Rolos in the middle. The Rolos in the middle make the brownies so scrumptious, that it got me wondering what else would be great stuck in the middle between two fudgy brownie layers.

I then spent the next day in the candy aisle at Wal-Mart for 15 minutes trying to decide what other candy I could use. So far I have tried 2 of the 5 varieties I bought. The first two batches I made I used Rolos. The next I used Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Minis! Below is a kinda-sorta step by step of how to make them. Enjoy!

Peanut Butter Cup Brownies
1 box Fudge Cake Mix
1 stick of butter, melted
1/3 c evaporated milk
1 bag Reese's Peanut Butter Cups Mini (The wonderful thing about these is that they are already unwrapped!)
1/3-1/2 cup peanut butter chips

First, open your bag of peanut butter cups. Eat 3. Put aside for later.
Preheat your oven to 350. Either generously spray an 8x8 pan, or line it with foil (I did this-so much easier to cut up). Mix cake mix, melted butter, and evaporated milk until combined and the cake mix is no longer powdery. Divide dough in half. Press half into the bottom of the pan, making sure it is relatively even. Bake for 8 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool for about 10 minutes. After your 10 minutes is up (and you've snuck a couple more peanut butter cups...), put the peanut butter cups on top of the brownie layer. I believe it took me a little less than 60 to cover the brownies. Then sprinkle peanut butter chips into the spaces between the cups, as seen in the picture below.

 

 Then, on a piece of wax paper, shape the remaining dough into a square roughly the size of your pan-as shown in the photo below (I actually do this while the brownies are baking or cooling). Flip the brownie square on top of your pan, patting down gently and lightly reshaping if needed.

 Bake for an additional 25-28 minutes. Let cool in the pan before cutting. If you can wait that long. I usually can't. And enjoy!!!

Other variations I have yet to try, but the candy is taunting me in my pantry: Snickers, York Peppermint Patties, and Hershey's Cookies'n'Creme Drops. Can't wait to experiment more!