Brownies with Peanut Butter Chips and Peanut Butter Frosting

I googled "how to make good brownies" after making these brownies.  It would have been more useful to learn about good brownie technique before making them, but now I have a reason to make brownies again soon.

The Huffington Post says you should not over stir the flour.  There should still be streaks of white after folding in the flour because you don't want to work the gluten.  They said to use room temperature eggs.  Cold eggs make a denser brownie.  Of course, I like a dense brownie...

The last two tips I'll share from the Huffington Post are common sense.  Start checking the brownies before the full bake time has elapsed.  Over baked brownies are the worse.  They also said to let the brownies cool completely.  Some people may prefer a warm brownie, but I like the texture of a set and firm brownie.

Bon Appetit said that fudge like brownies, which I prefer, have a higher butter and chocolate to flour ratio.  Like the Huffington Post, they advised using room temperature butter and eggs.  Room temperature ingredients are easier to combine, yielding a smoother and creamier batter.

This brownie recipe came from food.com.  It uses oil instead of butter.  Thanks to the oil, it was a moist, fudge like brownie.  It was a fantastic recipe that I'll use again.  I added peanut butter chips to the brownies.  The peanut butter frosting recipe came from allrecipes.com.  I only make half of the frosting and did not add milk.

The brownie ingredients are 1/2 cup vegetable oil, 1 cup sugar, 1 teaspoon vanilla, 2 large eggs, 1/4 teaspoon baking powder, 1/3 cup cocoa powder, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1/2 cup flour, and 1/2 cup peanut butter chips.

The frosting ingredients are 1/4 cup softened butter, 1/2 cup peanut butter, and about 1 cup powdered sugar.

For the brownies, I mixed the sugar and oil together.

I added the vanilla and eggs and stirred until combined.

In another bowl, I added the baking powder, cocoa powder, salt, and flour.

I whisked the dry ingredients together and then poured them into the sugar mixture.  

I partially stirred the batter together before adding the peanut butter chips.  I stirred the chips into the batter.

I poured the batter into a greased nine inch square baking pan.

I baked the brownies for 20 to 22 minutes at 350 degrees.  I let the brownies cool down completely.

For the frosting, I stirred the peanut butter and room temperature butter together.

I added powdered sugar gradually until the frosting was thick and creamy.

I spread the frosting over the cooled brownies.

The frosting was creamy and luscious.  It has a good peanut butter flavor and the perfect level of sweetness.

The texture of the brownie was spot on.  It was dense, moist, and fudge like.  I really enjoyed the brownie recipe.  It is one of the better brownies I had made and eaten.

The chocolate flavor was rich and deep.  The peanut butter and chocolate combination is practically perfect, and these brownie gave further evidence of that fact.

The peanut butter chips amped up the peanut butter flavor and were sweet and chewy.