Remind me not to take pictures at night. They don't look good. Here's where I get frustrated. I spend so much time making something that tastes amazing, and I don't have a good picture to show for it. There have been too many times that I don't post about a recipe because I don't have a good picture. My camera dies and I have to take a picture with my cell phone because let's face it, I'm not going to wait until tomorrow or even an hour to eat what I made so my camera can charge. The heart wants what the heart wants. And the heart wants food... pronto. I have a fancy schmancy camera (graduation present.. thanks mom and dad) but the lack of lighting is killing me. I have one window in my kitchen and even then I have half of my food in darkness and the other half is overexposed. And there's only like 5 hours of the day that I can get good light. Those hours just happen to be the hours I spend in accounting class. Let's face it, if I haven't been able to get my butt out of bed for that 6am yoga class, there's no way I'm waking up that early to bake stuff. Oh the life of a college student... so rough.
Even those these pictures are not so great, the brownies themselves are. The combination of peanut butter, chocolate, and pretzels has quickly become one of my favorites. I've made peanut butter pretzel brownies before but these are different since the pretzel is a crust here and there's a peanut butter fudge topping, but the idea is the same. I originally made these brownies to ship to a friend, then I realized that they are not good brownies to ship, so we ate them. ALL. And they were super yummy so I don't feel bad about it one bit.
1/2 cup butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
3 tbsp cocoa powder
2/3 cups chocolate chips
1 1/2 cups creamy peanut butter
1/3 cup powdered sugar
1 3/4 cups crushed pretzel pieces
6 tbsp butter, melted
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease and flour an 8x8 inch baking pan and set aside.
To make the pretzel crust, combined the crushed pretzel pieces and the melted butter in a bowl. Mix until the pretzels are coated with butter. With the back of a spoon press the pretzel crumbs into the pan. If they are not holding together add more melted butter until they do.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat together butter and sugar until creamed and fluffy. Mix in the eggs one at a time, and then add the vanilla extract. With the mixer on medium speed, add in the flour, salt, and cocoa powder. Mix for 2-3 minutes, until the flour is well combined with the butter mixture. Fold in the chocolate chips. Using a spatula, spread the brownie batter over the pretzel crust. Put the pan on a baking sheet and put in the oven. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until brownies are baked through. Check by inserting a toothpick in the center of the brownies, if it comes out clean, they are done.
When the brownies have about 3 minutes left in the oven, start making the peanut butter fudge topping. In a microwave safe bowl, add the peanut butter. Melt in the microwave using 30 second increments and mixing after each time. Then, stir in the powdered sugar and mix until there are no lumps. Pour over the brownies after they come out of the oven and spread with a spatula. Refrigerate for 1-2 hours or until the peanut butter topping is firm. Cut into bars and serve.
Makes about 12 brownies.
Source: Recipe from How Sweet Eats
Ha...yeah I've definitely gone the phone picture route before. But I'd still try these brownies even if no picture was involved!
ReplyDeleteWow these look amazing.
ReplyDeleteI definitely feel you on the challenge of capturing good pictures. I no longer have access to a fancy camera, and my pictures just don't come out well. My apartment has terrible lighting. It is so dark ALL the time!