Secret Recipe Club: Peanut Butter Crunch Brownies

Happy Monday!  It's that time again, Secret Recipe Club reveal!

What is Secret Recipe Club?  Well, it's the brainchild of Amanda from Amanda's Cookin'.  You are assigned a "secret" blog to cook one dish from and post on the given reveal date.

I love how the group has just grown so much since I first joined!  This will be my third SRC post and definitely not my last!  I just love discovering new blogs to ogle over!

This month, I received Edesia's Notebook.  This blog was new to me, but as soon as I was assigned this blog, I knew I would be a regular!  With things like Slow Cooker Garlic Soy Drumsticks to Ginger Scallion Rice, it was hard to choose!  It all looks delicious!

Andy was being especially good, so I thought I'd treat him to a special treat.  I picked Edesia's Peanut Butter Crunch Brownies a.k.a. Better Than Crack Brownies.  I mean, chocolate & Reese Cups?  Two of Andy's favorite things combined into one stellar brownie.  And it couldn't be easier to put together either!  Let's get to it!

Ingredients:
Adapted from Edesia's Notebook's recipe

1 box brownie mix (I used Ghirardelli Dark Chocolate)
1 egg
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup vegetable oil
about 8 Reese's peanut butter cups, roughly chopped
1/2 cup salted peanuts, chopped
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 tbsp butter
1 & 1/2 cups creamy peanut butter (I used PB & Co.'s Bees Knees)
1 & 1/2 cups Rice Krispies cereal

Make the brownies as directed on the box in a 9x13” pan.  Bake for 20 to 25 minutes.

Remove the brownies from the oven and top with the peanut butter cups and peanuts. Place the brownies back into the oven and bake an additional 6 to 10 minutes or until a toothpick can be inserted and comes out clean. Remove the brownies from the oven.

In a microwave safe dish, melt the chocolate chips, butter, and peanut butter for about 45 seconds. Stir until smooth.  Then stir in the Rice Krispies.

Pour the Rice Krispies mixture over the brownies and let cool. Refrigerate for at least two hours until serving.  This was definitely the hardest part because I totally wanted to dig straight into them!  But trust me, well worth the wait!

Okay, these were seriously one of the best brownies ever.  I even tried to take some leftovers to work and Andy practically held them hostage.  So yeah, they were THAT good.

I had a friend over for dinner that night and gave him a couple to take home for his roommates - Andy didn't see me do this and when he noticed a couple brownie slices were missing, he definitely interrogated me until I confessed.  I didn't know he was keeping track - duly noted for next time.

I got a text later on in the week that read "umm, (roommate's name) says that brownie was better than crack".  I don't want to know how they know this, but hey - I take it as a compliment.

So yeah, trust me - you want to make yourself a batch of these babies.  But I can't promise that you'll want to share them.  Ask Andy.

Easter Bark

Happy Monday guys!  How was everyone's Easter weekend? 

I spent the day at work, but it was real slow (Thank goodness!), so I even got to come home early.  It rained practically all weekend, too, so I'm lucky that my garden is still there!  I saw many pictures on Facebook of others who had planted flowers and other things, and they were just flooded out!  My heart goes out to you guys and your plants!

"Bark" won the poll on Friday, so I was pretty excited to get right into it!  I looked up a couple of Easter bark recipes and most of them included Jelly Beans - which I'm not a very big fan of, so I decided to go a different route with this.  I told Andy I would be giving him an excuse to buy Easter candy so he picked out a bag (Reese's eggs - of course!) and I picked out a bag (Nestle Crunch eggs).  And the rest is history!

Ingredients:

1/2 lb. semi-sweet chocolate, chopped
1/2 lb. unsweetened or dark chocolate, chopped (I used some gourmet 98.5% - but if you can't take it that high, feel free to scale down to whatever suits you)
1 cup almonds, chopped
1/4 cup pumpkin seeds
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
1 cup Reese's Peanut Butter Eggs, chopped
1 cup Nestle Crunch Eggs, chopped
White chocolate
Food Coloring

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Slowly melt the semi sweet and unsweetened chocolate in a double boiler over the stove, stirring occasionally.  When chocolate is about 3/4 melted, take bowl off of heat and stir to melt the remaining chocolate.

Stir in almonds, pumpkin seeds, and sunflower seeds.  Coat the nuts well in the chocolate.

Finally, add the chopped peanut butter eggs and crunch eggs.  Mix well.

Spread the mixture onto the parchment paper in an even layer.  Place baking sheet in the freezer to let chocolate set, about 10 to 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, melt white chocolate over double boiler (or microwave) until at a "drizzling" consistency.  If using more than one color, separate into 2 or 3 bowls.  Then add a couple drops of each color to it's relative bowl.  Take chocolate out of freezer and drizzle each white chocolate color on top.  Place back in freezer to set for about 5 to 10 more minutes.

Peel parchment paper from chocolate and break into bark pieces. 

At first, I thought the unsweetened chocolate would be a little too strong, but the semi-sweet chocolate and the Reese's & Crunch eggs really balanced it out.  The chocolate had just enough sweetness to it!  I even convinced myself that this was pretty healthy because it's loaded with nuts!  Wouldn't you have liked to have your Easter basket filled with this?!  I know I was glad to!

What's your favorite type of bark?  Have a great rest of your Monday guys!