Peanut Butter Pretzel Brownies

I was reading my favorite magazine, Clean Eating (the most recent issue, October 2012) and they had a fabulous recipe for Clean Gooey Peanut Butter Brownies! Wait, what??  How amazing does that sound??

 

I made a few changes and they came out AMAZING!!  The kids loved them! Who am I kidding, I loved them too 🙂  Clean Eating Magazine, you had me at Peanut Butter!

Ingredients

3.5 ounces dark chocolate ( I used 70%)

3 tablespoons organic unsalted butter

2 large eggs, room temperature

1/3 cup sucanat or organic sugar (I used organic cane sugar)

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/3 whole wheat pastry flour

2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

3 tablespoons natural peanut butter, or my homemade peanut butter

handful of Trader Joe’s Pretzel slims  (or whatever pretzels you like)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Instructions

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray an 8 x 8 baking dish with non-stick cooking spray.
2. Place chocolate and butter in a microwavable bowl.  Cook at 50% for 30 seconds and then stir to mix.  Continue to microwave in 30 second increments until completely melted.  **Be careful not to overcook and continue to stir.
3. Stir in sugar, eggs and vanilla until thoroughly combined.  Add flour and cocoa powder until mixed and no signs of flour are left, but be careful not to overmix.
4. Place pretzel thins on the bottom of sprayed pan.  Pour batter on top of pretzels.  Slowly add teaspoons of peanut butter on top of batter and swirl through batter.  
5. Place some more pretzels on top of peanut butter brownie batter.  
6. Bake 15-20 minutes until toothpick comes out clean when placed in the center of pan.  Allow to cool completely before removing from pan. ENJOY 🙂