Peanut Butter Pretzel Brownies

You're gonna want to unbutton your pants right now, or go slip on something with an elastic waistband. I'm telling you, these babies are RICH and slightly decadent! What a perfect combination though, chocolate, peanut butter and pretzels. It reminds me of one of my favorite Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream flavors: chubby hubby. My husband and I discovered it on our honeymoon and it became our guilty pleasure for a while.

I love the salty sweet combination and these brownies have layers of it. First, the pretzel layer on the bottom actually lends a little of both and adds a great crunchy texture. The brownie layer is obviously nice and sweet, and dense if you make your brownies like me. I love a good dense brownie. To top it off, the peanut butter frosting is OUT OF THIS WORLD! I've used it on brownies and cupcakes before and practically can't keep my fingers out of it. It's got the sweet and salty thing going on too. Just can't resist that!

You'll want to take these to a potluck or family party to keep you from eating half the pan. Maybe a few minutes on the treadmill wouldn't hurt either. Enjoy!

Peanut Butter Pretzel Brownies

For the pretzel layer:
2 cups pretzel, crushed (but not to a powder)
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 Tbsp. sugar

For the brownie layer:
1 box of your favorite brownie mix (9x13 size), or your favorite brownie recipe

For the peanut butter frosting:
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
2 1/2 Tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 tsp. salt
3 Tbsp. heavy cream

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. While oven is preheating, put the butter in a 9x13 cake pan to melt. Crush the pretzels. When butter is completely melted, stir in the sugar then add the pretzel pieces. Stir the pretzels around until they are completely coated in the butter/sugar mixture, then spread them evenly across the bottom of the pan. Put the pan back in the oven and bake 10 minutes. Remove and cool.

Prepare brownies (enough for a 9x13 pan) according to directions and pour over cooled pretzels. (I didn't wait quite long enough for the pretzels to cool, so they were still a little warm when I poured the brownies on, thus resulting in the pretzels sinking into the brownies a little more than I had wished.) Bake brownies according to directions, then cool completely!

To prepare the frosting, put the powdered sugar, peanut butter, butter, vanilla, and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Mix on medium-low speed until creamy, scraping down the bowl with a rubber spatula as you work. Add the cream and beat on high speed until the mixture is light and smooth; a minute or two. Do not whip or the cream will start to separate.

Frost brownies and cover. Refrigerate for an hour two before serving.

SOURCE: Frosting from Ina Garten


Linked to...
Sweet Indulgences Sunday @ A Well-Seasoned Life
Sweets For A Saturday @ Sweet As Sugar Cookies