Trader Joe's & Peanut Butter Cup Brownies

I love Trader Joe's.

Unfortunately, the closest one is an hour and a half away. So my visits to TJ's tend to be far and few between.

If you've never heard of or visited a Trader Joe's, it's a small grocery store that sells, mostly, private label food. Their food is very good, unbelievably affordable, and the service is great. I've visited several in Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Illinois and every one of them has been clean and well stocked and the customer service has been terrific.

How affordable is this store? I am obsessed with perfecting French macarons (I haven't yet) and one of the ingredients is almond flour. Since I don't own, or have room for, the large food processor needed to grind the almonds properly, I have to buy it already ground. At my local grocery store, I found a one pound bag of almond flour for $10, at Trader Joe's the same pound is only $3. And just because the store is more affordable doesn't mean the quality of the food goes down. It is the complete opposite. I can't think of one thing that I've ever bought there that I didn't enjoy.

Last month I visited my brother and his family, they live about three blocks from a Trader Joe's and shop there often. My sister-in-law brought out a plastic container of Trader Joe's mini peanut butter cups and told me they were even better than Reese's. Being a lover of all things peanut butter and having spent most of my life living 15 minutes from Hershey, where Reese's are made, I scoffed. There is no way they could be better than Reese's peanut butter cups. I still refuse to admit it, but they are melt-in-your-mouth, creamy bites of awesomeness.

Whenever I try a new sweet, the first thing I try to come up with is a way to bake them into something. Some ideas work, some don't. These peanut butter cups are tiny.

My sister-in-law recommended cookies, like chocolate chip cookies but with the peanut butter cups instead of chips. That does sound delicious, and I probably will do that some day, but I had brownies on the brain. I didn't want to do chocolate brownies, I figured that would be overkill. So I wanted to do peanut butter brownies.

I bought the peanut butter cups and drove from Illinois to Pennsylvania with them packed in a cooler bag with a bag of ice. They made it home safely and I put them in the fridge and started my recipe search. In the end, I went with this recipe from Betty Crocker. Her recipe called for chopped up peanut butter cups and milk chocolate chips mixed in and then more peanut butter cups pressed into the top. That sounds great, but instead I used only the TJ's mini peanut butter cups with the brownie recipe.

After mixing the brownie ingredients with the stand mixer, I hand mixed most of the peanut butter cups into the batter using a large rubber spatula. I kept about a handful of peanut butter cups out (yes, these are my scientific measurements).

I sprinkled the rest of the peanut butter cups over the top of the batter.

The recipe called for the brownies to bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes. Believe it or not, the brownies were done to perfection in 17 minutes.

I cut a small piece to try it while they were still warm and I wasn't too impressed. They were good, but they weren't peanut butter-y enough for me. I split the pan in half and cut the brownies, taking half of them in to work with me and leaving the rest for my family to enjoy.

A while later, I tried another brownie after they completely cooled. And it was fantastic! The brownies were mildly peanut butter-y, but the peanut butter cups stayed soft and melted into your mouth when you bit into them. When rereading the recipe, I noticed they recommend you wait until the brownies are completely cooled before eating them. I guess they know what they're talking about.

I plan on getting even more of these wonderful mini peanut butter cups and experimenting. I'll make the cookies and see what else I can concoct. These versatile little candies will find their way into all sorts of new and delicious goodies.