Peanut Butter Pretzel Brownie Cups

I love baking with items I have on hand.  I love the challenge of coming up with something that is tasty out of what I’m able to find in my cupboards.  While searching through my baking goodies, I came up with the idea for this recipe…and the only thing I had to purchase was the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, everything else I already had!

Helllloooo, Peanut Butter Pretzel Brownie Cups! Brownies baked in a cupcake tin with a pretzel crust, and a special surprise in the middle…a Reese’s Peanut Butter cup! One of these would make a perfect dessert that your friends and family will be sure to love!

Peanut Butter Pretzel Brownie Cups

Pretzel Crust:
2 cups of crushed pretzels
1 stick of butter, melted
1/4 cup of sugar

Mix together all the pretzel crust ingredients and spoon into cupcake tins. (I didn’t line mine with cupcake liners, but you may want to, I had to fight a bit to get them out of the tin!) I then used a small mason jar to press down the pretzels, to form a crust. Bake pretzel crust at 350 for about 8 minutes. Allow to cool a bit.

Brownie Ingredients:
Your favorite brownie mix, either from scratch or your favorite box mix
Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups

After your pretzel crusts have cooled a bit, spoon a bit of brownie batter into cupcake tins. Next, you’ll add one Reese’s Peanut Butter cup to each tin. Finally, spoon on a bit more brownie batter on top of the peanut butter cup. Bake at 350 for approximately 20 minutes, but be sure to keep an eye on them!

After the brownie cups have cooled completely, top them with Peanut Butter Buttercream frosting. You can use your favorite peanut butter buttercream recipe, or buy prepared icing and add creamy peanut butter one tablespoon at a time until it’s as strong as you prefer. I used two tablespoons, and it ended up tasting exactly like Reese’s Pieces…yum!

That’s it! It looks much more complicated than it actually is.  Your friends and family will never know you were able to throw this together so quickly! Enjoy!