Peanut Butter Cookie Dough Brownies

Impulse items at the store (you know that odd assortment of goodies that line the checkout stands?) don't usually get to me. But I was doing some grocery shopping and they had these packages of Better Crocker cookie mixes as their item of the week at Albertsons - just add water and a little oil and bake, for a $1 each! I figured I'd give them a try, it might be nice to have on hand during a cookie emergency, so I bought a couple peanut butter cookie mixes. I got home and thought, "Well I can't just make cookies with these, what else can I do?" and decided to use them in a brownie recipe. This is my current favorite brownie recipe (rich, fudgey, deep chocolate flavor) on a smaller scale to fit an 8x8" pan, with big swirls of peanut butter cookie dough throughout. I added a little extra peanut butter to the cookie dough mix after I tasted a bit before baking and thought they weren't peanut butter-y enough. These are amazing - Jeremy was supposed to take them to work and promptly declared they would be going NOWHERE, and he planned to spend the next two and a half days eating them (I'm not sure how he calculated that timeframe, but he seemed very scientific about it). I literally had to hide these from myself (yes, I know where they are since I hid them, but having them out of sight is a good thing). They're very decadent, rich, and downright evil. Definitely do not overbake - I started checking them around 30 minutes and guesstimated on the overall cooking time. It's better to have them gooey and falling apart than overbaked, but isn't that true with most things? :)

PEANUT BUTTER COOKIE DOUGH BROWNIES

INGREDIENTS:
For brownies:
1/2 cup butter
1 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1/2 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
2oz semi sweet chocolate, finely chopped

For peanut butter cookie dough swirl:
1 (8.6oz) package Betty Crocker Peanut butter cookie mix (snack size pouch)
2 tablespoon water
1 tablespoon oil
2 tablespoons peanut butter


DIRECTIONS:

1. Heat oven to 325 degrees. Spray a 8x8" baking pan with nonstick cooking spray.

2. Place butter in large microwave-safe bowl and microwave until melted. Stir in sugar and vanilla. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add cocoa and beat until well blended. Add flour, baking powder and salt and beat until just combined. Fold in chopped chocolate. Pour batter into prepared pan.

3. In a medium bowl beat together cookie dough mix, water and oil until combined. Stir in peanut butter until smooth. Drop heaping tablespoons of cookie dough mix onto brownie batter. Run a knife through both mixtures to slightly swirl.

4. Bake until brownies begin to pull away from sides of pan and a toothpick inserted into the center of the pan comes out clean - about 40 minutes. Cool before cutting into bars and serving.