Brownie Candy Cups

The thing about chocolate and peanut butter is that you don’t have to say much else. The combination simply speaks for itself.

Tonight, I’m getting together with my girlfriends/roommates from college. Each of us always brings a dish to share, and there is always way too much food for seven girls, but we certainly do our part to eat as much as possible. All while consuming copious amounts of beer and wine.

It’s a sacrifice, I know.

With Thanksgiving coming up and all of the work that goes into it, I wanted to make something pretty simple. Enter Brownie Candy Cups, a Bakerella creation. I make something similar (Peanut Butter Cup Cookies) around Christmas, so I knew there was no going wrong with this variation. A Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup, enveloped in chocolate brownie? Perfection.

After a little bit of trial and error, I made some adjustments to the baking time, and also to the instructions. I’ve made those adjustments below. These are wonderful right out of the oven, but in my opinion, they’re even better the next day.

Note: Your Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups don’t have to be frozen, but they’re less likely to turn into a melty, gooey mess if you freeze them ahead of time. Also, they’re easier to unwrap!

Ingredients:
– 1 box brownie mix
– eggs, water, and vegetable oil (in the amounts listed on your brownie package)
– 25-30 mini Reeses cups, frozen, then unwrapped
– 1 Box Reynolds 2-inch aluminum foil mini cups for muffins

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place approximately 30 foil liners on baking sheet.

2. Combine brownie mix, eggs, water and oil. Stir with spoon until well blended. (about 50 strokes)

3. Fill each liner with 1-2 tablespoons of batter. You want them to be about 3/4 of the way full.

4. Push a peanut butter cup into the center of each “brownie cupcake.”

5. Bake for 15 minutes and remove from oven.

6. Cool 5-10 minutes in pan and then move to cooling rack to cool completely.