Marbled Peanut Butter & Nutella Brownies

Today, March 1st is National Peanut Butter Lover's Day!  My family loves peanut butter!  I am way behind in my posts....I've cooked too much and I have more recipes than time to post them!  In honor of this day, I am sharing this recipe that I made for us for dessert on Valentine's Day. I had just bought some nutella and these caught my eye.  They seemed easy enough and our family loves the chocolate and peanut butter combination.  So I knew these would be a hit!

They looked really nice with the swirl!  Unfortunately, the peanut butter really overpowers in this recipe and we couldn't really taste the nutella very much.  However, they were nice and moist and of course we didn't mind the peanut butter flavor!  And really, who doesn't love homemade brownies?!!! 

Marbled Peanut Butter & Nutella Brownies
from Cookie Madness

Ingredients:
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup peanut butter (I used crunchy)
2 large eggs
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

Swirl Mixture:
1 1/2 oz dark or dark chocolate with hazelnuts, chopped
1/2 teaspoon butter
1/4 cup Nutella

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line an 8 inch square metal pan with non-stick foil.

In a mixing bowl, using medium speed and high speed of an electric mixer, beat butter and brown sugar until soft. Beat in vanilla and peanut butter, then add eggs and beat just until mixed in. Scrape sides of bowl and beat in baking powder and salt, making sure they are evenly distributed; Add flour and stir until it is mixed in. Spread peanut butter batter in pan.

Make swirl mixture. Melt chocolate and butter in a small microwave-safe bowl at 50% power. Alternatively, you may use a double boiler or bowl set over a pot of barely simmer water. Remove melted chocolate from heat and stir in Nutella. Drop spoonfuls of Nutella mixture over peanut butter brownie batter and drag a knife through to make a marbled pattern.

Bake on center rack for 30 minutes or until brownies begin to pull away from the side of the pan and center seems set. Cool pan on a wire rack. When brownies hit room temperature, chill them for an hour or so. Lift from pan and cut into squares.

Family Rating: 1 1/2 thumbs up!