Easy & Pretty Peanut Butter Brownies

I recently came up with this simple recipe when I was craving peanut butter and chocolate. These peanut butter brownies are incredibly easy and are pretty enough to serve at any party.  Here's how to make these yummy, easy treats!

Well, my version is the busy version and I started with a boxed brownie mix.  I made the brownies according to the directions and put them in an 11 x 7 inch pan, which made them thin, but not too thin.

Next, I placed about 1/2 a cup of peanut in a microwave safe bowl and softened it by heating it on high for approximately 15 seconds.  I have also skipped the microwave part, and it still worked fine, but the peanut butter was harder to squeeze out of the bag.  Which brings me to the next step:

Put the peanut butter in a ziploc and cut off a small portion of one of the lower corners.  Work the peanut down into the that corner.  Now you are ready to introduce peanut butter to brownie.

Squeeze out four to five horizontal lines of peanut butter. If you have extra leftover, like I did, just go back and add it to the lines.

Now, comes the trick to make these brownies pretty.

Drag a butter knife from top to bottom, going through all the lines.

Move across the pan, dragging your knife vertically through the lines and (this is important!) alternating whether you start at the bottom or top of the pan.  I keep a paper towel handy to wipe my knife after every pass, it makes it easier to do and is a little cleaner looking.

When you're all finished, the brownies will look like this.  They are a little messier than after they have cooked, as the peanut butter flattens out.  The good thing is that you don't lose the pattern as they cook, as the peanut butter doesn't spread very much.  Bake them according to your normal brownie recipe, mine took about 30 minutes to cook.

Here's the beautiful finished product.  And trust me, they are even yummier than they look.

This is such an easy way to upgrade boxed brownies, and everyone who has tried them loved them!

Let me know if you try these!