Peanut Butter Butterscotch Nutella Brownie Bars

I had no idea what to name these bars.

Should I name off all the main ingredients? Should I give it a completely new name? Or how about the surprise bars. Not because there's any type of weird or surprising ingredients in them, but because I was so surprised they actually came out... pretty good if I do say so myself!

These bars were really just an experiment.

I knew they were going to have a peanut butter cookie base, brownie middle and some sort of cream cheese swirl. But when I started making them I realized I was out of flour and my go to brownie recipe uses flour. So what did I do? Instead of going and finding a flourless brownie recipe, I decided to just wing it and see what happens. 

That's risky business when it comes to baking. A little too much of one thing, or leaving out something can make the whole thing a disaster!

Luckily it came out good!

The peanut butter, chocolate and butterscotch went together so well. I was very glad with the outcome! However, the baking worried me a little. I kept having to put it back in to bake more, and the sides started looking burned while the middle looked undercooked. 

The sides were chewier, but they weren't burnt, and the middle was perfect when it came out. 

However, next time I might mess with the time and temp to see if I  can make it come out a little more even.

Over all though, these bars got a pretty good rating, especially for an experimental recipe.

Peanut Butter Butterscotch Nutella Brownie Bars

Peanut Butter Base

(Recipe adapted from All Recipes)

1 cup unsalted butter(room temperature)

1 cup crunchy peanut butter (I used creamy)

1 cup white sugar

1 cup packed brown sugar

2 eggs

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

Nutella Brownie

1 stick butter

1 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup cocoa powder

2 large eggs
1 tbls coconut oil

1/4 cup nutella

Butterscotch Cream Cheese

1 8oz package cream cheese(room temperature)

1/4 butterscotch sauce (store bought or recipe here)

2 tbls white sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x12 baking dish.

Peanut butter cookie dough

Cream together butter, peanut butter and sugars. Beat in eggs.

In a separate bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Stir into batter. Spread evenly over the bottom of prepared baking dish and place in the fridge while you make the other components.

Nutella brownie

Combine the butter, sugar, and vanilla in a small saucepan over medium heat to melt the butter. Once melted turn off the heat and stir in the cocoa powder until fully combined. Add in the eggs and coconut oil, stir to combine, then add nutella. 

Spread and smooth over the peanut butter base.

Butterscotch Cream Cheese

In a mixer beat the cream cheese until creamy. Add in the butterscotch, sugar, and vanilla and mix until it is all fully combined.

Drop dollops of cream cheese mixture over the brownie layer and smooth out as much as possible. I ran my knife through each dollop to create patterns.

Bake in oven for 35-45 minutes, checking every 5 minutes until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. I like to pull it out just a tad earlier so it stays nice and gooey.



Also! I would like to mention that Stephanie over at the slender student is hosting a FREE food and fitness event at the CYC for students on January 16th. The event looks really cool, and I urge all students to attend! To learn more just visit her post about it here.