Friday, April 24, 2009

Peanut Butter Cheesecake Brownie Babies


I made these tonight for the Cub Scout Spaghetti Dinner and Bake Sale - and I thought I was a real trooper giving these away because they were so dang good! They are way easy to make, but sound super gourmet, and they make about 20 cupcakes, so you can share with friends (or not - I recommend eating them all yourself.) I didn't use the Cool Whip and cherries because the Cool Whip would have melted by the time someone bought them, and cherries are gross. But if you eat these at home, I would highly recommend the whipped topping of your choice and maybe a drizzle of chocolate syrup!

1 pkg. brownie mix (13x9-inch pan size)
1 pkg. (8 oz.) cream cheese, softened
1/3 cup sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup peanut butter (I guessed on this and probably used more)
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1-1/2 cups thawed COOL WHIP Whipped Topping
20 maraschino cherries (totally optional)
Mix brownies according to package directions. Spoon into 20 paper-lined muffin cups. I sprayed my paper liners with cooking spray because the Kraft website reviews stated that the brownies stuck to the liners. Spraying them prevents this.
Beat cream cheese, sugar, egg, peanut butter, and vanilla with mixer until smooth. Spoon one rounded Tablespoon into center of batter in each cup, pressing down slightly into batter. **Note - I placed a sandwich bag inside a cup and filled the bag with the cream cheese mixture, sealed the bag, cut an opening in the bottom corner, and piped the cream cheese mixture in. It was much faster and cleaner, and since "pressing" the mixture is sort of hard because it's so soft, you can place the tip of the sandwich bag slightly into the batter and squeeze away. You should have plenty of cream cheese mixture, so put plenty on. I had a little leftover. Bake 30 minutes or until middle is set. Mine baked about 27 minutes. Let cool completely! And eat away!


6 comments:

Carissa Poyfair said...

These sound way too yummy. Thanks for sharing!

Kristi Adams said...

Chocolate and peanut butter is my WEAKNESS! I'm going to the store today to get a brownie mix!!

Stina said...

I was excited to see Kristi's comment cause I knew she was coming to our house tonight!!! She made these and wow! They were wonderful! Thanks for sharing the recipe. I definitely benefited!

Celeste Pearson said...

I'm glad you benefited Stina! And I'm way impressed Kristi - you made these right after I posted them. Chocolate, PB, and cheesecake would make me make these too right away! On the recipe site at Kraft some people piped icing on afterwards, and some did the cheesecake but omitted the PB, so be creative and let me know how it works out!

Kelli said...

You beat me to the punch, I was going to post pb-chocolate cookies but these sound better. I'm totally making them for my personal party I throw when I reach my goal weight =) How can you go wrong with cheesecake and peanut butter (I'll bet Bryan was so glad he married you after you made these!).

Denise said...

Yum! It is so hard to be healthy with this website!! I have to have some self discipline and make these later when we have company to help me eat them.