Brownies and peanut butter buttercream Oh My!

My house was FINALLY quiet so I was catching up on some blogs and I was inspired by buttercream!   I didn’t want to make cupcakes but thought that brownies piled high with peanut butter buttercream dipped in chocolate ganache and sprinkled with Fleur de sel would be so super fantastic! (and they are)   They’re not the prettiest looking things, and next time I’d pipe my frosting but looks aren’t everything! 

Peanut Butter Buttercream Salted Brownies   

• 1/2 cup butter
• 6 tbsp cocoa*
• 2 tbsp veg oil*     (*instead of oil and cocoa you could use 2 oz unsweetened chocolate)
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 eggs
• 2/3 cup  flour

 

• peanut butter buttercream
• 1/2 bag semi sweet chocolate chips
• 1/4-1/2 cups cream
• Fleur de sel

Pre heat the oven to 350 degrees.  Grease the wells of 30 mini muffin tins.

Melt the butter over medium heat and add the cocoa and vegetable oil.  Remove from heat and add the sugar, vanilla and eggs and flour and whisk it all together.  Spoon the batter into the muffin tins and bake for 10-12 minutes or until a pick inserted comes out clean. 

Let brownies cool.  (I stuck mine in the freezer for a few minutes)

You may need to run the tip of a sharp knife around the outside of the brownies to loosen them from the pan.

I also didn’t measure any of the ingredients for the buttercream (my bad)  I used about 1 cup of softenend, unsalted butter, 1/4-1/2 cup of peanut butter, powdered sugar and cream. Beat the butter and peanut butter until it’s well combined.   I added the sugar 1/2 cup at a time until It looked like buttercream and then drizzled in some cream as it mixed until everything was light and fluffy and just good!  If you taste it and it’s not peanut buttery enough, just add some more peanut butter until it tastes good.  If you feel like it needs more sugar, add more sugar!  Experiment and make it happen!

Pipe, or scoop a generous amount of buttercream onto the cooled brownies and chill.

Warm the cream until it’s hot.  Do not let it come to a boil.

Pour the cream over the chocolate chips and let sit for about 30 seconds.

Stir.  Add more cream as necessary until you have a smooth ganache . 

Dip the tops into the ganache so all of the buttercream is covered and sprinkle with a pinch of Fleur de sel.

Store in the fridge until you’re ready to serve.