Pardon me for a moment, as I ponder the best part of Super Bowl LV—I don’t mean the game, though I’m sure that Tampa Bay fans everywhere are still celebrating and bragging on social media about the blowout win. I’m not talking about the fun party, because as much as I love chilling at home with my husband (and making great food together), we were definitely feeling the void and missing our usual houseful of friends and neighbors. Nope, I am calling out the best part. For me, it was these brownies.
I’m not trying to ruin anyone’s diet or anything; just hear me out for a sec on these brownies. Soft and fudgy, peanut butter swirly, crunchy pretzel salty, holy moly, yum. They smelled fantastic while baking, and I don’t feel one bit ashamed for taking a major shortcut—a box brownie mix.
There, I said it. Though I love my time in the kitchen, especially creating fun, new twists on foods everybody loves (pizza, for instance), I don’t make desserts very often because I don’t have much of a sweet tooth. That’s probably what attracted me to these brownies in the first place—they are not only sweet, but also nutty and salty and crunchy. I’ve adapted these from a scratch recipe by Valerie Bertinelli, the actress who now has her own cooking show on Food Network. I considered (for about a second) making them from scratch myself for our quiet, at-home Super Bowl festivities, but the reality is that Ghirardelli does it way better than I do. It was the peanut butter swirl and salty pretzel topping that won me over, anyway.
I gleaned a few bits of wisdom from the reviews for Valerie’s scratch-made recipe, such as using a smaller pan and a lesser amount of the peanut butter swirl mixture, and then I settled in to enjoy a shortcut version of what so many fellow bakers had to say—”best brownies ever!”
Ingredients
1 box Ghirardelli brand “dark chocolate” brownies, + ingredients to make them, which included an egg, 1/2 cup oil and 1/4 cup water.
1 Tbsp. dark cocoa powder
1/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips or chunks
1/2 cup smooth and creamy peanut butter (not the “natural” variety)
1/3 cup confectioner’s sugar, sifted to remove lumps
3 Tbsp. salted butter, melted
A handful of salted mini pretzels, broken by hand
An extra sprinkle of coarse sea salt, if you like a bit more of this contrasting flavor
Instructions
The photos tell the story, but if you keep scrolling, you’ll find a downloadable PDF you can save and print for your recipe files. Enjoy!
For this recipe, I used a “smooth” style peanut butter, rather than my usual natural style. The creaminess created a wonderful marbling. 
My handheld electric mixer brought this together in record time, but I’m sure you could also whip it together with a spoon. 
These dark chocolate brownies are already decadent, but I cannot stop myself from adding even more depth with some extra cocoa powder. 
The liquids are exactly what is recommended on the box brownie mix—oil, egg and water. 
Oh, why not?? If loving extra chocolate is wrong, I don’t want to be right. 
The peanut butter swirly mixture was like little kisses from heaven all over this ultra-dark brownie batter. 
Based on reviews of the original recipe, I made a smaller amount of the peanut butter filling, but still had extra. Did I eat it straight from the bowl? You bet I did. 
Swirling the peanut butter mixture was easy, and I followed no pattern. 
This felt a little bit like art class. 
In hindsight, I could have used more pretzels, and I will next time. Break them by hand so you have pieces, rather than crumbs. 
I pressed lightly on the larger bits of pretzel, to be sure they got down into the brownie mixture. If you love salty with your sweet, sprinkle on additional coarse sea salt. 
Baked as directed on the brownie box. Cool completely before cutting into serving pieces.
- Preheat oven to 325° F, with rack in center of oven. Butter a glass 8 x 8” baking dish.
- In a medium mixing bowl, combine the peanut butter, confectioner’s sugar and melted butter. I used my handheld mixer for this step, but Valerie mixed it up just fine with a spoon, so do what you like there. Set this mixture aside while you prepare the brownie base.
- Add dark cocoa to the brownie mix. Add the egg, oil and water, blending together until all dry ingredients are moistened. Fold in the extra chocolate pieces. Spread batter evenly into baking dish.
- Spoon dollops of the peanut butter mixture randomly over the top of the brownie base. You may find that you have a little bit of the peanut butter mixture left over, as I did. But if that’s the case, just follow my lead and eat it straight off the spatula, the beaters, the bowl, and that little bit that spattered on the counter. No problem (it’s delicious).
- Use a butter knife blade to drag the peanut butter dollops through the brownies, marbling as much or as little as you like.
- Use your hands to break the mini pretzels into pieces, scattering them all over the brownies. Sprinkle on a few pinches of coarse sea salt (optional).
- Bake brownies 45 to 50 minutes, according to package instructions. Cool completely before cutting, and try not to eat the whole batch in one evening.
Comfort du Jour 
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