I’m sure you have leftover Halloween candy. We have TONS. We stupidly spent way too much money on it, too. It was our first Halloween in our new house and the neighborhood is swarming with kids. We were both certain we’d have a ton of kiddos come to the door. We decided to be prepared. Annnnd we shouldn’t have. We had like tops 20 kids come.
Halloween just isn’t like what it used to be anymore. You could always bank on having hoards of kids coming to your door and running out of candy. Now, you’re basically begging for kids to come take the candy and when they do show up, you give them seven fistfuls of candy because you know they’re the only ones you’re getting that night.
It’s funny how generations change. When I was young, Halloween was huge. We didn’t have to really worry about safety or danger of other people, you know? It was a lot less rules. Now, it’s like parents are so scared that they don’t let their kids go trick-or-treating anymore and they play it safe and take them to the mall to do the trick-or-treating. Maybe by the time my friends and I start having kids, it’ll change again and we’ll bring back Halloween and we’ll all run out of candy again at our houses.
So, since we had way too much leftover candy, I stole all the Reese’s peanut butter cups and baked them into a brownie. I figured it’d be a good idea, and let me tell you: it was better than good. It was brilliant. The fudgey and chewy brownie envelopes the Reese’s peanut butter cup. It’s the best surprise, ever, when you take bite into what you think is just a plain ole brownie. Chocolate and peanut butter. Two of the best ingredients collide and make a happy, decadent dessert :)
Reese’s Cup Brownies
Yield: 9 brownies | Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cook Time: 35-40 minutes
Ingredients:
1 cup unsalted butter
2 cups granulated sugar
2 tsp. vanilla extract
4 large eggs
3/4 cup Dutch processed cocoa
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
16 Reese’s peanut butter cups (snack size)
Instructions:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9×9 baking pan with cooking spray. Set aside.
- In a saucepan, melt butter over medium heat then remove from heat.
- Stir in sugar and vanilla extract. Add eggs, one at a time, and incorporating each egg in before adding another one.
- In a large bowl, sift together cocoa powder, flour, baking powder, and salt.
- Pour into saucepot and stir until all is combined and a thick batter is formed.
- Pour half the batter into the prepared baking pan and place Reese’s cups next to each other. There should be 4 in each row.
- Pour the rest of the batter on top of the Reese’s cups, covering them. Spread the batter gently with an offset spatula to make sure everything is covered.
- Bake for 35-40 minutes then remove from oven and let brownies cool in pan until room temperature.
- Using a paring knife, run it around the edge of the pan to loosen the brownies. Flip over onto cutting board and slice into squares.
- Store in airtight container for up to 5 days.
Source: brownie recipe from Two Peas & Their Pod
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These look dangerous!
Halloween is definitely different now. Although I have never taken my kids to the mall to Trick or Treat…we usually just pick a safe neighborhood and then trail the kids closely. I need to go steal all the Reeses out of my kids bags because these brownies look super duper incredible. Love me some Reeses inside a chocolatey brownie:-)
My mouth is watering— yum!
Reeses are my favorite candy..we keep them in our freezer year round. Im so in love. The gooey-ness here is making me want to eat these up for breakfast! Beautiful!
Haha, we still get the hoards at our house – we run out of candy every year no matter how much we buy! Of course then we go and buy some on sale to have for snacking afterward :) These brownies sound so fantastically decadent!
If we lived closer, you wouldn’t have had any reese’s cups left because I would’ve come over + devoured them all. =) And these brownies? Look amazing! Wish I had one for breakfast! =)
I’d have a very hard time not heating the whole pan…they look incredible!
Yum! i can’t wait to try these! They would be perfect to take to someone who needs a smile sent their way.
I need these in my life. Like now!
HOLY EFFING CRAP DOT.COM. Send these to me. NOW via parcel service. :) to london. YES. Love this.
We’ve had the same experience with Trick Or Treat. This year, we went to our church to do a Trunk or Treat (where you decorate your trunks and pass our candy…we also give groceries and hot dogs out to needy families), because last year Jon David didn’t get any candy — noone was home!! Poor kid went to street after street and maybe got twelve houses total. However — at the church we passed candy out to almost a thousand kids!!
You really can’t go wrong with Reeses and brownies. Ever.
We live in an apartment, so we don’t get trick-or-treaters either. And our daughter is still to little to go out. So Halloween pretty much didn’t exist for us this year. We were kind of party poopers.
I love the look of these brownies!
I did the same thing with the candy! Except I packaged it up into 3 gallon size bags and sent it far far away! With me being pregnant I want to eat it all.
oh these look fab. we get over 100 kids each year and hardly ever have any candy leftover.
I didn’t even BUY candy for trick-or-treaters (we live in an apartment), but somehow still wound up with a massive quantity anyway! Thanks for the ooey gooey idea to help me solve my “problem.”
And I totally know what you mean about parents being nervous–when I was younger, my mom literally opened the door and kicked us out for a few hours to go crazy!
Oh my gosh–I totally agree! I remember as a kid, my siblings and I had to push through throngs of dressed-up kids to beat them to the houses first… haha we had some kind of weird competition to get the most candy, I’m sure, and boy, did we! Heavy, heaping pillowcases full. And now… we handed out candy to MAAAAAYBE 10 kids. And that was AFTER we desperately recruited them from the street lol! Anyway, this is an awesome idea to reuse those Reese’s cups–and a brilliant one, let me say. They look so fudgy and delectable!
Seriously?! That few of kids? Our neighborhood is crazy busy on Halloween. We took our 7 year old out with a friend, and we turned down one street and there had to have been atleast 70 kids running around that block alone! It is a madhouse!
Love these brownies, pb and chocolate is always the best!
Oh my goodness..those are popping out of the screen! LOVE IT!
These look insanely good and I love the giant pictures – feels like I could reach into my screen and grab one (if only)!
Wow, I wish you lived next door to me so I could come over and have one of these beauties!!
what a great idea to use up the leftovers. and peanutbutter and chocolate is match made in heaven, and combined into brownie is the best that could happen.
Holy cow, Julie! I want to come over and help you eat these!!!!
We didn’t have any Trick or Treaters… but then again we live out in the middle of no where so I didn’t even buy any candy. But after seeing these I’m kinda sad that I don’t have any left over candy that I need to use up. Lucky for me, all the Halloween candy is on sale now haha, so I can just go get some for cheap.
What did you JUST DO? Seriously, now this is all I can think about. You jerk ;)
Best use of Halloween candy ever. I’m coming to your house! :)
These look amazing! I want! And yeah, I had to sit on my front porch so people would stop for candy. I miss the old days. haha
Amazing! This is the best use for Halloween candy!
Fabulous idea for using leftover candy. These look perfect!!
I love love reeses…my problem would be saving them to actually cook with them. LOL and brownies are my fav so this desert sounds oh so good!
I’d say it’s less about being scared and more about being in a place away from the weather. I know a lot of people love mall trick or treating and we’ve thought about it but never made it there. I’m honestly fearful at how mobbed that might be! Oh and seriously jealous of your Reese’s leftovers. The kids didn’t even bring a single one home from their brief outing.
I agree with someone above who said they don’t know if they could save enough Reese’s to cook these with…. they are my fave!! I’ve gotta try these though, they sound so decadent and delicious!
YUMMM! I love Reese’s in brownies!! These will surely brighten anyone’s Monday :)
It’s funny, when I was handing out candy I was torn between handing them two giant handfuls or just a few pieces – part of me wanted to get rid of it since there weren’t many kinds out and about, and the other part of me was worried that we would run out…strange, I know!
What a great way to use up leftover Halloween candy! And, er… stretch it a little further ;)
Uhh… HELLO BROWNIE. I shall devour you now.
I loved Halloween as a kid! I would be so excited to pass out candy when I get older. I hope kids will go out more.
Very Very brilliant, indeed. If only I didn’t eat all the Reese’s plain…
These brownies look so, so delicious!!
I think I just gained 5 lbs just looking at these brownies… totally worth it by the way! :P
I had ONE knock on Halloween. ONE. Thank goodness I was that horrible person who opted to just not buy candy at all so I didn’t have loads of it around – but now, I don’t have loads of candy around so I can’t make THESE!! AHHH Catch 22!!! Noooo!
Need. these. Yesterday.
Awww I’m sorry not many kids came by but it looks like you put great use to the leftover candy! These brownies are absolute sinful!
Oh hubs definitely needs to stay away from this. He’s so addicted to Reeses. Looks so yummylicious and I just can’t stop looking at those lovely pictures. BTW, it’s so true that Halloween is different these days. We had no kids knocking on the door and we live in a secluded area. Thankfully….I didn’t prepare candy, completely forgot, lol.
Ugh, we have so much candy left over. We weren’t sure if we would have any kids in the complex our new townhome is in. But, nope, not one. Too many young people living here. Oh well, I guess I will just HAVE to make these amazing brownies! ;)
Yep, I’m convinced, This is the most PERFECT way to use up any reese’s PB cups from post halloween trick-or-treating. The brownies looks insane Julie. You know how I feel about PB and chocolate!!!
This is the best thing ever.
Best.Brownies.Ever.
Halloween has changed, it’s quite sad. But these brownies do make up for it
These look UHmazeballs!
I agree about Halloween… another thing I’ve noticed (I live in the Midwest) is that nobody trick-or-treats when it’s dark outside. Where’s the fun in that???
oh my GAWD. My fave in a brownie. I LOVE this.
What a seriously great idea! I wish I would have thought of it first ;) But really, brownies will be the death of me one day. They are the one think I cannot seem to bake. It is pretty much always a fail… I guess I need to practice haha. These look beautiful Julie! :)
I like how you layered the candy in the brownie mix. Neat idea; hadn’t thought of trying that.
Interesting because I bake Reeses’ brownies for a local restaurant. Alas, though, I’m forced to use a boxed mix because it’s cheaper.
But at home? Yeah…from scratch.
Hi Julie
you are So right about chocolate and peanut butter being two of the best ingredients. What a marriage made in Heaven, right?
Some time ago I made a peanut butter and fudge ice cream pie which so many of us got to enjoy.
Another amazing combination is orange and chocolate i.e. jaffa. Several times now I’ve added either orange juice and/or orange zest into a chocolate cake or brownie with really good results.
Thanks for sharing your recipe with us.
A fantastic idea for leftover candy–although it’s also sad how now, parents won’t even let their kids eat something that’s not store-bought and completely sealed (i.e. if I tried to make and pass these out instead for Halloween, I’m pretty sure I’d be suspected of poisoning predilections…). Still, these look absolutely fantastic! Good ol’ Halloween, I miss you.
I’ve been really craving brownies lately, and these look delicious and moist!! I love adding candies to brownies to make them a bit more fun! You have some delicious recipes here on your blog with beautiful pics. :)
Blessings,
Leslie
Thanks, Leslie! I just hopped on over to your blog and your “what I’m thankful post” was wonderful and bittersweet but more-so I love your attitude and optimism. I’m so happy you came across my blog – I’ll be a regular reader now on yours! xoxo
We should’ve brought Judah to YOUR house for Halloween! Instead, we trick-or-treated in our friends’ neighborhood, where no one was home, but they left a bowl of candy and a sign saying “Take one, Happy Halloween!” I like it more when people are home and the kids have to say “Trick or Treat!” in order to get their candy! :)
btw, pregnant girl here has to make these brownies…now!!!
I need these brownies in my life. With reese’s? Oh wow :D
Great minds think alike! Brownies are the perfect way to use up halloween candy!:)
At the risk of sounding like a huge fangirl of table for two and Julie (guilty as charged) these were too good to share. The best part of being Julie’s hairstylist is 1- chatting with her about well everything and 2-HER SNACKS. I get to preview these things before they hit Table for two. This just is unfair because I then have to wait forever for the recipe.
These I refused to share with my husband. I told him if he ate the second one he’d wake up missing limbs. So I can’t tell you his opinion until I bake them.
Julie you did it again, you harmonized my good friends sweet and salty….chocolate and peanut.
I’m the worlds crappiest baker but you are inspiring me I give it a go…. Great cook bad baker I think you’re one or the other. I’ll let you know what happens soon!
OMG if the finished product is half as good as the batter, I’m in big trouble!!! I think the base brownie recipe will be good go to recipe.