Peanut Butter Cup Brownie Cupcakes

Candy was on sale at the grocery store, and wouldn't you know it I had coupons for them as well!! Now that I'm all stocked up on candy, it was time to use some of it.  I wanted to try a tweak in a favorite recipe of mine, so I switched out the mint patty in the middle and replaced it with a peanut butter cup. Huge success!! The changes I made were good, still working on making it perfect.  But you could throw any piece of candy in the middle of these brownies that you wanted to.  Peppermint Pattys, Peanut Butter Cups, Rolos, Snickers, Milky Ways, I could go on but you get the idea.  The only thing I don't ever recommend you putting in the middle of something is something with wafers in the candy, like a Kit Kat bar.  I've tried many times to use them in things and the wafer part just ends up getting extremely hard and crunchy and doesn't go well with the treat you put them in.  So put whatever you feel like in the middle of your brownie,   I'm sure amazing combinations are out there. 

a little surprise in the middle

Peanut Butter Cup Brownie Cupcakes

makes 12

8 oz semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into pieces, room temperature

1 cup sugar

3/4 tsp salt

3 large eggs

1/2 cup all purpose flour

1/4 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder, sifted

12 mini Peanut Butter Cups, unwrapped

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line a standard muffin tin with paper liners.  Place chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl set over (not in) a pan of simmering water.  Stir occasionally just until melted, 4-5 minutes.
2. Remove bowl from heat.  Whisk in sugar and salt until mixture is smooth; whisk in eggs to combine.  Gently whisk in flour and cocoa just until smooth (do not overmix).
3. Spoon 1 heaping tbsp of batter into each lined cup. Place 1 peanut butter cup on top, gently pressing into batter.  Top with 2 tbsp batter, covering patty completely.  Bake, rotating tin halfway through, until a cake tester inserted halfway in centers (above peanut butter cup) comes out with only a few moist crumbs attached, about 35 minutes.  Transfer tin to a wire rack to cool completely before removing cupcakes.