Iron Skillet Peanut Butter Cup Brownies

Good Morning!
The weekend is almost here!  Tonight we're having friends over for a potluck style dinner.  It's going to be relaxed, and we're going to eat outside on the patio!  I've already got the mosquito stuff ready to go--they're so bad this year--flowers watered, umbrella sprayed off, and cute new patio pillows that Mom made!  I'm going to make fried chicken, a couple of desserts, and iced tea with mint.  My friends are bringing the sides.  I can't wait....but between extra cleaning in the house and cooking I'm going to be a little busy! 

It's a good kind of busy!

Right now, I want to introduce you to the brownies I made Mr. Cozy a couple of nights ago when he came home from his first day of orientation!  I had him a (favorite!)country style meal of Sticky Drumsticks, fried green tomatoes, buttermilk cornbread, salad and iron skillet peanut butter cup brownies for dessert.   It was quite the meal!

This recipe Iron Skillet Brownies come from Paula Deen's Just Desserts cookbook, which I love!  They're called that because you melt together the butter and chocolate in a cast iron skillet and then mix everything else in there, too.  I didn't have pecans so I substituted them with chopped up peanut butter cup (Reese's) candy bars and crumbled the them over the top.  Ahmazing!!  The brownies are actually baked in a 8x8 baking dish not the cast iron skillet, although it was kinda fun to mix the ingredients for a dessert over the stove top.  Only Paula would think of get out her cast iron for dessert, Ha!  I love it! 

The warm chocolate aroma was wafting through the house as our anticipation was building to take a bite!  With a scoop of vanilla ice cream, and a cold glass of milk, we each ate a piece that left us wanting more!  If you have a chocoholic in the family or are just having "one of those days" I hope you try this easy comforting recipe!  There's nothing better than a rich, fudgy brownie to give you that warm-fuzzy feeling we all need sometimes!

Enjoy:)

Iron Skillet Brownies
2 -1 oz. squares unsweetened chocolate

1/2 c. ( 1 stick) butter

1 c. sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp. pure vanilla extract

1/4 c. unbleached flour

1/4 tsp. salt

1 c. chopped pecans
(I substituted rough chopped peanut butter cups)



Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Grease an 8x8 baking pan.

Melt chocolate and butter in an iron skillet over medium heat.  Stir to prevent scorching.

Remove from heat and stir in sugar.

Add eggs and vanilla.

(Here's where I did things a little different than Paula.  I was leery about just adding eggs to a hot mixture, so I did temper the eggs first.  I cracked them into a small bowl and beat them with a little of the melted chocolate mixture.  Then I put all of the tempered eggs into the pan and everything turned out fine!)

Stir in flour, salt, and pecans. 

Mix well. Pour into prepared pan.

Bake for 40 minutes.  Let cool for a bit and cut into squares.

Yields 9 large or 16 small squares.

You'll have a happy tummy!