If you have never had or heard of a Buckeye then you have really missed out.  Your life is not quite complete.  I have never actually made them.  But I have eaten them plenty of times in my life.  I believe I even have a faint memory of my mother making them without the chocolate and calling them peanut butter balls.

They are basically a no bake candy shaped into a ball (like a truffle) made from butter, peanut butter, and powdered sugar (other ingredients will vary).  The balls are then partially dipped in chocolate leaving a little of the peanut butter showing.  They are apparently meant to resemble some nut called a buckeye.  I don’t really care about that.  I just care that their consistency resembles the inside of a Reese’s peanut butter cup.  That is really all that matters!  And this is what I was going for here.  I went to Smitten Kitchen to look at her Buckeye recipe because she perfects traditional recipes.  She put cream cheese and gram crackers in hers.  So I put cream cheese and Ritz in mine.  These brownies turned out to be super rich (the best consistency ever!) but not overly sweet. I also did not follow the directions on the box for the brownies.  Only three more baking mixes left in my pantry, and they are turning out better than ever now! Oh well, I still want to get to know all about scratch baking.

Ingredients:

Brownies:

-One 18.3 oz. box brownie mix (I used Duncan Hines chewy fudge brownies)

-4 egg yolks + 1 whole egg

– ¼ c. milk (I used skim)

– ¾ c. grapeseed oil (you could use vegetable oil)

~1 c. Peanut Butter Ritz Bits

Preheat your oven to 350° F.  Stir first four ingredients until combined. With a mixer beat on medium speed for 1 minute.  Pour half of the batter into a parchment lined 9” X 13” baking pan.  Tilt pan to spread batter evenly in the bottom.  Spread Ritz Bits evenly over the first layer of batter.  Pour the remaining batter evenly over the Ritz bits.  Bake brownies for 45 minutes.  Remove from oven and let brownies cool completely in pan.

Icing:

-1 oz. cream cheese

– ¾ c. creamy peanut butter

-4 Tbsp. melted or softened butter (I used unsalted)

– ½ c. regular Ritz cracker crumbs (~24 crackers blended until fine in a food processor or blender)

-1 c. powdered sugar

-3 Tbsp. heavy cream

In a medium sized bowl cream cheese, peanut butter, and butter until well combined. Add cracker crumbs, mix well.  Add powdered sugar, mix well. Add heavy cream 1 Tbsp. at a time mixing well between each addition.  The consistency will be like very soft play dough.  Dump frosting on top of the brownies.  Use your (clean) hands to press the icing evenly out over the top of the brownies.  To get rid of the finger print evidence drag a spatula lightly over the top of the icing.  This will give it a crumbly look.  Remove brownies from pan using the edges of the parchment.  Set on cutting board and slice into 8 to 16 bars.  Now EAT Them!!!! (Recipe loosely adapted from Smitten Kitchen)