Welcome to the August 2nd, 2015 edition of Sunday Scratchups, your weekly recipe from scratch (or in this case, semi-scratch) around grocery sales and affordable ingredients. This week’s mystery sale ingredients: Peanut butter and brownie mix! So you know how a lot of my Sunday Scratchups recipes are healthier and/or allergy friendly? Well…

This ain’t one of them.

Peanut Butter Banana Brownies are straight up doctored-box-mix comfort food, coming out more like a chocolate banana bread than a gooey brownie. The peanut butter and banana add a little something to the basic box mix, though, and these taste at least slightly closer to homemade than the original box recipe.

What are we doing here…?

Earlier this week, I picked up a jar of Smucker’s natural peanut butter for $1.49 (reallllly good, by the way) and a box of brownie mix for $.25. I also had a bunch of overripe bananas left here from when family was in town earlier this week, so decided to substitute a couple of those for the oil originally called for in the box recipe, and to cook it in a smaller pan in order to create a thicker more cake-like brownie banana bread. And so we have…

Peanut Butter Banana Brownies!

Ingredients

1 box brownie mix
2 overripe bananas
2 eggs
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
1/4 cup creamy natural peanut butter
1/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (optional)

Directions

Mix brownie mix, eggs, and water in large bowl. Slice bananas into coins, add to bowl, and whisk in until fairly smooth. Stir in walnuts. Grease an 11×7 glass pan and pour in batter. Drizzle on peanut butter, then swirl with a butter knife. (Note: If you aren’t using the goopier natural peanut butter you’ll need to warm it in the microwave for 15-20 seconds to liquify a bit before pouring on brownies.)

Scatter chocolate chips on top. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the center pulls out clean.

Yum yum comfort food

See? How could that be bad! You can even pretend it’s healthy with the bananas and natural peanut butter and all, and I sure won’t tell anyone. 😉 These are rich, chocolatey, and satisfying, and the peanut butter chocolate chip topping perfectly complements the brownie & bananas combination.

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Peanut Butter Banana Brownies

Doctor up a boxed brownie mix into something a little more special!

Course Dessert

Total Time 55

Author Rachel Singer

Ingredients

1 box brownie mix
2 overripe bananas
2 eggs
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup chopped walnuts optional
1/4 cup creamy natural peanut butter
1/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips optional

Instructions

Mix brownie mix, eggs, and water in large bowl.
Slice bananas into coins, add to bowl, and whisk in until fairly smooth.
Stir in walnuts.
Grease an 11x7 glass pan and pour in batter.
Drizzle on peanut butter, then swirl with a butter knife.
(Note: If you aren't using the goopier natural peanut butter you'll need to warm it in the microwave for 15-20 seconds to liquify a bit before pouring on brownies.)
Scatter chocolate chips on top.
Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the center pulls out clean.