Peanut Butter Swirl Vegan Brownies!
(Makes 12-15 brownies, depending on size)

Greetings! I know – I know… it has been quite some time since my post. Almost 2 months 😕 but for good reason(s). We’ve had so many great things happen these last couple of months. We’re grandparents now – that is huge news! Our eldest Megan brought baby Nadia into this world in April. 🙂 I am now “GJ” (Grandma Jess) and Seth is Pop-Pop. In addition to that BIG news, Seth and I recently celebrated our anniversary. Some amazing years with such an incredible man. I love him so much 💕! Aside from all these great things, my time has generally been consumed with classes. This past semester was a bit more demanding on my brain than I anticipated. With my creative process on pause, we’ve had a lot of easy dinners or we’ve just been eating out recently, hehe! Hoping to get back in the swing of things on April 3^rd – Jasmine was begging me to make a dessert. She wanted to take a different approach on brownies and this recipe was easy enough. Using my basic brownie recipe I changed the topping of my rocky road brownies and swapped with a peanut butter swirl. I hope you enjoy this one – I look forward to reading your blogs and exploring some new ones too.

Ingredients:
2 cups All-Purpose Flour
2 cups White Sugar
½ cup Cocoa Powder
1 teaspoon Baking Powder
1 teaspoon Salt
1 cup Water
½ cup Canola Oil
¼ Cup Earth Balance, melted (optional)
¾ cup Applesauce
1 teaspoon Vanilla
½ Cup Chocolate Chips (I use Enjoy Life Semi-Sweet), optional
(Note: I omit the Earth Balance from original recipe only because I’m using it in the topping also).

Toppings:
3 Tbsp Earth Balance (vegan butter)
¼ Cup Peanut Butter
3 Tbsp Powdered Sugar

Directions:
-Preheat Oven 350 degrees F. Prepare 7×11 Brownie Pan (Earth Balance/Flour or vegan cooking spray if you prefer.
-Combine all dry ingredients – whisk together. As I always say then ditch the whisk and incorporate wet ingredients mix with a spoon until combined. Add chocolate chips into batter, optional. Pour into prepared baking pan.
Topping:
-Melt earth balance vegan butter and mix into peanut butter adding powdered sugar. Combine until smooth.

-Place dollops of peanut butter topping onto brownies and swirl with a knife.
 -Bake at 350-degrees for 30-40 minutes – checking for doneness after 30 minutes with a toothpick (toothpick should come out clean – in the center avoid a spot near a chocolate chip to not confuse the test).

Enjoy!