From Scratch fudge brownies stuffed with peanut butter and dark chocolate M&M's!

Tonight I am going over to my friend Kristen's house for dinner! When I asked her what I could bring of course she said dessert..surprise surprise, obviously cause I am SUCH a good baker;) ha Anyway, immediately I started looking brownies on Foodgawker.com as they have so many great ideas and recipes. I wanted to try to make something from scratch as well and what better time! I ended up using a recipe courtesy of Buns in my Oven. I must say I never knew how fatty brownies were, but hey, it did not stop me or make me try to substitute any ingredient to make them healthy! I will say the one thing I did do differently was I did have peanut butter M&M's and half dark chocolate M&M's. Kristen is a chocoholic so the more the merrier!
Now I will say the batter is quite thick, so a little hard to spread, but they came out delish. When I make them again, I may only keep them in the 30 mins recommended. The top still looked a little wet to me, so I let them stay a few mins extra and they are still chewy, but not as chewy as I would like. They are loaded with the M&M's and super fudgy! I definitely recommend making them! I hope everyone likes them as much as I did! Enjoy-

Peanut Butter and Dark Chocolate M&M Brownies:

Ingredients

• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter
• 2 1/4 cups sugar
• 4 large eggs
• 1 1/4 cups cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon espresso powder, optional
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3 cups peanut butter M&Ms

Instructions

1. Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9×13 baking dish.
2. In small saucepan over low heat, melt butter completely. Stir in sugar and continue cooking for 1-2 minutes, stirring constantly. Do not allow sugar mixture to boil.
3. Pour butter mixture into a large bowl or stand mixer, beat in cocoa powder, eggs, salt, baking powder, espresso powder, and vanilla extract. Mix until well combined.
4. Stir in the flour and chocolate chips until well combined.
5. Pour into prepared pan and bake for about 30 minutes, until a tester comes out mostly clean. The edges should be set and the center should still look slightly moist, but not uncooked. Cool on a wire rack.