Baby Peanut Butter Pretzel Brownie Cupcakes!

Awhile back, when I first discovered lovely Joy the Baker, I bookmarked a brownie recipe of hers - these heavenly-looking Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzel Brownies. The combination of sweet n' salty, always a winner in my book, grabbed my attention right away. I'm not a big brownie maker so I decided to convert this recipe to mini cupcakes. I also didn't feel the need to make the peanut butter into a sauce by adding sugar and vanilla extract, so I simply swirled creamy peanut butter onto the brownie cupcakes once cooled, and topped with a pretzel. I had to spray the mini cupcake liners to death with Pam, or else the brownie batter would've stuck like glue (and it still did, a teeny bit). The end effect is lovely, perfectly sized chocolatey, peanuty, pretzely (yes, these are all words) bites!

Note the adorable mini cupcake spatula, courtesy of Crate & Barrel!

My dinner consisted of an alarming amount of the above brownie cupcake minis, half a bottle of Merlot, and a plate of raspberries, cheese rounds, and olive crackers! :)