Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and Almond Covered Brownie Popsicles

The title of this post sounds delicious, doesn't it?

I am so excited to share this fun alternative popsicle that you can easily make for friends and family! I don't believe anyone will refuse to sink their teeth into this brownie goodness! Popsicles are traditionally frozen ice cream, frozen yogurt or juice, all of which are quite tasty. BUT sometimes they deserve to be a little more decadent than their normal selfs. So if you want to know a little more about this popsicle twist, then read on!

Today I'm sharing an inventive way to use brownie mix! Most of us enjoy biting into a regular brownie and don't really have any ideas on how to reinvent it. I wanted to put a new spin on it and make it into an alternative popsicle. One that you can eat in every season regardless of weather. And one where you can head to your nearest dollarama to buy the necessary ingredients.

Your shopping list.

In your shopping cart at dollarama, you will need the following:

Pillsbury Chewy Fudge Brownie Mix
10 pack Reese's Peanut Butter Cups
Small pack of salted almonds (optional)
Popsicle sticks

The rest of the ingredients to make the brownie mixture will require ingredients from home.

Start by making your brownie mix.

Just follow the directions on the box! Make sure to check if you have vegetable oil and eggs in your kitchen. That is what the box asks for. Obviously you have water.

Pretty easy start! Preparing the brownie mixture takes no more than 5 minutes. And you get to lick the bowl afterwards! Well...not lick the bowl but use a spoon and scrape off the fudgey mix from the sides, and soon enter into a minute of bliss that you only ever read about it books.

Next, you'll want to check the back of the package and determine which size oven pan you will be using because that can affect your baking time. Or as its always been, you can check using a clean tooth pick. I would suggest a small pan so your "popsicles" are thicker in size.

I lined my pan with parchment paper to avoid the brownies from sticking to the bottom. You can also use butter. I did use butter at first until I remembered I had parchment paper that serves the exact same purpose but without the buttery mess.

Approximately 35 minutes later you'll have brownies. Now you have to keep resisting the urge to roll it up in a tube and eat it like it's a burrito. No. Not today. You're getting closer to the popsicle part.

Once they have been removed from the oven, it's best to let them cool off. I would prefer to cut my "popsicles" when they've cooled off and are solid enough to retain its structure. Because let's face it, cutting into warm, moist, fudgy brownies only ends up in having no brownies.

Anyhow, after about 45 minutes of cooling down, you can begin the cutting process. For more equal sized "popsicles", cut vertically through the centre to create two pieces, then cut those pieces in half. I did not follow those rules because I JUST thought of it now.

Put all brownies on one plate (if you can) and place in freezer for couple hours.

The Almond Crunch. (Optional)

I decided that it would be a great idea to include crushed almonds for its exterior coating. I also included it inside the dip as well. Simply grab a handful of almonds and chop them to your desired size. It's a good idea to have to part prepared before you start working on melting your reese's. And since I wanted to include it in my dip, I had to prepare it first.

Grab your popsicle sticks.

Before we move onto making the dip, you have to prepare your "popsicles" for dipping. This step is easy. First you must remove your brownies from the freezer and grab your popsicle sticks. I had coloured ones on me at the time. I would have preferred ones without colour. Now simply pierce through the bottom until you feel it is stable enough to hold the brownie.

Let's start on that Reese's Peanut Butter Cup dip.

I love reese's peanut butter cups and I thought, why not use this as the dip! I wanted it to look like the chocolate dipped cone that I frequently fantasize about. In my head everything worked out. But as life would have it, it didn't work out the way I wanted of course. You see, melting reese's peanut butter cups over the stove top doesn't necessarily melt it in that silky smooth texture you'd need dip the "popsicle" in. Anyhow I fixed it.

I melted the cups over medium high heat. It didn't take too long before they started to melt. And I say that only about the chocolate coating. The peanut butter absorbed the melted chocolate and created a thick paste like texture. That was not the texture I was looking for! So I added some water. It worked. It gave me the consistency I was looking for. Yay! Then all of a sudden it starts to smell like...burnt chocolate. I swear the feeling is equivalent to dropping your phone. So I tasted it and it's barely noticeable! I add in half the crushed almonds and continue as normal.

Time for dippin'.

Well, it sounds more like.. time for holding firmly onto the stick and dispensing the sauce from your spoon onto your brownie until it covers the entire surface area. Easy! Sprinkle on the rest of the crushed almonds and lay them to rest on a sheet pan to go back to the freezer.

The last thing you need to do is wait a couple hours while until the chocolate hardens. Then you're safe to eat as many as you can handle. But do please share with friends and family. They'll love it!!

My thoughts on this brownie popsicle adventure...

Let's see. Gathering all the events that happened during the making of these brownie popsicles. I'd do it again. I would tweak some stuff. I would probably not burn the chocolate/peanut butter sauce like I did. But all that stuff aside, I think this is a great idea! It's tasty, it's cool and it's fudgy!