Gluten-free Buckeye Brownies

I never heard of Buckeyes until Dustin, who is originally from Ohio, got me hooked on introduced me to them 7 years ago when we visited his family. They look just like the candy form of the tree’s acorn and taste like a Reese’s peanut butter cup. The exposed PB center is like a little flirtatious eye inviting you to take a bite of it. They’re my second favorite thing to come out of Ohio. hehe

When I saw this recipe on Yammie’s Noshery, I knew I had to make them for Dustin. In his top 20 favorite foods brownies and Buckeyes rank pretty high, so putting them together was sure to tickle his fancy.

I’m a huge fan of Betty Crocker gluten-free cookie, cake, and brownie mixes.

Unlike other box mixes, I think the ingredients are actually really decent and not unlike what I would use to make a gluten-free batter from scratch:

The brownies by themselves are perfectly fudgy and chocolaty, and you’d never know they are gluten-free, but add a layer of peanut buttery goodness and a chocolate shell? Brownie heaven!

I followed this recipe  but made some slight changes:

• I used a 9×9 baking pan instead of a 9×13 pan
• I made them gluten-free with Betty Crocker gluten-free brownie mix
• I used just 1 cup of Enjoy Life mini chocolate chips (dairy-, nut-, and soy-free) instead of 1.5 cups and mixed in 1 TBSP coconut oil to the melted chocolate and melted it in a double boiler (stainless steel bowl on boiling pot of water)

I ended up with ~one cup of extra peanut butter fluff. I need to find a use for it! Just a spoon would suffice, I think. It’s so light and fluffy and creamy! I had to employ all of my willpower not to eat it all right on the spot.

Dustin was a happy little hacker. I think he named each one of them, haha.

If it’s cold (below 38 degrees F) where you are and you don’t have freezer space available, you can do what I did and use the outdoor as a freezer. I covered the pan with foil and placed them on a stool outside the sliding doors in the kitchen. Probably the only good thing about winter: Outside can provide a lot of extra temporary refrigerator or freezer storage, ha!

Tagged as: Betty Crocker gluten-free, brownies, Buckeyes, chocolate, desserts, gluten-free, gluten-free brownies, peanut butter