Whole Wheat Chocolate Peanut Butter Brownies

These brownies are deep and rich, definitely for the chocolate lover. I won't pretend they are good for you, but they sure taste good.

I have found a few tips in baking brownies with whole wheat flour.

The first is NOT to over bake.  The general method of baking until a toothpick inserted in the center of the bars comes out clean - does not work for brownies. I bake until the outside edges are slightly browned (which doesn't work for this recipe since they are so dark) or dry looking. The center of the bars will still be gooey and damp looking. As they cool, they will continue to bake. The result will be a moist and chewy brownie.

Whole wheat flour has a tendency to make baked goods taste grainy or gritty. As much as I want to dive in a eat these the first day, I find that waiting a day before cutting and serving really helps. Apparently, the bran in the whole wheat flour softens and becomes less obtrusive.

Do you have any tips for baking with whole grains?

Whole Wheat Chocolate Peanut Butter Brownies

1 cup butter
2 cup brown sugar (or a little less)
3 eggs
1/2 cup plain yogurt or sour cream
2 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup cocoa
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 cup natural peanut butter
1/2 cup milk

Cream butter and sugar together. Mix in eggs and yogurt until well blended. Stir in flour, cocoa, salt and baking powder.

Spread half of dough in greased 9x13 pan. In another bowl, mix peanut butter and milk together. Add more milk if needed to make peanut butter easily spreadable. Spread peanut butter over chocolate dough. Top with remaining dough.

Bake at 350 for 25 minutes.

If you don't care for peanut butter, you could probably just omit the peanut butter layer for a chocolate fudge brownie.