Dark Chocolate Pumpkin Spice Brownies

September, my love! Where have you been! I’m so glad that you’ve returned to me! Lets rejoice and celebrate with my first pumpkin spice recipe of the year, Dark Chocolate Pumpkin Spice Brownies!

Ok, I’ve been crazy about summer this year and I actually loved it but I will admit that when the smell of Pumpkin Spice starts to creep through my house, my heart feels like it’s going to burst with excitement!  Yes, summer is nice with the beaches and sun and pools, but my heart belongs to fall with it’s pumpkins, apples and colored leaves.

The other day, Meghan tagged me in a photo of a bag of Pumpkin Spice M&Ms that she had bought. My mind immediately went to brownies! Isn’t that weird how that happens? Of all the things I could have thought about, I thought brownies. haha.

But indeed I did think of brownies and I couldn’t stop thinking of brownies. I’ve never been one to make brownies from scratch. I’ve always made the boxed kind because I couldn’t find a from scratch recipe that I really liked. They all seemed to be cake like and that wasn’t what I wanted. If I wanted cake, I’d make cake! haha

I knew though that if I was going to make these Pumpkin Spice brownies and if I was going to share them with you that I better figure out how to make them from scratch. (There is nothing wrong with box mixes! If you want to use a box mix of brownie mix for these, please do. I’m not going to stop using box mix, sorry. I just happened to make these from scratch this time)

So when I was trying to figure out what I was going to do, I remembered a brownie recipe that I had found on Jenny’s site, Picky- Palate. It was a “How to make Homemade Box Style Mix Brownies”. I love the texture of box brownies so I knew that this was probably what I was looking for. I changed it up just a bit.

I used coconut oil in place of the regular oil, I used dark cocoa powder, I added Pumpkin Spice and Pumpkin Spice M&Ms and I baked mine for a bit longer since I used a 9×9 pan. I also added chocolate frosting and pumpkin spice M&Ms to the top of mine.

So while I am in love with the flavor combination of the dark chocolate and pumpkin spice, if you’re looking for a regular, great from scratch brownie recipe be sure to check her’s out.

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(Printable Recipe Here)

Dark Chocolate Pumpkin Spice Brownies

by Angie Barrett 9-01-2013

Adapted from Picky- Palate‘s How to make Homemade Box Style Mix Brownies

Ingredients

1 stick butter, softened
2 tablespoons melted coconut oil
1.5 cups sugar
3 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 teaspoon pumpkin spice
1/2 cup flour
1 cup dark chocolate cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup Pumpkin Spice M&Ms (plus a few for topping the brownies)
Chocolate frosting (homemade or from a can)

Instructions 

Preheat the oven to 325F. 

In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the butter, coconut oil and the sugar. Mix until creamy.

Next mix in the eggs and vanilla. Mix in the pumpkin spice. Slowly mix in the flour, cocoa power and baking powder.

Remove bowl from mixer and fold in 1 cup Pumpkin Spice M&Ms.

Scoop batter into a 9×9 pan that is lined with foil or parchment paper. 

Bake for 1 hour or until done. 

Let cool completely. Cut into squares, frost brownies with chocolate icing and sprinkle with M&Ms 

Yields: 9 large brownies OR 12-16 small brownies

I’m linking to Tidy Mom’s I’m lovin it party!