Peanut Butter Brownies
75 comments » 
It’s been a little while since I threw chocolate and peanut butter together in a sweet concoction. In fact, it’s been nearly a month since I made the Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Ice Cream. A month without chocolate and peanut butter together is much too long in my little world! Plus, I hadn’t been in the kitchen for nearly two weeks thanks to my ear infection, and peanut butter brownies sounded like the perfect way to get back in the saddle. Quick, easy, decadent and amazingly satisfying.
Given how much I adore the Baked brownie recipe, I immediately decided that I would use that for my base and add a peanut butter topping/swirl. I am very happy with my decision. Elated, actually.
The brownies are dense, fudgy and perfect. The peanut butter swirl… oh, the peanut butter swirl. It tastes like the inside of a buckeye. Only better. Sort of like the inside of a peanut butter cup or the base for peanut butter cup bars. Only better. It’s a dangerous, dangerous concoction.
I briefly contemplated not even adding the swirl and just plopping myself down on the couch with the bowl, a spoon and my DVR. But then sanity returned long enough for me to get the topping onto the batter, swirl it and pop it into the oven before I could be convinced otherwise.
I’m glad I did. Because you deserve peanut butter brownies. Plus, I don’t necessarily need an entire bowl of peanut butter heaven in order to catch up on Game of Thrones. Right? Right?
One year ago: Polenta French Toast
Two years ago: Traditional Hummus
Three years ago: Homemade Pita Bread
Four years ago: Taco Rice Salad
Peanut Butter Brownies
Yield: 24 brownies
Prep Time: 35 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes
Ingredients:
For the Brownies:
1¼ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons dark unsweetened cocoa powder
11 ounces dark chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 cup (8 ounces) unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 teaspoon instant espresso powder
1½ cups granulated sugar
½ cup packed light brown sugar
5 eggs, at room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extractFor the Peanut Butter Swirl:
½ cup (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted
1 cup powdered sugar
1½ cups creamy peanut butter
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extractDirections:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter the sides and bottom of a 9×13-inch glass or light-colored baking pan. Line the pan with parchment paper.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, salt, and cocoa powder together.
3. Put the chocolate, butter and instant espresso powder in a large bowl and set it over a saucepan of simmering water, stirring occasionally, until the chocolate and butter are completely melted and smooth. Turn off the heat, but keep the bowl over the water and add the sugars. Whisk until completely combined, then remove the bowl from the pan. The mixture should be room temperature.
4. Add 3 eggs to the chocolate mixture and whisk until combined. Add the remaining eggs and whisk until combined. Add the vanilla and stir until combined. Do not overbeat the batter at this stage or your brownies will be cakey.
5. Sprinkle the flour mixture over the chocolate mixture. Using a rubber spatula (not a whisk), fold the flour mixture into the chocolate until just a bit of the flour mixture is visible.
6. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top.
7. In a medium bowl, whisk together all of the peanut butter swirl ingredients. Using a spoon, place dollops of the peanut butter mixture all over the top of the brownie batter. Using a butter knife, swirl the chocolate and peanut butter, running the knife crosswise and lengthwise through the batters.
8. Bake in the center of the oven for 30 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through the baking time, until a toothpick inserted into the center of the brownies comes out with a few moist crumbs sticking to it. Let the brownies cool completely, then lift them out of the pan using the parchment paper. Cut into squares and serve.
9. Store at room temperature in an airtight container or wrap with plastic wrap for up to 3 days.
(Brownie recipe adapted from Baked: New Frontiers in Baking
; peanut butter swirl adapted from Martha Stewart)
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mmmm yes please! These look delightfully sinful. Can’t wait to try them!
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Made your peanut butter oatmeal chocolate chip cookies today and they were a big hit. These look yummy too!
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Looks gorgeous! I adore peanut butter and yet for some reason ahve never put the two into a brownie before. Yummy!
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Wow, these look incredible. Peanut butter and chocolate is such a great combination. I love putting swirls of flavour in my brownies – I recently made these Dulce de Leche ones http://bit.ly/fRfekq but will definitely be trying peanut butter v. soon!
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These look amazing! Chocolate and peanut butter is always at the top of my list:-) I think I would have made a double batch- 1 to eat out of the bowl and 1 to bake!
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The brownies look so moist and delicious! What a great recipe for summer picnics and trips to the beach!
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i baked your peanut butter, oatmeal & cc cookies yesterday…they are delicious….& since the jar of pb is still on my counter …& since i love the “baked” brownies…i cannot wait to make these beauties!
thanks for all your great recipes always!!
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Very good brownie recipe. I love the peanut butter oozing from the sides. Delicious!
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The brownies look amazing – but would it be a problem to omit the espresso powder? I have never been a fan of coffee or coffee flavorings.
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Michelle on May 24th, 2011 at 11:30 am
Hi Heather, You can omit the espresso powder, but know that it doesn’t impart a coffee or espresso flavor at all. Espresso powder is used in many chocolate recipes because it strengthens and enhances the richness of the chocolate flavor.
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Have I told you lately that I love you? Seriously, I love you! I seem to have the same chocolate/peanut butter obsession as you and I love that you enable me
Thank you for being you!! Can’t wait to make these for Memorial Day!
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I can never have enough peanut butter and chocolate. Although I too think it’s been awhile since I made something of the sort in my kitchen. I may need to follow your lead, these looks amazing!
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Wow. A combination I have never thought to put together for a brownie! Looks great.
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Ohh these look so fudge-y and amazing!!
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This looks DELICIOUS!
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I love that you weren’t shy with the peanut butter swirl! Too many peanut butter brownies only have a little tiny swirl, but these are my kind of pb brownies. And the Baked brownie is my favorite, so this sounds amazing!
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Oh what I would give for a scratch and snif screen right now!!!!!!!! I want these so bad I will be making them tonight.
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Ok, you had me at peanut butter…. It is only 8:30am and I am drooling! Wish I had a pan of these for breakfast. You rock!
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I love the HUGE PB swirl. I know my family will love these.
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Peanut butter and chocolate is my favorite combo! Love this!
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oh wow. pure amazingness. it’s a good thing i’m going to the grocery store in 20 minutes so i can get all of these ingredients!
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Seriously! You have no idea how long I have been craving just these. I was so excited when I saw your post on twitter about you making them. Thank you for sharing this recipe. Made my day
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Oh wow, those would be gone in like 3 seconds in my house…they look absolutely sinful!!
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These look amazing! There is nothing better than the peanut butter/chocolate combination
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Hope you are feeling much better, ear infections do not make for a happy camper! Am a little upset with this posting tho, now I am going to have to make these, pronto. They look unbelievable! A Memorial Day weekend treat???
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Sounds so good! I am going to have to find a reason to make these soon!!! Gald you are feeling better!
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These look amazing! I hope you are feeling much better now or at least the brownies help a little bit.
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If you could hear me, you’d know how much I want one of these. I’ve bookmarked this page and will make these at our first BBQ. WOW.
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I love the big HUGE gobs of peanut butter! These brownies are right up my alley!
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Peanut butter and chocolate? Sign me up. This looks amazing.
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Oh, gosh, this is genius! I’m not a fan of pb on it’s own, but I love Reeses! So the addition of powdered sugar has made it palatable…more than that…DECADENT!
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Chocolate and peanut butter…a deadly combination! I really shouldn’t read your blog when I am hungry. I would kill for one of these right now! They are definitely going on my “to-make=list”!
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Need to make these ASAP. I really don’t know what else to say
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Aaah… peanut butter
Yum! Your pictures are really pretty too 
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Ohh my..those huge chunks of peanut butter look just perfect.
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These look amazing! I love anything with chocolate and peanut butter. Beautiful brownies!
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now you have gone too far … just tooooooo far !
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I’m like a magnet to the combination of peanut butter and chocolate! These look so rich, decadent and delicious! My eyes are drooling at your photos! YUM!!
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Those pictures have me drooling, look at all of that peanut butter! I want these, now.
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Whoa. I love you. That’s all. These look AMAZING.
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these look too good to be true!
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Yum! I just made peanut butter brownies last week. So addiciting!
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I predict that these will be in my very immediate future! Oh my they look so good =) Kinda makes me want to skip work this morning and make a batch… they won’t mind, right? =)
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Would you stop with the pb and chocolate recipes already! Now here’s another one I’ll have to indulge myself in. What did I do to deserve this?
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Thank God I have a stash of chocolate (actually, I have a large stash at all times) because I’m drooling looking at these photos. I need some NOW! I just made some homemade peanut butter 2 days ago, so I can make these later this afternoon. They are gorgeous. Congrats on making Top 9!
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Peanut butter is one of our favorite things, especially combined with chocolate! This recipe will be a hit and between the two of us, will probably be gone within a day!
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I am bookmarking these. Can’t wait to try!
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Tried these today and unfortunately, mine did not look like yours. Getting the peanut butter mixture into the batter did not result in the large chunks pictured. I also had to cook them longer and still they are more like fudge than a brownie. No worries, my son will still eat them. Made the chocolate chip cookies last week and everyone loved them.
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Lynnette on May 29th, 2011 at 9:30 pm
I had trouble with these, too. Michelle’s peanut butter looks much more solid than mine turned out. And I had to bake them forever, and I still don’t think they’re right. I baked them for 40 minutes and they were super giggly, but I took them out anyway because my toothpick was clean. But after 30 mins on the counter, I decided to put them back in because they were clearly not done. So they baked at least another 30 mins. But they seem extremely oily. I measured my peanut butter by weight so maybe I had more than I should have had? I wish I knew what went wrong.
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Michelle on May 31st, 2011 at 10:37 pm
Hi Lynnette, If you measured the peanut butter by weight you should be spot on (I measure almost all of my ingredients by weight). Did you by any chance use natural peanut butter? It is “naturally” much more oily and that could have been why.
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Alisha on September 13th, 2011 at 7:51 am
I didn’t even bother reading the comments before making these, because everything I make from this site is just always perfectly amazing. Last night, I had the same problem- at 30 mins, the toothpick came out of the brownie perfectly clean, but the peanut butter parts were, as you said, “jiggly”. I couldn’t fathom how it could firm up with more cooking (it’s really just buttery-PB- YUM), so I took them out. This morn, they’re more like fudge (but taste SO good). I looked back at Martha Stewarts site where the PB recipe is adapted from, and realized the mistake I made- my PB mixture was pretty solid by the time it went in, and thus it didn’t swirl well, I should have made it just a minute before I used it (as the recipe above says- I just didn’t realize t was vital). Also, I had large pools of PB on top, where Martha and the pic. above show about a 50:50 mix choc & PB on top. Next time I’ll, spoon some choc. on top of the PB dollops, and I’m pretty sure that will take care of it. I think…I’ll follow up when I try…
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Congrats on Top 9 this is an amazing recipe and love the pics.
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Hi! I made these today and was all excited to eat it and it turned out a hot mess! I followed every step don’t know what I did wrong.
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I made these this weekend. They were fabulous! Thanks for a great recipe!
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I made these last weekend and had some difficulty, likely baker error
I don’t know if anyone else has 9×13 pans that seem to vary slightly in size (volume-wise)… but next time I make these, I’ll definitely use one of my larger pans. The batters filled up my pan too much and I had to bake them for nearly an hour until the center was set. The result was drier and denser than most brownies and the edges were too crispy, yet still delicious. I like to think of this flub as a good excuse to make the recipe again!
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Mmm…these look incredible. Can’t beat chocolate and peanut butter. I’m looking forward to trying this recipe!
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I just made these, but instead of making the brownies from scratch I used a box brownie mix and just made the peanut butter mix. It came out alright, I used an 8×8 pan and had to bake it twice as long but I knew that would happen. Although the brownies came out sort of crumbly(which was probably due to my impatience to let them cool enough) they also sort of melt in your mouth which I enjoyed. I will probably use this recipe again. Thanks!
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I loved, loved, LOVED these brownies but I baked them at 325 for closer to 45 mins or more. I frosted them with a milk chocolate icing – devine!
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I just baked these brownies. I believe that the cooking time is wrong. I baked them for 55 minutes or until a few crumbs attached themselves to the toothpick. The pan is a bit fuller than I would have wanted. I wonder if they would not do better in a jelly roll pan. I know they will be wonderful. How can you help with chocolate, peanut butter & 2 sticks of butter!!! Love your website so much. Thanks for all the time I know you put into it.
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I can never get enough of chocolate and peanut butter! I used your peanut butter fillingg recipe with my favorite brownie recipe from America’s Test Kitchen, and the result was amazing
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These are so delicious, everyone was raving about them!
I wanted to try and use the peanut butter swirl with chocolate cake. Should I mix it in like the brownies before the cake is baked, try and just spread it on top? Will doing it with cake even work??
Thanks!
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Michelle on November 11th, 2011 at 12:13 pm
Hi Olivia, I’ve never done this with a cake, but I think dropping it on top and swirling like the brownies would work.
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Olivia on November 11th, 2011 at 12:56 pm
ok great! I think Ill try it with a brownie first!
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Hi, I made these brownies last night and they turned out very dry, and the bottom layer raised to the top in the center. I followed the receipe exactly as instructed, the peanut butter layer came out runny, and foamy looking, do you happen to know what I might have done wrong? Help lol.
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Michelle on November 30th, 2011 at 3:15 pm
Oh yikes, so sorry about that! Unfortunately if you followed the recipe exactly and didn’t make any ingredient substitutions I’m not sure why it would have come out that way. Do you have an oven thermometer? Variations in oven temperature can cause crazy things to happen!
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Oh my oh my….I could just eat all that dough raw!!!! They look like something I’d want at my last meal. Drooooool…..
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I also think that perhaps the baking time is a bit off. I was sure to center my rack in the oven, and ended up having to put it in for 7 minutes, then 7 more, and then finally tried for 10 more after reading that another person had baked hers for 55 minutes. After 30 minutes of baking, it still looked very wet and like setting during cooling wouldn’t do the job. The day after the fact, the middle of the brownies are fudgy and good, and the peanut butter has set. I also think the amount of peanut butter mixture is more than needed– i felt compelled to put more and more dollops after the amount that looked sufficient yielded half the pb mixture left over in my bowl. Overall, I am pretty happy with the result, it just seemed a little harder than usual to get there
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I had a little trouble with this recipe. I used a natural creamy peanut butter and halved the p.b. mixture because I wanted to make half the pan plain and half p.b. but I had so much of the mixture that I had to put it over about 3/4 of the pan. It was really runny, and I couldn’t get it to incorporate into the chocolate mixture until I actually stirred it with the knife. Then I baked it for longer than it said but had to take it out before I was sure it was done because we were late to the event I was taking it to. When I cut the brownies (mostly cool), they were crumbly, especially the peanut butter part. I put the leftovers in the fridge when I came home and the texture is pretty good now (and of course they taste great). Maybe the p.b. mixture needs more powdered sugar or something?
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Michelle on December 20th, 2011 at 12:46 am
Hi Cindy, Natural peanut butter can be much oiler than regular peanut butter, which may be why you experienced the texture issue that you did.
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I usually love your recipes! But this peanut-butter topping has me stumped. I made it with normal, not natural, peanut butter. But it was so thin the mixture was impossible to swirl in, and 30 mins into baking was still thin and foamy instead of solidifying.
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Halved the recipe and baked in a 8x8in dish for 40mins. Not cool enough to taste yet but I can tell that they are going to be perfect! Thanks!!
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I just made chocolate chip cookie bars and poured this peanut butter swirl on top of it and baked it and ooooh boy! Delicious! thank you for the recipe
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I baked a pan of these and they are to die for! I used natural peanut butter and didn’t have any issues with my peanut butter layer being liquid, I even cut back on the powdered sugar because I didn’t want to open another box for the extra quarter cup needed. However, the brownie batter was practically solid by the time I went to spoon the peanut butter layer on top so I had a hard time swirling the two together. I ended up digging way down into the pan, almost like stirring the peanut butter under the chocolate, to get them to swirl together better. Mine took almost an hour to bake, which is VERY unusual because I live in Europe and have a convection oven so EVERYTHING bakes faster than normal; I was expecting maybe 25 minutes tops. They are very dense and fudgy, which is exactly the way I like my brownies. The peanut butter complments them very well, and they make an awesome sundae with vanilla gelato, hot fudge, and chopped nuts on top : D With the exception of the baking time, the recipe worked great for me!
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I made these yesterday and they are fantastic! I was actually gonna cheat and use a box of brownie mix along with your peanut butter topping recipe. But when I went to the pantry I was out of brownie mix. Boy am I glad that happened! I was then forced to make them completely from scratch using your amazing recipe. I can’t believe how yummy and decadent they are! The brownies are dense and fudgy like some gourmet brownie from a fancy restaurant. I love how you are so specific in the instructions, using a whisk, then switch to a spoon, and don’t over stir, etc. This is so helpful in making the end result perfect. My family LOVED them and I will certainly make them again. I am new to your blog/FB page but I am a baker and I see so many wonderful things on your pages that I want to try. I can’t wait to make the salted caramel brownies, but I was out of half & half and wanted to make your salted caramel from scratch. That will be my next one to try. Thank you for providing a wonderful site and sharing your talents and great ideas with the rest of us!
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You’re the best!, thank you for sharing these recipes!, I made the chewy brownie and it’s AMAZING, today I’ll do this, since me and my bf arr huuge fans of peanut butter, thank you so much!
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