Chocolate Peanut Butter Brownies
Infused with peanut butter, these Chocolate Peanut Butter Brownies are the perfect sweet treat!
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A couple of months ago, I hit the road with several guys for a curling tournament. If there’s one thing a bunch of guys need when they’re out of town, it’s snacks. Lots and lots of snacks. So once we arrived, we pulled into a grocery store to stock up on chips, crackers, salsa, adult beverages, etc. Just imagine 4 guys hitting the grocery store late at night for snacks. The scene was something akin to a Tasmanian Devil cartoon. And somewhere in the process, a box of Swiss Cake Rolls made their way into the cart.
I don’t think I’ve had a Swiss Cake Roll since my days of grade-school lunches. (And I still haven’t had one, either…those bad boys disappeared quickly in a room of 8 guys!) But that did get me thinking back to my days of eating lunch out of brown paper bags in the courtyard of my high school. And that led to me thinking about peanut butter sandwiches. About 90% of my lunches involved peanut butter sandwiches. (Every once in a while, I mixed it up with lunch meat…or if I was crazy lucky, some leftover pizza.)
I love a good peanut butter sandwich. But here’s the thing…I don’t like jelly on my peanut butter sandwiches. Give me a good PB&J – the J, please! Don’t get me wrong. I like jelly…on toast with butter. Not mixed with my peanut butter. I’m guessing it has something to do with my aversion to sweet and savory flavors mixed together. Laura thinks I’m nuts, but to this day I still won’t eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. There was that one time that my lunchbag got mixed up with my sisters (she likes PB&J’s)…and I went hungry.
So while I prefer to leave the jelly aside when it comes to peanut butter, I have no problem mixing in chocolate instead! These Chocolate Peanut Butter Brownies are proof that chocolate and peanut butter are just meant to be friends. They are meant to hang out and talk all night. They are meant to go on long walks together. They are meant to be eaten in Chocolate Peanut Butter Brownies form!
The peanut buttery goodness in these Chocolate Peanut Butter Brownies is sneaky. You wouldn’t even know it was there if I didn’t tell you. So I chose to sprinkle some peanut butter chips on top of these brownies before baking them. The peanut butter mixture just melts into the chocolate brownies as they bake, and you’re left with a chewy brownie loaded with chocolate + peanut butter flavor.
Personally, these brownies are like the pinnacle of brownie greatness. I mean, I love a good classic chocolate brownie…but everything is better with peanut butter, right? Especially the edges…I’ve always loved the edges of brownies! I sliced off the edges before taking these photos. And then I ate the edges before taking these photos. Enjoy!
Chocolate Peanut Butter Brownies
Ingredients
For the Brownies
- 1 cup unsalted butter
- 3 oz. unsweetened chocolate chopped
- 1¾ cups semisweet chocolate chips divided
- 3 large eggs
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 Tbsp vanilla extract
- ⅔ cup all-purpose flour
- ½ Tbsp baking powder
- ½ tsp salt
- ¾ cup powdered sugar
- ¾ cup peanut butter
- ¼ cup milk
- ½ cup peanut butter chips
Instructions
For the Brownies
- Preheat oven to 325°F.
- Grease and flour a 9”x13” baking pan. Line bottom of pan with parchment paper; set pan aside.
- Using a medium saucepan, add the butter, unsweetened chocolate and 1 cup of chocolate chips. Place over medium-low heat, stirring often, until butter and chocolate have fully melted; set pan aside to cool.
- In a large bowl, mix together the eggs, sugar and vanilla. Stir the egg mixture into the warm (not hot!) chocolate mixture.
- In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Stir the flour mixture into the chocolate mixture.
- In a separate bowl, stir together the powdered sugar, peanut butter and milk until smooth.
- Stir the peanut butter mixture and remaining ¾ cup of chocolate chips into the brownie batter.
- Spread batter evenly into prepared baking pan. Sprinkle peanut butter chips on top.
- Bake at 325°F for 40-45 minutes, or until top of brownies is just set and a toothpick comes out mostly clean.
- Let cool before slicing. (Tip: If you refrigerate these brownies, they’ll be easier to slice.)
Delicious looking brownies.. Each and every bite would definitely be a heaven!!
Thank you so much, Sharmila! These brownies are indeed heavenly! 🙂
What the what?! No jelly on PB & J? But that’s the whole thing. If not, you are left with PB on bread, lol. Unlike you, I LOVE sweet/savoury sweet/salty combos – totally my jam….hehehe. I’ll forgive you, though, for not liking. Least you made these yummy brownies. I tell you what – you send me a batch of these and I’ll forget that you don’t like PB & J 😉 But leave those crispy edges in tact. Deal? Hope your week is going awesome, David!
No way! No J on the PB for me! It just gets soggy and mushed into the bread. PB only is my jam! 🙂 (Although I do really like sweet/salty combinations when it comes to desserts!) So I’ll gladly make you a batch of these brownies, Dawn. But you have to promise not to eat them all at once, ok?
You know what I love? Peanut Butter & Golden Syrup. That is a combo I could eat every single day 🙂 These brownies are another thing I could every single day! They look amazing!!
PB + golden syrup, eh? Sounds delicious! I don’t think I’ve ever had that combo, but I just googled it and saw a recipe for Chex Mix cereal coated in that…and that sounds amazing! Let’s make a batch of that cereal mix and a batch of these brownies and see if we can avoid eating them all at the same time, ok? 🙂
Hi David. What’s not to love about combining chocolate and pb? Funny thing is I don’t like peanut butter straight up…I think it’s a textural thing. I can personally attest to how delicious your Reese’s chocolate peanut butter cake! I think that one is going to appear here as soon as it cools off a bit.
Now that is totally funny, Dorothy! You don’t like PB straight up, and I only like my PB sandwiches with PB…no jelly. (Of course, a sandwich isn’t exactly PB straight up, but you know what I mean!) I get the textural thing though. We feed our dogs pills with PB, and I have no idea how they eat a spoonful of it plain! Thank you so much for the kind words about the Reese’s cake…I had almost forgotten about that one! 🙂 These brownies are right up there on the list of awesome desserts, too. Give ’em a shot! And I hope your week is going well so far, my friend!
Oh em gee. I’ve been unpacking since 5 this morning and yours is the first blog I hit up during my break. . .of COURSE you have to tempt me with pb and chocolate! PleasepleasePLEASE make a box of these appear on my doorstep in the next few minutes. My pb cups are all packed somewhere and I need a fix :). These look sooooo freaking incredible! Now I need to find a curling club here so I can pawn off the baked goods I don’t want to eat. Have a great afternoon, David!
5 in the morning! Kelsie! That’s crazy early. That’s like my schedule early. Of course, 5 your time is probably like 10 my time…or something like that! 🙂 So I could make a box of these appear on your doorstep in a couple of days, but not a couple of minutes. Of course, that wouldn’t be very nice though since you have all sorts of amazing desserts coming out of your kitchen, too! I wouldn’t want you to have too many desserts. It might impede your unpacking abilities. And good news!! Tempe has a curling club. You should look into it. (I’m not kidding at all right now. 😐 <--This is my serious face.)
I am with you. When I have a peanut butter sandwich I leave the jelly off too. I can eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, but I prefer it without. I do love the combination of chocolate and peanut butter, so yummy. Your brownies look amazing!!
Yes!! Another PB-J lover out there. I was starting to think I was crazy. The jelly just gets all mushed into the bread which then gets soggy. No thank you! PB + chocolate is just a classic combo, and these brownies are definitely a new favorite around here. Thanks, Dawn!
This would be my perfect on the road snack – chocolate and peanuts – a match made in heaven i.e. your kitchen 😉 I like peanut butter and jelly but I have not had it in a very long time, I guess something I could remedy easily 🙂 Have a lovely weekend, David!
Hahaha…my kitchen = heaven? I’m not sure that is true as I imagine heaven to be a clean place with no dirty dishes. Ever. 🙂 These brownies are definitely a new favorite around here, and they would indeed make a good on the road snack. Thanks, Miriam! I hope you guys are having a great week so far over there!
You know David that I often start my comments something like “In my childhood we didn’t have” or “When I was a kid…” Please take a seat now. Because I didn’t have any peanut butter in my childhood. Like completely. This product didn’t exist. I only tried it first time ever in my 20-s. I would say, in my late 20-s. I beliebe my sister sent me a present in the mid of 2000s from a large city she lived. In our city peanut butter would appear only a couple of years later (it was sold in a few supermarkets), and it didn’t cost for peanuts (haha), something like 7$ for can. However, it’s not an issue any longer, and we normally always have some peanut butter. But peanut butter and jelly is a no-no to me (Although I enjoy butter and banana combo once in a while). But peanut butter and chocolate? Yes, yes, count me in please! I do love sprinkling a toast with grated or chopped chocolate, but I restrict myself to a very occasional treat on weekends. It’s more like decadent breakfast, right? And you know what? Andrey thoughts I’m nuts and rejects to try a piece of it (Although he likes this combo in desserts overall). Weird, isn’t? Ok let’s now celebrate this beautiful combo with this amazing brownies!
Say what!?! You didn’t have PB as a kid? Ok, stop everything. I think you need to start eating PB sandwiches every day to make up for lost time. I’m right there with ya on the PB + J. The jelly just gets all mashed into the bread and then it turns soggy. Yuck. I’m really like that idea of sprinkling a little bit of chocolate on a piece of buttered toast. That’s definitely a weekend breakfast! I bet if you had one of these brownies in front of Andrey on a Saturday morning, then he would go for it, though! 🙂
Hahaha – yup, yup, “everything is better with peanut butter” – I’m sitting here munching on some peanut butter and oat bars – and, I was trying to do the sugar free thing this morning but after seeing these brownies – dude, PB+ Chocolate are friends indeed and shouldn’t be kept apart so am gonna go melt me some chocolate and drizzle it on these bars of mine! I am loving the PB chips on these scrumptious brownies – I need to try that next time!
You know what – I had my first PB+J after Lil Shashi came into my life and I gotta admit, I was so tickled by the combo. I do love that sweet/salty combo myself – but can understand your point – my dad wasn’t a fan of mixing flavors either but he LOVED his Swiss Cake Rolls! 🙂
Happy Thursday, my upstate NYC friend!
Shashi! Are you doing the sugar free thing again? I mean one time is fine, but I can’t let you do that again. I’m putting my foot down! 🙂 These brownies are just too tasty. Haha! And what a fun story about your Dad and Swiss Cake Rolls…it’s funny how these memories pop up, right? Life is good here upstate, although we are supposed to have ATL weather here today. Yuck! But then it goes back to low 70’s for the weekend…and I can FINALLY plant our garden for the year! Hope you gals are staying cool down there!
Haha – nope, am not that crazy to try and attempt the sugar free thing again – it was good for a time but unless I had to – nope, it’s not for me – I was just pacing myself – I made these rice krsipy cookie bars and Lil Shashi and I planned an epic dessert with them and ice cream 🙂
Hope you got some garden planting done, my friend!
Ok good! I was worried about your sanity there. 🙂 And I did indeed get some garden planting done…but holy cow, I am sore! I spent the entire weekend out there hauling dirt!
Gosh, these chocolate peanut butter brownies sure do look amazing David. And, I love your story about never having had jelly on your peanut butter sandwiches. 🙂
To be honest I’ve never had jelly on my peanut butter sandwiches either! It’s just not a thing over here.
Have an amazing weekend. Hope you’ve saved some of these for then to enjoy! 😉
Interesting note about the jelly (or lack thereof) on PB sandwiches over there. I knew I liked Scotland!! 🙂 Seriously, though, the jelly on PB sandwiches is just not my thing. The jelly gets all mushed into the bread and then it turns soggy. No thanks. Haha! It’s supposed to be a nice weekend here, and I definitely think another batch of brownies is in order. (Yes, another batch. The first batch is sadly no longer with us.) Hope you guys are having a great week so far, Neil!
OMG what are you doing to me, David?? I’m heading to a beach so I’m on my special beach diet which means minimal carbs and only fruit for sweet. then you post these delicious looking brownies and I want to break down and make and eat an entire pan, but I’ll stay strong… hopefully. I can’t think of a better combination than chocolate and peanut butter, I just decided I’m making these bad boys as soon as I get home. Ohhhh a curling tournament, I want to see some cool pictures. I was a peanut butter and jelly girl myself, never a big fan of lunch meat.
Hey, I get it, Mary! You gotta get ready for bathing suit season. I do, too! But guess what? These brownies will help you lose weight. How is that? Just tie a brownie to a stick and hang it off a hat so that it dangles in front of your face. Now start running. 🙂 And I’ll have to post some pics from the curling tournament soon. One of my buddies came along to take photos so I just need to track those down! Have fun at the beach, my friend!
Finally, a fellow PB sandwich only kinda person. I spent so many years eating just PB sandwiches for lunch that I didn’t have it for a big stretch in college. And then I did, and it was amazing again. I have branched out to trying jelly on the sandwiches but it just isn’t the same. These brownies look too good to be true! PB and chocolate are probably my all-time favorite flavor combo so I know these brownies would be AWESOME!
Yes!! Most people think I’m nuts when I say I don’t like the J on my PB&J. But now I have a fellow PB’er! 🙂 I honestly haven’t had a good PB sandwich in a while. I need to fix that! But in the meantime, these chocolate PB brownies were giving me the PB fix. Yum! I hope you have a great PB + chocolate-filled weekend, Jessica!
Hello David, I am Odile, Gaila’s sister and we began a new blog together, she told me you were a great cook, but forgot to let me know you bake as well! These are so perfect! my kids love PB! me too (shhhh)
Hey there, Odile! Wow, I’m so glad you stopped by. I can’t wait to hop over and check out your new blog! Gaila is absolutely amazing, and I’m jealous that you get to eat some of her amazing recipes! 🙂 Yes, I do enjoy baking…a lot. These PB + Chocolate Brownies are definitely a keeper of a recipe, too. Give ’em a shot sometime! And thanks for commenting. Looking forward to getting to know you out here in the blog world!
Hey David! OMG, you had me at PB hehehe, well in the previous message you met, Odile, my big sis, we have begin a new journey together, she lives in Florida, will see where this takes us!
Yes! I did indeed have the pleasure of ‘meeting’ Odile. I am so excited that you guys have started a new adventure together! I’m totally craving pulled pork now that I saw that last post. I can’t wait to see where the new site takes you gals…there are so many possibilities there!! 🙂 Thanks, Gaila!
I’m not surprised you snacked on the edges of these beauties while you were photographing, I’d have an awful time keeping my hands off them!
Oh man, it was bad, Sue! I’m pretty sure I ate every single crust piece while I was taking these photos. That probably equated to about 4 brownies. 🙂 But they were just so good…. 🙂 Thanks so much, and I hope you have a great weekend!
Oh, peanut butter + chocolate. Just the best food combination known to mankind! Brownies are just a classic favorite dessert that never gets old.
You know what I keep hearing from my sister-in-laws and girlfriends that are moms & teachers? Schools don’t allow ANY kind of nuts or nut butters in classes anymore… like even if there aren’t any kids allergic to anything in the class or even the whole school. I can’t get over the fact that kids no longer are getting PB sandwiches (with or without the jelly) for lunch at school!
Yes! You are totally right about the lack (or banning) of PB in schools. Robbie’s daycare doesn’t allow any sort of PB at all. I mean I get it for kids with allergies, but still. More than once I’ve been sad that we can’t send PB sandwiches for lunches. I mean that’s a classic kid food right there! Funny story: they made almond butter sandwiches for the kids one day for lunch. I asked both of Robbie’s teachers how the sandwiches were, and they both said “Eh. They’re ok. But they make you want to go eat a real PB sandwich.” Haha!
haha I actually like sweet and salty flavors mixed together but yeah I prefer PB sandwiches minus the J too! 😀 These brownies are right up my alley, can’t get better than PB and chocolate! YUM!
Yes! We’re like two peas in a pod there, Manali. I do like sweet + salty in my desserts, but my PB&J sandwiches need to lose the J! I’ll gladly replace the J with chocolate and bake ’em up in brownies, though! 🙂 Thanks so much, my friend!!
This recipe looks awesome. Thinking of making this at the weekend… 🙂
Why thank you very much, Puja! You can’t ever go wrong with the chocolate + peanut butter combo! 🙂 I hope you had a great weekend, my friend!
I am not a chocolate fan. UNLESS it was paired with MINT or PEANUT BUTTER – so I know for a fact, I would have face-planted into these brownies in negative five seconds!!!!!
These brownies are totally amazeballs, Gigi! In fact, your husband would give them 2.5 fig newtons. That’s right. 2.5 on his scale of 2. 🙂 Hope you guys are doing well!!
What??? No jelly on your PBJ??? AAAAAHHHHHHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
I know! That J has no need to be getting all up in my PB’s business! 🙂
😋OH WOW, what an amazingly heavenly combination of flavours, Chocolate peanut butter brownies, they go together like salt and pepper or cupcakes and frosting or handbags and higheels…it is perfect. Love it.😊
Hahaha…I was with ya on the salt and pepper. I was with ya on the cupcakes and frosting. But you lost me on the handbags and high heels! 🙂 But I do agree. Chocolate + peanut butter is just a classic combo. Put ’em in brownie form, and I can’t say no! Thanks, Ashika!
I used to be a peanut butter sandwich girl myself. But now that I work at a high school, I am not allowed ANY nut products. Not even Nutella! So now it’s meat sandwiches everyday..
If only I could pack my lunch bag with this. These brownies look amazing!
Yes! Little Robbie’s daycare is the same way. I mean I get it, but geez…peanut butter sandwiches are just part of childhood. They have almond butter sandwiches for him there, but even the teachers admit that it’s just not the same. I guess you’ll just need to save these brownies for an after school treat, right, Cathleen? 🙂
I’m cracking up at all of you Tasmanian Devil’s doing late-night snack shopping. What a scene!
These brownies look incredible. You can’t go wrong with the combination of peanut butter and chocolate!
Haha! You should have seen us hit that store! We were like 4 guys in different directions, and our cart most definitely did NOT contain very much in the way of healthy. 🙂 And I totally agree with you about chocolate + peanut butter. They’re just meant to be friends! Thanks, Marissa!