Chewy, fudgy and rich peanut butter brownies are the bar for true peanut butter lovers. The perfect brownie texture, topped with your favorite chips!
I like to think of myself as a purist. If you call them peanut butter brownies, they shouldn’t just be chocolate brownies with, say, a peanut butter swirl. Those would be peanut butter swirl brownies.
These are straight-up peanut butter brownies. Of course, everything starts to break down when I realize that maybe they’re actually blondies, since they’re not, well, brown(ie). Then I’m really just not sure.
But I do know this: they’re perfectly chewy, fudgy and packed with peanut butter flavor. The chocolate chips are up to you, but who doesn’t like peanut butter and chocolate anyway? In fact, if you’re looking for a no bake chocolate peanut butter experience, these No-Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars from Demeter at Beaming Baker look amazing.
Chewiness
Do you ever wonder why a recipe might specify, say, melted butter over room temperature butter? Maybe you thought it was just on a whim. It’s not!
I truly love one bowl recipes (cases in point: one bowl banana bread and one bowl chocolate cake) for their ease and simplicity. But one bowl baking isn’t always appropriate. If you’re looking for a light and airy vanilla cake, one bowl isn’t going to work—and neither is melted butter.
For a light and airy texture, you need to cream room temperature butter with sugar until it’s light and fluffy. That creates air bubbles in the mix, which fill with carbon dioxide during baking.
Melted butter adds richness alone. For chewy and dense brownies, we want richness. You take that first bite of these brownies and the moist crumbs melt in your mouth. Heaven!
Ingredients and Substitutions
If you have other dietary restrictions and you want to make these amazing peanut butter brownies, I want to help as best I can! I don’t have any suggestions for replacing the peanut butter, though, since they’re peanut butter brownies.
I do have a recipe for 4 ingredient peanut butter brownies that are made with peanut butter, brown sugar, eggs, and almond flour if you’d like a rice flour-free version. They’re shockingly good!
Dairy: The first time I tested this new recipe, I actually used nondairy butter. And I think I even liked it better than the “regular” recipe (!).
I used Earth Balance whipped buttery spread (to be exact), melted and cooled. The brownies didn’t burn as easily as they can when you’re baking with butter but tasted exactly the same. I say go for it.
Eggs: There are two eggs in this recipe, and I confess that I haven’t tried using an egg substitute. Two eggs is my upper limit for feeling good about a chia egg replacement. Proceed with caution!
Chocolate Chips: You can leave them out, replace them with another type of chip (peanut butter? white chocolate? dark chocolate?), but don’t add much more than 4 ounces total. It will negatively affect even baking.
Sugar: Swerve brand non-sugar sweeteners make both granulated and brown sugar varieties. Try those!
HELLO! I’m Nicole! I make gluten-free food enjoyable & affordable. If they can make it with gluten, we can make it without. That’s a promise!
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Tried it with all natural peanut butter not no stir – as am very sensitive to corn and it’s derivatives and it worked just fine. Make again very soon as it was very yummy!
Good to know, Gillian. Glad you liked the PB brownies!
I tried this with natural crunchy peanut butter (it was mostly peanut chunks) and it worked really well! I didn’t have any xanthan gum so tried it without & it seemed perfectly fine. Thanks for the recipe :)))
Hi, Bonnie, I’m glad you had success with your substitutions. For the benefit of others, I want to mention that crunchy peanut butter won’t incorporate into the mixture like smooth no-stir peanut butter, which would likely produce a relatively fragile brownie, especially without xanthan gum. But if that doesn’t bother you, go for it!