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These Fudgy Peanut Butter Swirl Brownies are SO delicious, you might cry. They’re a rich and decadent brownie recipe topped with a gooey peanut butter. Once baked they’re so fudgy and peanut buttery you’ll have to eat more than one.

stacked black and yellow swirl brownies


BEST Peanut Butter Swirl Brownies

I mean…peanut butter. And brownies. Is there anything better? Peanut butter brownies are epic!

This is my standard brownie recipe that I’ve been using for about a year now. You can make them in a 9×13″ pan for a thinner brownie, or in a 9×9″ pan for a thicker and extra super fudgy brownie.

stacked black and yellow swirl brownies

Peanut Butter Brownies Ingredients

  • The recipe includes three kinds of chocolate: melted unsweetened and semi-sweet, and cocoa powder. You can use regular cocoa powder, or you can use Dark Cocoa Powder. If you’ve never used Dark – DO IT. It gives it such a rich and fudgy flavor, seriously you’ll cry.
  • Lots of butter keeps them moist and rich.
  • Eggs give brownies that fudgy gooey texture.
  • Peanut Butter – the peanut butter mixture is swirled on top the brownies. Be sure to use a no-stir (not natural) peanut butter.

Be sure to see the recipe card below for full ingredients & instructions!

How to make Peanut Butter Swirl Brownies

  • First you’ll make the brownies by mixing all the ingredients in a large bowl. Place the batter into the pan.
  • The peanut butter topping is simple to make. It’s made with powdered sugar, peanut butter, butter, and vanilla. The peanut butter mixture by itself tastes like a peanut butter cup.
  • Swirl the peanut butter on top and then bake the brownies in a preheated oven.
stacked black and yellow swirl brownies

This is such a great all-purpose brownie recipe – without the peanut butter you can frost them with orange frosting, or coconut frosting. You can stuff them with Oreos or make them into truffles. This is the BEST brownie recipe!

stacked black and yellow swirl brownies

Fudgy Peanut Butter Swirl Brownies

4.26 from 27 votes
Rich and fudgy brownies with a peanut butter swirl! These are some serious brownies!
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Total Time 1 hour
Yield 16 brownies
Serving Size 1 serving

Ingredients
 

For the Brownies

  • 2 ounces (57g) unsweetened baking chocolate coarsely chopped
  • 2 ounces (57g) semi-sweet baking chocolate coarsely chopped
  • ¾ cup (170g) unsalted butter
  • 1 ¾ cups (450g) granulated sugar
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 3 large eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 tablespoons (10g) unsweetened cocoa powder I love using Hershey’s Dark, but you can use either regular or dark
  • 1 cup (124g) all-purpose flour

For the peanut butter swirl:

  • ½ cup 133g) peanut butter
  • 2 tablespoons (28g) unsalted butter melted
  • cup (38g) powdered sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
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Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 350F. Line a 9×9” pan with foil and spray with cooking spray.
  • Place the two baking chocolates and butter in a large, microwave safe bowl. Heat on HIGH power for 2-3 minutes, stirring every 30 seconds, until chocolate is smooth. Stir in sugar. Add eggs, vanilla, and cocoa and stir well. Add flour and stir carefully. Spread batter in prepared pan.
  • Stir together peanut butter, melted butter, powdered sugar, and vanilla. Drop spoonfuls on top of the brownies then swirl with a butter knife or the back of a wooden spoon.
  • Bake about 28-30 minutes, until the center seems set. Let cool before cutting. These brownies, baked this way, will be super gooey inside. If you like your brownies more done and less gooey, bake them longer.

Recipe Notes

  • You can reduce the sugar in the recipe to 1 1/4 cups – that’s as low as I’ve gone when testing.
  • Feel free to use 4 ounces unsweetened baking chocolate. If using 4 ounces semi-sweet baking chocolate, reduce sugar to 1 1/2 cups.

Recipe Nutrition

Serving: 1serving | Calories: 304kcal | Carbohydrates: 36g | Protein: 5g | Fat: 19g | Saturated Fat: 9g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 6g | Trans Fat: 0.4g | Cholesterol: 62mg | Sodium: 124mg | Potassium: 130mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 24g | Vitamin A: 362IU | Calcium: 20mg | Iron: 2mg
Nutritional information not guaranteed to be accurate
Course Dessert
Cuisine American

Brownie Recipes

Last Updated on February 21, 2023



Dorothy Kern

Welcome to Crazy for Crust, where I share recipes that are sometimes crazy, often with a crust, and always served with a slice of life.

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99 Comments

  1. On my, I would have done the same thing and just sat there wondering what the “main move” he was going to do. Whew…at least you didn’t have to get out with your flippies in the middle of November! Too funny! Love these brownies…the texture on the pb part looks to die for!

  2. holy crap – I would totally have freaked – it hasn’t even been cold here WTH – but the brownies I SO need in my life right now

  3. Thanks for the giveaway! 🙂
    Brownies and peanut butter has to be one of my top 5 all time favorite desserts! *drool*!

  4. Ohhhh, Dorothy. Dangerous, dangerous. But so delicious. I want to make these RIGHT NOW. But my belly is already sickly full of sweets. So these will wait. But, oh boy, are they going to the top of the list!

  5. I don’t like peanut butter in my chocolate, but I’ m always looking for a good brownie recipe! And about the flip-flops, I’m with you. When I was a teenager I would even wear them to basketball games, in January, at night, in the tule fog. Maybe we are channelling our inner Hawaiian!

    1. This is my favorite one Laurie! Use a 9×9 or a 9×13 pan, regular cocoa or dark. They’re so good! It’s funny, that lady is OBSESSED with them. She’s one of those older ladies who is very…proper? (i.e. judgmental) and I don’t think that she approves of jeans and sweatshirts either. 🙂

  6. I accidently put my twitter username on the pinterest Nikki Gladd instead of my pinterest name. It switched on me from twitter to pinterest and I hit enter before I could stop. 🙁 It is not couponinglsb it is teachinmomma123.

  7. Wow, these look great. I can’t believe this post…yesterday on my walk I was thinking about something similar & was going to ask you if you’d ever made brownies and just taken scoops of pb mixed with a little of the brownie mixture and swirl it in (light you do for a marble cake). I was thinking that it sounded really good and then I see this!!!! lol

  8. melted unsweetened and semi-sweet, and cocoa powder. = YES PLEASE
    and how does Jordan not like chocolate? I guess that’s not that uncommon b/c if it’s dark/bitter it can be a little much…thankfully my taste-tester loves her chocolate 🙂

    These are the best brownies you’ve ever made. I mean I know it’s the same base, but the photos truly convey! Pinned!

    1. Thank you Averie! 🙂 And she’s just funny about dark chocolate. I think she likes it, she’s scared of it, lol.