These chocolate peanut butter brownies combine a rich chocolate base with a thick peanut butter swirl! They’re perfect for bake sales, potlucks, or any time you need a decadent treat.

Calling all peanut butter fans! This recipe will have you tossing your box brownie mix out! It’s the perfect combination of rich chocolate brownies as a base, with a sweet and salty ribbon of peanut butter brownie running throughout. This easy recipe is a variation on my homemade fudgy brownies, and is just as simple and delicious.

Ingredients

This recipe uses pretty simple ingredients, the majority of which you will find in your pantry!

• Butter or Margarine: You can make this recipe with either butter or margarine. I’ve tested both, and found there to be no appreciable difference in texture between the two. I recommend using unsalted butter when baking; however, if you use salted butter, omit the salt.
• Creamy Peanut Butter: Any brand of creamy peanut butter will work in this recipe. You can even use natural peanut butter: just be sure to stir it well before measuring because of the oil separation! I do not recommend using crunchy peanut butter as the nuts make it hard to swirl effectively.
• White Sugar: White sugar does 2 things: provide sweetness and keep the brownies moist. You can replace up to half of the white sugar with brown sugar for a deeper molasses flavor. 
• Vanilla Extract: Vanilla brings out the flavors of both chocolate and peanut butter in this. You can replace it with butter flavoring or almond extract for a different flavor profile.
• Eggs: The eggs are partially responsible for that chewy texture that makes something a brownie. You can sub 1/2 the eggs in this recipe for either applesauce or mashed banana. 
• Flour: This recipe has only been tested with all purpose flour. I can’t speak to how it would turn out with any other flours, but if you try it, I’d love to hear how it went in the comments!
• Baking Powder: Baking powder provides the lift that gives your brownies a perfect texture!
• Salt: Salt intensifies the other flavors in baking. If you use salted butter, you can leave out the extra salt. 
• Cocoa Powder: I love making this with Hershey’s Special Dark, but any dutch-process cocoa powder or regular unsweetened cocoa powder will work here. 

Instructions

Step 1 | Make the Peanut Butter Batter

So, while it appears that you have two separate batters in this recipe, both are actually made with a peanut butter base, which means that you are really swirling peanut butter into peanut butter chocolate. I told you this was the ultimate treat for peanut butter lovers!

You’ll start by creaming the peanut butter, vanilla, butter or margarine, and white sugar in a large bowl. Then, add the eggs and mix everything together. Finally, add the remaining dry ingredients (except the cocoa powder!) and mix it until you get a smooth batter. 

This batter will be pretty thin, which is perfect for swirling!

Step 2 | Make the Chocolate Batter

Next, remove about 3/4 cup of peanut butter batter from the bowl and put it in an small bowl. This is going to become your swirl.

Add your cocoa powder to the remainder of the batter in the large bowl. Mix it in until you have a smooth, chocolately batter.

Step 3 | Swirl

Next, either grease and flour or line a 9×9 pan with parchment paper. Spread your chocolate mixture into an even layer in the prepared pan. This will be your brownie layer. Now let’s add that peanut butter layer! 

Use a spoon to drop the peanut butter mixture on top of the brownie batter. Then, use a butter knife to swirl the layer of peanut butter into the top of the batter. Don’t do too much swirling — less is more if you want that gorgeous contrast on top of the brownies!

Step 4 | Bake and Enjoy!

Once you’ve got that swirl just the way you like it, you’re going to bake your brownies for 45-50 minutes at 350°. For fudgy brownies, remove them from the oven when a knife or toothpick inserted into the center come out with just a little bit of batter on it. For cakey brownies (like in the pictures), wait until the knife/toothpick comes out clean. 

If you want clean cuts, do not cut these chocolate peanut butter brownies until they have cooled completely down to room temperature. Then, use a plastic knife (yep, really!) for the cleanest cuts around! 

You can enjoy your peanut butter swirl brownies by themselves, or serve them warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream!

Variations

You can use this recipe as the base for quite a few variations. Here are some of my favorites: 

• Chocolate Swirl Peanut Butter Blondies: Flip the script and add 2 tbsp chocolate to the reserved batter rather than the batter in the large bowl. Then, swirl the chocolate batter into the peanut butter batter to create a reverse recipe!
• Two-Tone Chocolate Peanut Butter Brownies: Instead of reserving 1/2 cup of peanut butter batter, reserve 1 1/4 cup. Add only 1/3 cup cocoa to the remaining batter. Then, spread the chocolate mixture in the pan, and cover it with a layer of peanut butter batter. Bake as directed for a gorgeous two-tone dessert!
• Almond Butter Swirl Brownies: Replace the peanut butter with almond butter in a 1:1 ratio to make this variation.