Peanut Butter Filled Chocolate Brownies
These thick fudge-like brownies are made extra special and rich with the addition of an easy peanut butter filling!
When will I ever have enough peanut butter/chocolate recipes? I already know the answer is ‘never’.
With Christmas rolling around, I am in need of a variety of treats. I have to make a lot of different cookies and cakes and brownies and whatever else is worth baking. And who is going to complain if they happen to receive a holiday tin of treats that include some thick fudgy brownies filled with a sweet peanut butter filling?
Usually it’s a toss-up between dutch-processed or regular unsweetened cocoa powder for me when it comes to brownie recipes. Ultimately, I went with this unsweetened cocoa powder. Why? Because I looked in my pantry, and I seem to have an overabundance of unsweetened cocoa powder!
To make these extra chocolatey, I decided that I needed some chocolate chips: milk chocolate chips. This is because I love the classic combo of peanut butter and milk chocolate.
For the peanut butter filling, I wanted to make it creamy and thick. So naturally, I found sweetened condensed milk to be the perfect element! Peanut butter, sweetened condensed milk and one egg… very easy and yummy.
So, I layered it with half brownie, all of the filling, then topped with the remaining brownie batter. This was stuffed into a 9 inch square pan, so these will be really thick. (You may see ‘pan-stuffing’ as a theme with a lot of my recipes…).
These turned out to be super rich, chocolatey and fudgy. The peanut butter middle was substantial and very thick too; just how I had pictured it! I cut these into 9 squares, and I can’t believe I finished that whole piece! If you’re anything like me and like the classic combination of peanut butter and chocolate, then you will definitely need to make these!
Recipe:
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INGREDIENTS:
- 1 cup flour
- 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1/4 tsp baking powder
- pinch of salt
- 3/4 cup butter, melted
- 2 cups sugar
- 4 eggs, room temperature
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 cups milk chocolate chips
DIRECTIONS:
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
- Coat a 9-inch square pan with cooking spray.
- Whisk together the flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt; Set aside.
- In a large bowl, stir together melted butter and sugar until combined.
- Add the eggs to the butter mixture, beating until fully incorporated.
- Stir in the vanilla extract.
- Now add the dry mixture and chocolate chips to the wet mixture, stirring thoroughly.
- For the peanut butter filling, beat together the sweetened condensed milk, peanut butter and egg until completely combined.
- Spread half of the brownie batter into the prepared pan.
- Evenly dollop the peanut butter filling in heaping tablespoons over the brownie batter until it’s all used.
- Try to carefully spread and even out the filling with a butter knife or rubber spatula.
- Now dollop the remaining brownie batter over the filling.
- Carefully spread the brownie dollops until even and no peanut butter filling is showing (the pan will be heavy and full).
- Bake for 25-35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center is no longer wet.
- Allow to cool completely before cutting.
NOTES:
- I used these milk chocolate chips, and they are amazing!
- I used my favorite brand of creamy peanut butter. I have not experimented with natural peanut butter, so I am not sure how they would turn out!
