These peanut butter cup brownies are dairy-free, 100% whole grain and are super gooey and rich!
Everyone’s stuffing things these days and I wanted to get in on the action. I took my brownie recipe and my peanut butter cup recipe and put ‘em together. It was a really, really good idea! Fantastic even. I don’t remember ever being this excited to post something!
So. These peanut butter cup brownies look kind of boring without the chocolate on top. And they have a weird shiny (not but greasy!) surface. They definitely don’t need more chocolate on top, but I like things to be pretty. And they’re just more fun when they’re oozing chocolate.
They’re nice and gooey but if you decide to leave out the peanut butter filling, I don’t know how they’d be. I imagine that they rely on the sweetness and gooiness of the filling, but that’s just my feeling. So don’t do it, okay?! We need the peanut butter!
If you want, you could use another type of nut butter. Natural nut butter, though and nothing with added oil or sugar! That means no Nutella. ;) This homemade chocolate hazelnut butter would probably be amazing, though.
I tried making these peanut butter cup brownies with honey in the batter but they weren’t as good. And if you’re tempted to reduce the sugar – I wouldn’t. The texture needs the sugar for the gooiness. Less sugar = more cakey. And that’s not what we’re going for here!
I haven’t tried it but I’m pretty sure coconut oil would be fine instead of the olive and canola oil in the brownies. Just remember that refined coconut oil doesn’t have any coconut flavor and unrefined might result in a slight coconut-y taste.
So what other types of brownies do I need to healthify? I’m taking suggestions! I’m up for anything without nuts. Except peanuts. Those are okay. :)
If you love peanut butter and chocolate like I do, try this Reese’s fudge from Dinners, Dishes, Dessert! It sounds amazing.
100% Whole Grain Peanut Butter Cup Filling Filled Chocolate Brownies
- Prep Time:
- Cook Time:
- Ready in:
- Yield: 16 brownies
Ingredients
- 1 cup (~256 grams) salted natural peanut butter
- 1/3 cup (106 grams) honey
- 1/4 (56 grams) cup coconut oil, room temperature (normal butter works for a non-dairy-free version)
- 1/2 cup (113 grams) coconut oil or olive oil (or canola)
- 1 cup (200 grams) granulated sugar or coconut sugar
- 3 large eggs, room temperature
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 3/4 cup (85 grams) Dutch-process cocoa powder
- 3/4 cup (90 grams) whole spelt, whole wheat pastry, or whole wheat flour
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
Filling:
Brownies:
Directions
- Line an 8" x 8" pan with parchment paper or spray the pan with baking spray. Preheat your oven to 350°F / 175°C. Combine filling ingredients and place in fridge while you prepare the brownie batter. In a medium bowl, stir together the olive oil, canola oil, and sugar. Add the eggs and vanilla and beat just until combined. In a small bowl, mix together the cocoa powder, flour and salt. Add the flour mixture to the wet mixture. It will be really thick, but that's okay. Only stir until combined!
- Spread half of the batter into the prepared pan. To get the peanut butter filling somewhat evenly into the pan, I rolled the filling into balls and smushed them to make them flat, and then used those to cover the first half of the brownie batter. Cover the peanut butter filling with the rest of the brownie batter. Bake for 20 - 25 minutes.
- Take them out when they are set in the middle. The top will be shiny and look strange but it has nothing to do with how done they are. They should not be the least bit cakey, but really really fudgy. Both the brownie part and peanut butter part won't appear to be done when you take it out of the oven, but it is. Let it cool and then put them in the fridge. They will firm up and get fudgy in there.
- For the chocolate topping, I just melted some chocolate and added some milk (you're supposed to use cream but I didn't want to open cream just for a tablespoon or so) until it was pourable. If you do that, you should probably keep the brownies in the fridge. I prefer them at room temperature, though!
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87 comments on “Peanut Butter Cup Brownies (dairy-free, whole grain)” — Add one!
Since this is an older recipe, is there a healthier version of it somewhere? A grain-free version? Possibly less sugars? I’d love to have a little healthier version. I love your healthier versions of things like this. :-)
I’m happy to hear that you like my healthier recipes. :) I’ve been trying to make a peanut butter cup version of these coconut flour brownies but it’s always just a puddle and never sets. :( I’ve also tried it with my gluten-free brownies and haven’t been successful with it yet. I won’t give up, though. :)
I somehow stumbled upon your website and i am so glad I did! I’m actually a registered dietitian so i’m always on the hunt for foodie blogs and “healthified” recipes for not only myself but also for clients. i’ve already bookmarked 4 other recipes that i need to try asap. Decided to start with this brownie recipe and it did not disappoint. i could not stop eating the raw batter and filling. the only changes i made were that i added 4oz vegan cream cheese in place of the butter/oil in the peanut butter filling because that’s what i happened to have on hand and i added half the sugar to the brownie batter since i’m trying to control my sugar intake (*trying being the operative word there lol). absolutely delicious! cannot wait to try the other recipes i have bookmarked!
Kirsten
I’m so happy that you found the site, too! I’m glad to hear that you enjoyed the brownies and have found other recipes to try, too. I hope you’ll like them just as much! Thanks for sharing your changes. They sound great! Thanks a bunch for your comment and welcome to the site. :)
Hello Erin,
Thanks for the great recipe! I actually made it 3 times in the past few days! I made 2 for 2 dinner parties and 1 for home because my husband loved it so much. I’m planning to write a blog post about it. I’ll link your recipe to my post :) I love that it’s healthy and tasty too :)
Hi Winnie! I’m thrilled that you liked the brownies so much. :) Can’t wait to see your post! Thanks for linking to the recipe and for your feedback. :)
I just made these today. In the brownie batter I used all coconut oil and used cake flour. I put 1/2 the batter in my pan and then poured in the peanut butter and then I put in the fridge for a few minutes and then the rest of the batter over it. I had to bake for 35 minutes. We just cut into them and they are very rich but ohhh so good. Thank you for a great recipe.
Ooh. I like your way better! Sounds much easier. And I love that you used coconut oil! I’ll have to try that next time. Thanks so much for your feedback! I’m so happy you liked them. :)
What happens if you just use normal flour?
I haven’t tried it but I’m pretty sure it’d work. :)
Made these tonight and they look amazing! I haven’t tried the final product yet but if the batter is any indication then I think they will be fabulous. I can’t wait to serve them to my friends tomorrow with a lil peanut butter ice cream. Mmmm! Thanks so much for the great recipe!
I hope everyone enjoyed them! And these brownies plus peanut butter ice cream?! Wow. Sounds intense. I wish I could have been there. :D Thanks so much for the feedback!
Can i ask if I can just use an ordinary cocoa powder? I still haven’t try making it, it’s for my group’s baking project. But this brownies sure looks good.
It’ll work but it might not be as dark chocolatey. Hope you’ll enjoy them! :)
Do you have any suggestions on how one could make these gluten free successfully? They look absolutely scrumptious!!
I haven’t tried making these gluten-free so I’m afraid I’m not much of a help here! Sorry about that. You could try these gluten-free chocolate peanut butter brownies, though. :)
For going healthy just switching to whole grains and such doesn’t make it any healthier if you’re using GMO crop foods such as Canola … 1000% Genetically Modified … Canola is not nature made but made in a Lab about 60 years give or take. I’d get on the Organic and Non-GMO Crop foods Band Wagon.
You can easily replace the canola oil with melted coconut oil or olive oil. But then again, people have issues with baking with extra-virgin olive oil (which is all I have access to) and others have issues with coconut oil in general. And somehow, even some people have issues with butter. This is why I choose to stay out of this discussion. There’s just no pleasing everyone (though I see your point).
Hi there, erena. I’m a student of Nutritional Science and Research.
Citations for your accusations or you are hype-gossiping.
As for the recipe, it could work with oat flour (toss some rolled oats into a blender or pestle and mortar) and the oil can be substituted by peanut, corn, vegetable, or macadamia nut.
In addendum, coconut oil is a laxative and olive oil has a pronounced savoury flavour that has been proven in a test kitchen to cause undesirable flavour in brownies, specifically.
Thanks a bunch for this awesome recipe!
I mixed the olive oil here with something more neutral because I didn’t want that savory taste. And it worked! I don’t like the taste of olives or olive oil so if I liked it, I’m confident other people will, too. :) I hope everyone finds a type of fat that they like and just go with that. And thanks for the oat flour info! :)
Kudos to you for calling someone out on citing their sources! I have relatives who go crazy over the hype gossip, even though I find cited, scientific documents to the contrary. The worst part-their kids are growing up believing it’s all complete truth. What a waste of time, all the conferences they attend where everybody spouts the same unproven or at the least under proven fear based fodder. They get downright hostile if you point out facts to the contrary and seem to flick together with people who only share their same flawed opinions. Anyway, I really appreciate the kind, gentle but effective way you drew attention to this! Thank you.
These look awesome. Will try soon. Just a comment-Coconut oil does not need to be kept in the fridge. It has written right on the jar “does not need to be refrigerated”. thanks for posting the recipe.
Thanks! And the coconut oil I buy is kept in the refrigerated section at the store. They keep everything else at room temperature here (eggs, butter, etc.) so if they refrigerate the coconut oi… I figure it must be for a reason. :)
I made these today and oh my goodness they are soooooo so good, especially warmed up in the microwave for 17 seconds. I don’t have my food processor on hand, so I had to use store bought natural peanut butter (Krema). I think the only difference it made was this made the filling more liquid like. I’m so sad that I made these the day before I have to leave for school orientation because that means I can’t have more. I’ll try smuggling them onto the plane perhaps.
17 seconds?! Hahaha. I’m happy that you liked them but I have no idea why your filling so was liquid. I’ve made them a few times and they always come out well. :) Thanks for the review!
Dear Erin,
I really love your blog! I recently started one called Sara's Healthy Cooking( and I look at your blog for inspiration all the time! I hope my bog becomes as famous as yours someday:) Please check it out!
Anyways, I made these brownies today, and like usual with your recipes, OMG is all I can say! Chocolate and peanut butter is my all-time favorite combination. Thanks so much for another great recipe!
Fondly,
Sara
Hi Sara! What a super nice comment. Thank you very much. :) I'm so happy to hear that you liked the brownies. Yay! They're SO darn gooey. And I'll go check out your blog tomorrow. And um, I don't know about my blog being famous but it made me smile anyway. Thank you. :D
This looks amazing and: The chocolate is just perfect on top! There is nothing such as 'too much chocolate'. :-)
Haha. Thank you! And I'm happy you think so. :) It certainly makes them look better!
These look incredibly awesome! And I'm all for adding the extra chocolate on top. :) I'm definitely saving this recipe to try out… I'm really loving looking around your blog!
Yay! I'm happy to hear that. I hope you find something you like. :)
I just made these! They were so good! I just used vegetable oil nstead of coconut in the peanut butter mixture and it got me thinking that peanut butter aready has so much fat in it- why the addition? Could I just mix together peanut butter and honey next time?
Yay! I'm so happy that you liked them. :) Vegetable oil is an interesting sub! It's not solid at room temperature so I'm wondering how that worked out. ;) I suppose you could just mix peanut butter and honey together, as the brownies already have quite a bit of oil. But I'm not quite positive. I just tried to copy the filling of a Reese's and they have some fat. So these got the fat. :) Thanks for your feedback!
I've made these about three times now – they are my new favorite! I love your blog!
I'm so happy that you like them! :) Thanks for stopping by to let me know. I really appreciate it!
I've made these about three times now – they are my new favorite! I love your blog!
Anon – It's okay! I used homemade peanut butter (just peanuts) and although they come out of the oven very runny (both the peanut butter and brownie part), they'll set. I'll add that to the directions now! I hope they turn out. I've made them several times and everyone has always really enjoyed them. :)