These healthier chocolate peanut butter brownies use ground up oats in place of flour, making them gluten-free and 100% whole grain!
This recipe really gets around. It first appeared on Dashing Dish, then on Sally’s Baking Addiction (did you know that she makes a lot of healthier recipes?! Well, she does :)) then again just recently on Butter Baking and I couldn’t stand it! I had to make these. And right away. So I did.
Natasha’s version uses half the sugar the other versions do but then I went and did something not so healthy. I put it back in the form of chocolate chips! Woohoo. They’re absolutely not needed but who’s really going to argue with you for adding chocolate chips? And okay, I didn’t exactly add all the sugar back. Just a little. ;)
I love how intensely chocolaty these are. The chocolate chips certainly adds to that! But the peanut butter topping is also pretty awesome. Too often, you mix cocoa-based goodies with peanut butter in a batter and the peanut butter is totally overshadowed. In these chocolate peanut butter brownies, you have a nice, gooey layer of peanut butter right up top.
One thing to note is that I used an awkward sized pan that was slightly smaller than 8″x8″, meaning the brownies in the pictures are slightly thicker than yours will be.
Have a great weekend everyone! I hope you liked my mini peanut butter chocolate week. :)
Chocolate Peanut Butter Brownies (gluten-free, 100% whole grain)
- Prep Time:
- Cook Time:
- Ready in:
- Yield: 16 brownies
Ingredients
- 9 ounces (255 grams Greek yogurt)
- 1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons (90ml) milk
- 1 egg
- 1 egg white
- 3/4 cup (65 grams) rolled or traditional oats (non-contaminated for GF)
- 3/4 cup (85 grams) Dutch-process cocoa powder
- 1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons unrefined or coconut sugar
- 1/4 cup (80 grams) honey
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup (90 grams) semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1/2 cup (128 grams) natural or regular peanut butter
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (176°C). Spray an 8" x 8" pan with baking spray.
- If making these in the food processor, process the oats for a few seconds until powdery. Add the rest of the ingredients except for the chocolate chips and peanut butter. If making these in the blender, first add the liquid ingredients, and then the dry ingredients, except peanut butter and chocolate chips. Either way you do it, process until the oats are well ground.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Sprinkle chocolate chips on top.
- Microwave the peanut butter in a microwave safe bowl on half power until it's easy to spread. Drop spoonfuls of peanut butter onto the batter and create a swirl effect using a knife or toothpick.
- Bake for 23 - 27 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Be careful not to confuse a chocolate chip with batter!
- Cool completely in the pan and then cut. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to one week.
Adapted from Dashing Dish - Peanut Butter Swirl Brownies, as seen on Sally's Baking Addiction - Skinny Peanut Butter Swirl Brownies and Butter Baking - Healthy Peanut Butter Swirled Brownies
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113 comments on “Chocolate Peanut Butter Brownies (gluten-free, 100% whole grain)” — Add one!
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Living in Kenya, I don’t often nee GF recipes…but I had TWO friends over this week who were both GF. These brownies were such a treat for them and disappeared quickly. Sharing your recipe and website with both of them! Thanks for the great assist!!!
You’re welcome! And thank you for sharing the website with them. :) I’m really glad that they enjoyed the brownies! Thanks for your comment.
Erin, have the nutrition facts ever been worked out on these bad boys? Please advise!
I don’t have that info but you can copy and paste the recipe here for the nutritional profile, if you’d like. :)
These look so delicious! I’m excited to try them out :)
Instead of grinding down the oats, could I just use oat flour?
Thanks! And yes, 65 grams of oat flour should work fine. :) I hope you’ll enjoy the brownies!
Just wondering if you have a corresponding volume measurement for the Greek yogurt. I don’t have a scale, and so I checked my own yogurt container and guessed, and I was using my homemade yogurt…. It was liquid coming out of my blender, is that normal?
I just measured some and it’s about 1 cup + 2 tablespoons. The batter shouldn’t have been thick like regular brownie batter but pretty thin. I hope it came out well and that you enjoyed them! :)
Thanks! They did turn out. *phew*
Super yummy! Excellent recipe! I did cut down on the sweetner (using 1/4 honey & 2 T. coconut sugar) and it was still very sweet. Next time I think I’ll leave out the coconut sugar altogether. I used less peanutbutter too, about 1/3 cup.
So happy that you liked it! :) I like your idea of cutting down on the sugar. Just keep in mind it may make them less fudgy. Thanks for the feedback!
I followed this recipe but I am still cooking them way over the posted bake time. The batter was like water. What happened?
I can’t say for sure since I wasn’t in the kitchen with you, but did you use regular yogurt instead of Greek yogurt? Or make any subs at all? I can’t think of why the batter would be like water. The batter’s not thick but it shouldn’t be that thin. :( I hope they work out in the end! And sorry that it’s taking longer than the posted baking time.
I used chobani Greek yogurt. The only thing I can think of is it calls for 9 oz. Don’t know if that’s fluid oz or not so maybe I used too much yogurt. No worries cuz they are still delicious! Chocolate and peanut butter is my weakness so it can never go wrong. Thank you for the great recipe.
I’m so happy to hear that they came out well! Thanks for letting me know. :)
Hi Erin,
I LOVE your site and just made your Gluten Free Chocolate PB Brownies!!!! They are soooo yummy! I have a quick question though- would you be able to post the nutritional values for this recipe. When I bake, I mostly use low fat recipes or just tweek others myself. Then, when I find great low fat goodies, I like to share them on my blog, always with a credit or a link back, but I like to include the nutritional info. Thanks a bunch!!!!!!! Karen
Hi, Karen! I’m so happy that you liked the brownies. :) I intentionally don’t include the nutritional info (I focus on making healthier choices rather than low calorie / fat / etc.) but you can copy and paste the recipe here for that info, if you like. I hope that helps! Thanks so much for your feedback. :)
Can you use quick cooking gluten free oats?
I haven’t tried it so I can’t say for sure but I’m assuming so! You blend it all together, which means that you’re breaking them down (like quick oats). Let me know how it comes out! :)
I’m finding this recipe misleading. How can you say it’s low fat? Your recipe doesn’t call for fat free Greek yogurt or skim milk. If I use those will this still work? Did you use both those items fat free?
I’m sorry you find the recipe misleading. In comparison to other brownies recipes (with a stick or two of butter), I find this recipe very low fat. Is it low fat compared to a salad or an apple? Definitely not! These brownies do work with fat free Greek yogurt and skim milk but I prefer to let people make their own decisions when it comes to using reduced fat products, as many say that these products are actually less healthy than the full fat variety.
Yummmmmm! These look incred but i have a bit of a problem with pure oat gluten as well as normal gluten, can i use gluten free flour instead? or another alternative? thanks you’re a star :)
I haven’t tried it but I don’t think regular GF flour would work. How about quinoa flakes? Use them in place of the oats and I think it should work. Good luck! :)
These look/sound too yummy. Is it necessary to pulse the oats into flour first? Also, do i nd a food processor/blender to make the recipe, or is it ok to just use a stand mixer? Thanks for your pb recipe. We are going to make it tonight, and then make those chickpea bites. I am super excited about making our own PB…we go through so much of it… The kids are gonna love watching that. Thanks.
Hi, Angela! Since ground up oats are the only type of “flour” in these brownies, you definitely need to pulse them until they’re flour-y. If you made this in a stand mixer, it wouldn’t work out because whole oats (or even quick oats) are too big and the brownies wouldn’t come out properly. Do you have a food processor? If you don’t, how are you going to make the peanut butter? I hope you do in fact have a food processor and that you’ll love the brownies, chickpea cookies and the peanut butter! :)
LOVE the idea behind these brownies! I’ve been seeing a lot of greek yogurt being used in baking lately… I will have to try that. These look awesome. I love under-baked sweets too :)
You have to try Greek yogurt in baking! It’s great stuff. :)
Thanks for sharing this recipe! I baked them for about 27 minutes and they were still a little too soft, especially in the center; almost runny, but I guess that’s just my fault for not using my good judgement. ;) I also thought they weren’t quite sweet enough for my taste (that’s personal choice, though, because I know I have quite the sweet tooth lol), and they’re pretty intense in flavor, otherwise. Very, very chocolatey and peanut butter-y. You have to genuinely like both those flavors to truly enjoy these.
I hope that you could still enjoy them despite their super chocolatey / peanut buttery-ness! ;) Thanks for the feedback. I hope they set up after a while!
Can you use quick/instant oats instead of traditional/rolled oats as the recipe specifies? Thanks!
Yes, you can! I hope you’ll enjoy the brownies. :)
WHAT THE AWESOME!
Hahaha. Exactly. :)
Would love to see a lot of gluten free recipes – main dishes as well as well as the beautiful sweets.
I’m so happy to hear that someone wants some main dish recipes! They flop every time I post them. It seems like people just aren’t interested. So thank you very much! :) And you can see all my GF recipes here (if you haven’t seen this already :)) https://www.texanerin.com/category/special-diets/gluten-free
Oooh bookmarking this recipe too :)
I hope you'll like them, Meg! :)
Yum, your brownies look divine!
these look so amazing! I want to make them so bad but i cant eat eggs. Is there any way i could skip the eggs in this recipe and maybe use some substitute like banana or something?
I have no idea about the banana sub but perhaps you could try flax eggs?! It's just an idea. I have absolutely no experience with those. Sorry for the slow reply! I didn't see this until now. :( I went to your profile so I could try to email you the answer but the profile's empty. Sorry again!