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
113 comments on “Chocolate Peanut Butter Brownies (gluten-free, 100% whole grain)” — Add one!
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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!
Oh heavens! These brownies look to die for! Brownies are my arch nemesis with baking, but I need to show them whos boss and make this version like NOW!!! I love the ooey gooeyness of them. So gorgeous!
I like them underbaked and since these are sort of healthy…I could eat an extra one;)Love this gooey and wonderful temptation, Erin:)
Oh Erin. You're a girl after my own heart! Now this is a recipe that I wouldn't have to change anything! That's what I love about you :)
Obviously pinning…
Oh my, I'm really loving how gooey those things look. I am now craving fudge something fierce now!
By the way, have you found out if you are gluten intolerant yet? I think it was you who mentioned before how you were going to go a week or two without gluten and see how that went. If that wasn't you then well… you can forget this last part :P
Aaah. I hate it when I forget to answer comments. Sorry! And it was me. I went a month without, but I had so many, um, mishaps, that this month wasn't such a gluten-free month after all. I didn't notice a difference, though. Yay! But I suppose I should really try again.
Oh my! These look perfectly gooey and decadent!
WOW! How can these even be gluten free? The ooey gooey goodness just pops from the screen. These are a must make!!!!!
YUM!! This looks sooo good. I love using oat flour is brownies, it makes them super extra fudgey! (even more so if you dont bake them long enough :-p)
I love oat flour, too! It just tastes less healthy. Woohoo! :)
Erin, you KNOW I am in love with these!! You made them so freaking perfect! And I love how thick they are as well. I need to remake them in a smaller pan so I can have them just as thick! And I can't believe these lasted a week for you. I don't' think mine have ever lasted more than 2 days haha! Thank you for linking back to my site for them too. :) You're the BEST! PS: I love these photos!
Thanks a bunch! I think this recipe is 1.5 times the original recipe so that helped make them extra thick. And I… might have forgotten them in the fridge after having made 7 other things on the weekend. It was a nice surprise when I found them again! Thanks for the photo compliment and for your help with that. :) OH! And of course I linked to you – only BAD girls don't link back to the source. You hear that people?! Bad bad bad. ;)
Oh my word! My mouth is watering at the sight alone of those beautiful brownies. Yum!
Hehe. Happy you like them! :)
Oh WOW. These just looks absolutely gooey and delectable!
Thanks, Erin!
These brownies look pretty darn awesome, so rich and gooey looking. I can't believe they are gluten free, I'm saving this for my mom she is gluten free and she will be in heaven when I make these for her :)
Thank you! I'm so happy to hear that you might make these for your mother. :) Let me know how they come out if you do!
I'm all about underbaking brownies. You can't go wrong! And I love that this recipe is gluten-free. My best friend just found out she has celiac, so she'll be so happy! Thank you for sharing!
I hope your friend will like the recipe! Gluten-free doesn't have to mean boring and yucky. :D Thanks for your nice comment!
Oh wow this my first time to see these brownies! I could so why you had to make them! They look great Erin!
Thanks, Meagan! It was just too hard to resist. So they got made and I don't regret it at all. ;)
Your photographs are just gorgeous! The close-ups of those peanut butter brownies make me want to bite into my computer screen…so gooey and oozing and sooooo tempting! When can I come over. LOL!
Thanks, Jen! You have no idea how long I tried to get a close-up like that. ;) Lighting… ugh. And oozing – I love that word! Oooozy brownies.
I like that you under-baked them. They look perfect to me. And yes to the chocolate chips!
I'm really surprised that everyone else also likes to underbake them. Woohoo!
These are seriously gorgeous.
Thanks! :)
I am so gonna make this one! I am in a gluten-free mood lately after some unpleasant reaction to wheat (especially whole wheat) experienced lately (wrote about this also in my last post). will check if I have all the ingredients I may do this tonight even. and the picture is true food porn :)
Oh no. Sorry to hear about your bad reaction! I'll go check out that post soon. And funny… when you submitted this comment, I was in the kitchen making mjukkaka. :) I hope you'll like the brownies!
Underbaked brownies? I'm there!
Haha. Underbaked brownie party up here! Happy to have you. :)
I pretty much always love under baking things because it makes them so soft and wonderful!
Haha. I usually do it with brownies but now, after all these comments, I'm opening to the idea of underbaking other stuff. Yum!
Wow, these are just sensational!! We need to make these when you come over :-) What can be better than peanut butter and chocolate!!
YES! Let's do that. :) It'll be fun!
Oh my goodness – those look ridiculous. I'm amazed they're healthy. Need to make these for sure. Your pics look too good not to try them!
Thank you! I hope you'll like them. :)
I am so excited; I can make these, and not have to buy special flours!! I am definitely under baking them, just in case you were curious.
Oh! I didn't even realize that. I should have pointed that out myself. So thanks for doing that. :)
Erin, these look AMAZING!!!!!!! Wow. Wow. Wow.
Thank you! :)
You will never hear me complain about the addition of chocolate chips. Oh my, I'm drooling over these. Rationing them out was probably a wise decision.
Perhaps wise, but a difficult decision! So much more fun to just shove them all in my face at once. :)
I like a fudgy brownie and I think this would fit the bill quite nicely;-)
Yup! It's pretty much just goo. :)
Look at those brownies, so gooey and amazing.
You are killing me with this recipe! The brownie looks absolutely incredible….sooo gooey and rich! Yummy!
Oh yeah. These are very rich. And very dark. I forgot to mention that!
This one looks as though you are left licking your fingers. Peanut butter, yum!
Haha, you can even see my fingerprints in one!
Oh, these brownies look beyond fudgy! I would love to have several with my morning coffee.
p.s. Thanks for under-baking them (and testing!). :D
Oh, you're welcome. It is my duty, isn't it? ;)
I have been exercising all week. I avoided sweets all week. And now this?!? How can I resist?!?! :D
Eduarda Castro
Haha, hey Eduarda. Sorry again! Make 1/2 the batch! It'll be enough. :)
Gluten free?! I'm always looking for a good GF recipe for friends and to make my Father-in-law! I can't wait to try this one and the pictures are PHENOM!
Thank you! :) And I'm happy to help you out with your GF needs! Luckily you just need some non-contaminated oats and you'll be set. :)
I am alllll over this!! Yum!
My neighbor's daughter just found out that she has to avoid gluten products and I've been searching for something gluten free. This is the first recipe that I've seen worth trying. I love Sally's Baking Addiction too so that seals the deal that these are a "must make"!
Oh, you've come to the right place! Have you tried the chickpea cookies? Or rather the grain-free chocolate chip peanut butter cookie dough bites? They're GF and quite healthy. :) I hope you'll like them! (the chickpea cookies or brownies :))
OMG…. Want!! I am just thinking that the yogurt in these makes them healthy, right? So no guilt :)
Well, OBVIOUSLY! :D They're basically health food. Yup.
Looks like a dream of chocolate and PB! If these make it into my dreams tonight a good start to the weekend is basically guaranteed!
Hehe. I hope they made it! Sorry you don't have an oven to try these out. I would go crazy if I were you, looking at all these food blogs. I have no idea how you do it!
Girl, you had me at brownie. Then you threw in peanut butter, gluten free, AND THOSE PICTURES!? Gimme, now.
Haha. Why, thank you. Love your enthusiasm. :)
Kind of gushing over these! My weakness is undercooked brownies. I always leave mine a dad fudgy/raw.
Yeah, you know how it's done! Isn't raw stuff supposed to be healthy, anyway? ;)
Addition of chocolate chips sounds great. I'm trying to reduce amount of sugar in my baked goods as well, so it's interesting. And what did you mean by awkward sized pan? BBTW, your brownies look amazing!
Thank you! And the pan was a weird sized pan I got here in Germany. It was smaller than an 8×8. I hope you're enjoying SF! :)
These are the best thing I've seen all day! Love that you added the chocolate chips, I just wish I had one of these beauties in front of me :).
Wow, thanks! I wish I had you here to share them with you. The husband hated them (he hates everything with natural peanut butter ;)) so I was eating these for a looong time!
Oh my! Erin this looks fabulous!
Thanks, Katrina!