Peanut Butter Brownies
Three layered peanut butter brownies with a chocolate ganache …. I honestly cannot imagine a more delicious dessert. The base of these brownies is made from a soft, chocolatey brownie, the middle layer is a whipped peanut butter filling, and the top is a dark chocolate ganache layer that is perfectly soft and melts in your mouth.
Despite looking like a bit of a fancy three layered dessert, these brownies are genuinely quite straight forward. A few simple steps, thoroughly explained below, and you have this crowd pleaser dessert. Like a lot of the desserts I share, this one is also quite easy to make a larger batch of to feed a crowd or to guarantee some leftovers.
The Ingredients
Despite often thinking of the box alternative when we think about making brownies, they are honestly quite easy to make from scratch, which is of course what we are doing in this case. These brownies are made from melting chocolate with butter, sugar and eggs until we get a soft mixture and then combining that with a few of our dry ingredients to get a batter. You know a brownie recipe is a good one when it uses real chocolate in the batter. For this recipe we are using dark chocolate, but if you are more of a milk chocolate fan you can substitute that in no problem.
The peanut butter layer is just a simple and comes together with just peanut butter, icing sugar, butter and a pinch of sea salt. Any peanut butter will work, I actually used a crunchy one for some peanut pieces throughout.
Finally, the chocolate ganache layer! Again, I used dark chocolate, but you can substitute for milk chocolate 1:1. Here we use full fat cream and a pinch of corn syrup to create a shiny, soft ganache layer on top.
Peanut Butter Brownies
Equipment
- 1 electric mixer
- 1 8×8 baking dish
Ingredients
For the Brownies
- 4 ounces dark chocolate
- 1/2 cup butter unsalted, room temperature
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 cup white sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup flour
- 3 tbsp cocoa powder
For the Peanut Butter Layer
- 1/2 cup butter unsalted, room temperature
- 1/2 cup peanut butter
- 1 cup icing sugar
- 1 tsp sea salt
For the Chocolate Ganache
- 4 ounces dark chocolate
- 1/4 cup heavy cream
- 2 tsp corn syrup
Instructions
- Start by preheating your oven to 350 degrees F and grabbing an 8×8 baking dish. Line the baking dish with parchment paper and set aside.
- For the brownies, melt together your dark chocolate and your butter in a double boiler on the stove or in the microwave, both work! Once melted, stir together to combine.
- Next, add your sugars to the melted chocolate mixture and stir until they dissolve.
- Give the mixture a few minutes to cool and then add in your eggs, stir gently.
- Combine your flour, cocoa powder and salt in a separate bowl and then gradually add to the melted chocolate mixture, folding over gently to fully combine.
- Transfer this mixture in to your lined baking dish and bake for 23-25 minutes, until a tooth pick comes out clean!
- While that is baking, start on the peanut butter filling. Using an electric mixer cream together your peanut butter and butter until well combined and then gradually add in the icing sugar and continue beating until it is light and fluffy.
- Once the brownies are baked, let them cool completely before spreading the peanut butter mixer over top.
- For the ganache, again melt your dark chocolate in either the microwave or a double boiler on the stove. Once melted add in your corn syrup and cream and stir gently to fully combine. Pour this over top the peanut butter layer.
- Stick this in the fridge to fully cool and set.
- To cut this, use a sharp knife and warm it slightly in hot water before slicing. Cleaning the knife in between each slice will help for perfectly clean cuts!
- Cut and store in the fridge.
If you love these as much as I do, let me know! Write a review, tag me on Instagram, or send me an email with a photo of your creation. I can’t wait to see what you come up with! Happy baking!