Peanut Butter Blondies with Milk Chocolate Frosting
In my kitchen this past week I’ve managed to burn my Thanksgiving brussels sprouts, make a bum batch of chocolate brownies, crack my favorite coffee mug and somehow spill a half bottle of red wine under…UNDER my refrigerator. Additionally, since my kitchen seems to be a vortex of ill fate, I’ve refused to do the dishes. It wasn’t a pretty sight, friends. I was just about due for an intervention.
I was just about ready to throw a stick of dynamite into my kitchen and hope for the best. Instead I opted for one last shot… mostly because sticks of dynamite like the ones they have in cartoons are hard to find… maybe I’m just looking in the wrong places… whatever the case, I preheated the oven, kept my head down, and… success! Sweet, dense, chocolate and peanut butter success.
This dark kitchen cloud seems to have passed, and I’ve managed to get all of my dishes in the dishwasher…. things are looking up and tasting pretty darn good too.
These peanut butter blondies are serious. The blondie is dense and packed with brown sugar and peanut butter flavor. The chocolate frosting is the perfect compliment, although if you simply wanted to add chocolate chips or broken up Reese’s Peanut Butter cups to the blondie batter, that would be just as delicious. I think frosting on brownies is the ultimate indulgence…. so why not go for it. Be warned… you’ll need milk to drink with these. Lots of milk.
Peanut Butter Blondies with Milk Chocolate Frosting
makes one dozen big brownies in a 9×13-inch pan
10 Tablespoons unsalted butter cut into 5 cubes
2 cups dark brown sugar
1 cup smooth and natural peanut butter
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Grease a 9×13-inch pan, line with parchment paper if you have it on hand, then grease the parchment paper. If you don’t have parchment paper, these blondies will be just fine.
In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt butter and sugar together until the butter is just melted. Remove from the burner and allow to cool for 5 minutes, then add the peanut butter. Stir until incorporated. Allow to cool for 5 minutes more, then whisk in the eggs and vanilla extract. You want the sugar, butter and peanut butter mixture to be cool enough that the eggs won’t begin to cook when they’re added in.
Whisk together salt, flour and baking powder. Add dry ingredients all at once to the wet ingredients. Stir until just incorporated. Pour the thick batter into the prepared pan and smooth out. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a skewer inserted in the center of the blondies comes out clean. Remove from the oven and allow to cool to room temperature before frosting.
Milk Chocolate Frosting
6 Tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
3 Tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 – 2 cups powdered sugar
3 Tablespoons milk
3/4 cup milk chocolate chips, melted
In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat together the butter, cocoa powder and salt. Add 1/2 cup powdered sugar followed by 1 tablespoon milk. Beat well. Add another cup of powdered sugar, followed by 2 tablespoons of milk. Melt milk chocolate chips in the microwave or in a double boiler. Add melted and slightly cooked milk chocolate the frosting and beat to incorporate. Add the final 1/2 cup of powdered sugar if you need a bit more thickness. Spread evenly over peanut butter blondies.
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I just made this – delicious indeed!
Oh my. Those look sooo good. I wonder how many hours I’d have to log on the elliptical to work one off?
Well I wondered this as well… and at 500 calories a piece!!!!!, it would probably be about 2 days. Really yummy, but FYI.
Oh my. This needs to be in my stomach immediately! Too bad I’m in the office and not in the kitchen. Who doesn’t love the combination of peanut butter and chocolate?!?
Oh Yes! I just made these bad boys and they are too tasty to keep in my house.
I must deliver some of these buttery, brown sugar bombs to my people before it’s too late.
I did not have PB, so I used natural almond butter instead. I did not have eggs, so I used flax instead. I was worried for a hot sec, but it all turned out beautifully!
I’ve been reading over recipes on your site for months now, waiting for a calm moment were I could just dive in and start baking. Now that school’s out, I’m a force in the kitchen again!
On to Chocolat Avocado Cake and PB & Bacon Cookies… you’re a strange bird, but I trust you and I’m gonna fly with you on these curious little gems.
Oh Yes! I just made these bad boys and they are too tasty to keep in my house.
I must deliver some of these buttery, brown sugar bombs to my people before it’s too late.
I did not have PB, so I used natural almond butter instead. I did not have eggs, so I used flax instead. I was worried for a hot sec, but it all turned out beautifully!
I’ve been reading over recipes on your site for months now, waiting for a calm moment were I could just dive in and start baking. Now that school’s out, I’m a force in the kitchen again!
On to Chocolat Avocado Cake and PB & Bacon Cookies… you’re a strange bird, but I trust you and I’m gonna fly with you on these curious little gems.
These are (I mean were) awesome. I made them for a party this weekend. I have to share though, someone was eating them and asked if I had made them, I told them I got the recipe from joy the baker’s blog, and they told me that they were bringing “joy to their taste buds”. I thought it was very clever and had to share it with you. Thanks for another great recipe!
Thank you, Joy, I made these for the reception following my Christmas choir concert last night and they were a hit. Sooo delicious. They were really easy to make, too, which is definitely a plus. If you cut the pan into 12 servings, though, they are way big for how rich they are. I decided to cut them all in half, so with two pans worth I ended up with 48 blondies! Lol. I ended up sharing with some friends in my apartment building, with my parents, and sent some home with a couple friends at the party. Everyone loved them. :)
It was really really good, but I could still taste the sugar :S Is that how it’s supposed to taste? I used the usual brown sugar and not the dark brown sugar.
Eman
My daughter forbade me to make these again because she can’t stop eating the batch I made this weekend. Good thing she’s not the boss of me. They’re delicious. The chocolate frosting really rocks!
i made these. yes, they are good.
WHY??? Why must you tempt me with these blondies? I have been away at college, and I have told myself several times, that the first thing that I’m baking when I get home is a nice batch of blondies. I don’t know why I have been craving them (since I have only had a blondie once) but I am going to make this happen. But now that you throw my favorite ingredient – peanut butter – into the mix, I don’t even know what to do with myself!!!
Nicole
P.S. I L-O-V-E this blog. Every time I scroll down to a new recipe, it’s something that I know I would love.
I made these this weekend and they were FABULOUS!
Love your blog Joy! Thanks for sharing :)
These were a definite hit last night at Family Dinner Night. Wow! I subbed 1/2 cup of peanut butter chips in the icing instead of milk chocolate chips. It tasted like a big Reese’s PB Cup. Taking them to a family picnic in a couple of weeks. Thanks for sharing!!!!!!
I can’t thank Joy enough for these purely peanut butter bars. I was craving the ones made from scratch in our little school cafeteria back in the day. These are the only bars that come anywhere close. All the others are either too hard too cakey, too oatey, too chunky, or too choclatey. These are the real, rich, peanut butter deal. Thanks again!!
P.S. Try them with peanut butter frosting.
i would love to have one of these immediately.
ok, i am making these right now. i’ll let you know when i scream!
So, I took them out @ 25 minutes but there were still very underdone. Shrug. Baked ‘em longer. Cut off a corner and my 19 year old son said that they were the best things he had ever eaten. Period. He eats a lot so that is saying something! Gasp, my pantry is out of powdered sugar so I will have to – yes, have to – bake these again so I can try them frosted. :)
Serious peanut buttery goodness right here.
I just made these because a friend is coming over for dinner tonight. I must admit-I licked the bowl! DELICIOUS!!!
Um… these are delicious. And as I was generously allowing my husband and a friend to eat one (just one!), we all agreed that next time, we should try putting a layer of marshmallow creme underneath the frosting :)
Just made this and I may or may not have eaten 5 slices so far ;) Delicious!
thank you so much for these recipe. i used to make a version of these a long time ago that i found in a discontinued cookbook. the recipe was simply called chocolate pb bars and did not have homemade frosting like yours. i knew the basic idea but could not for the life of me remember how much of each ingredient! this is precisely the look and taste i have been searching for. i cannot wait for my family to try them :) thank you!
I now make these for every function! My husband is NOT a fan of chocolate, or sweets for that matter, but he LOVES these just as much as I do! Thanks for the recipes
Joy, These Peanut butter bars look irresistable. Just started reading your blog (which is something I almost never have done) but yours is great, thank you so much. Great baking, great blogging.
i just baked these. i didn’t have any milk chocolate chips on hand so i made the standard hersheys back-of-the-can chocolate icing. they are delicious! so moist and rich. and they are SATISFYING. usually when i eat brownies i can’t stop, but with these, i guess because of the pb, they are nicely filling.
I just wanted to let you know that I made these this weekend and they are amazing! They put everyone who eats them into a sugar coma but they are well worth the coma! Thank you for sharing!
Seriously the BEST dessert ever!!! I’ve made these three times now and everyone loves them. I find them the best after they’ve been chilled in the fridge for a while. mmmmmmmm !!! Too bad someone had to reveal the amount of calories per piece :(
made these last night. SUPER EASY, and SERIOUSLY DELICIOUS!
Thanks for the Recipe!!!!
I wanted to make brownies, but realized I used up all my white sugar for hummingbirds. I have lots of brown though, so I am going to make this right now.
I just found your blog and I love it! These will be PERFECT for my bees and I to make for Nana for Valentine’s Day. Thanks for sharing!
These were a total flop for me :( I don’t know what I did wrong but I kept putting them back in the oven over and over because they wouldn’t get done. The taste was great (the very edges were all that cooked) so I was bummed they didn’t turn out!
I used homemade dark brown sugar and unsalted butter because it was all I had on hand…could that be the culprit? Other suggestions? Totally bummed cuz they look so yummy!
*correction* salted butter, not unsalted. whoops
Made them and they were amazing. I am thinking of using almond butter and dark chocolate!
I’ve made this recipe twice and though the results are delicious, I can’t get the cake to bake evenly – after 25 minutes it’s baked on the sides but still fluid in the middle. :( I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong. I’m using a 9×13 inch silicone mould – could that be what’s wrong?
Still, great recipe (along with everything else on this site) – delicious!! :)
I resisted this for a really long time. And that was foolish because a half batch is totally like health food. Especially when you use whole wheat flour (seriously, I liked it better. It was crazy).
Also let’s be friends!
I made these tonight! I added the frosting too soon, so it kind of melted underneath, but… uh… maybe that’s not a bad thing. Scrumptious!
oh my. I’ve had these a few times and am pretty sure when I make them myself the whole pan will be gone within 24 hours.
Made these for a dessert birthday party this past weekend – went very well. You can see how they turned out here: http://frimtanklin.blogspot.com/2012/04/peanut-butter-blondies.html Thanks for the recipe!