These blondies are a jam-packed with things that make me very happy.
A super soft, buttery, brown sugar base, loaded with peanut butter chips, and swirled with Nutella.
I used my go-to blondie recipe that never lets me down. The batter comes together in one bowl, in 5 minutes, without using a mixer.
That’s especially important when you don’t have a dishwasher, and each and every dirty dish counts.
I’m on vacation and don’t want anything fussy or that takes more than 30 minutes from start to finish.
Although I sometimes can’t find tomatoes or cream in Aruba, I spotted a bag of peanut butter chips in the local grocery store. Sold. Never mind that they were $6 dollars. I love peanut butter, what can I say.
Use chocolate chips if you can’t find peanut butter chips, or if you’re feeling more frugal.
Everything tastes better with swirls, especially swirls of Nutella. I was going to use peanut butter, but wanted a pop of chocolate. You don’t even have to dip your fingers in it for this recipe.
If you don’t have Nutella, try Homemade Peanut Butter or Homemade Chocolate Peanut Butter. The recipe is highly adaptable, another reason I love it.
While they bake, the butter and brown sugar caramelize, and the bars take on caramel and vanilla flavors.
They’re supremely soft, moist, and dense. No chemical leaveners such as baking powder or soda are used, and you’ll just want to sink your teeth into these softies.
Mine are especially soft and gooey because my kitchen here is un-airconditioned. It was 88F and very humid when these pictures were taken. Everything melts and gets very soft. In more normal conditions, your blondies won’t be as soft and melty.
The peanut butter chips are the perfect flavor nuggets, adding bursts of peanut butter flavor, without overtaking the flavor and making them taste like peanut butter blondies.
Not that that would be a bad thing. There’s a recipe for Peanut Butter Blondies with Nutella Swirls in my cookbook and they’re wonderful.
These were so good. And a little messy.
And that’s what napkins are for.
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Nutella-Swirled Peanut Butter Chip Blondies
Ingredients
- ½ cup unsalted butter, 1 stick, melted
- 1 large egg
- 1 cup light brown sugar, packed
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 cup Reese’s Peanut Butter Chips
- about 1/3 cup Nutella (Homemade Peanut Butter or Homemade Chocolate Peanut Butter
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F. Line an 8-by-8-inch baking pan with aluminum foil, spray with cooking spray; set aside.
- In a large, microwave-safe bowl melt the butter, about 1 minute on high power.
- Wait momentarily before adding the egg so you don’t scramble it. Add the egg, brown sugar, vanilla, and whisk until smooth.
- Add the flour and stir until just combined, don’t overmix.
- Stir in the peanut butter chips.
- Turn batter out into prepared pan, smoothing the top lightly with a spatula.
- Evenly add and swirl the Nutella. To create the marbled pattern shown, drizzle Nutella over batter in 5 wide, evenly spaced, parallel lines, each spanning the length of the pan. Like 5 rows of long train tracks. Rotate pan 90-degrees. With a toothpick, starting at the top of the pan, “draw” 4 or 5 evenly spaced lines through the Nutella. You’re dragging the toothpick perpendicularly through the first set of lines to create the marbling.
- Bake for about 20 to 25 minutes, or until done. A toothpick inserted in the center should come out clean, or with a few moist crumbs, but no batter. Bars shown in photographs were in 90F Caribbean heat and humidity, and very soft and melty. Allow bars to cool in pan for at least 30 minutes before slicing and serving. Bars will keep airtight at room temperature for up to 1 week, or in the freezer for up to 6 months.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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What’s your favorite fast and easy go-to dessert? Favorite way to use Nutella or peanut butter (chips)?
Made these on Friday for my Christian small group meeting and everyone LOVED them! And they weren’t hard to make at all but turned out looking fabulous, which is awesome for a horrible baker like me. Thanks for sharing :) Can’t wait to try some of your other bar recipes.
That’s awesome to hear you loved them and they turned out looking fab! And that you were able to share them with your group with rave reviews. Wonderful! If you make anything else, LMK!
I just tried the nutella Blondie they r oh so soft chocolaty and crumbly… like totally first love for me in the kitchen… I don’t bake but today when I made these it was superb! Two thumbs upzzz!!
I’m glad to hear you give them two thumbs up and even though you’re not usually a baker, you had great luck with these!
These looked fantastic!! However, after I baked them, there was just toooo much sugar – I followed the recipe exactly. The sugar overpowered everything, from the peanut butter to the nutella. I will try these again but with half the sugar. Very disappointed as I had made them for a bake sale :(
My family and friends and many people who’ve made these love the recipe as written but everyone’s tastes are different and reduce the sugar if that’s what you think will taste better. I don’t know if the recipe will work or not since I’ve never tried it that way.
Tried the recipe again with 2/3 cup of sugar and 3/4 stick of butter. Also covered the pan with foil after 20 minutes of baking, as in my first batch the nutella sort of burnt. Perfect results with these little changes! The combination of peanut butter, nutella and all the goeyness is great!
Glad to hear the small changes worked well for you – wonderful!
I love your recipes…I wish the site would load faster though. It’s a poor user experience. Since I work in digital advertising I strongly suspect it’s the number of ads (and images) per page.
Sorry that an extra few seconds to load is “a poor user experience”. I am only able to share my recipes that you said you love because of advertisers. It’s how I support my family. I don’t notice my site taking any longer than others, to be honest. I run the stats on it and it always comes up similarly to friends’ sites.
I must be missing something here. My page has minimal advertising at the top and the rest that takes a few seconds to load are pictures of more goodies that I would have otherwise missed. I LOVE seeing additional photos for new ideas, and having the recipe link above each one makes it so easy. The longest I ever had to wait for the entire page to load was MAYBE 25 seconds. If that is too much time out of the day, then how will you ever find time to actually bake these delicious treats? The Nutella bars were a hit at a picnic last weekend. Thank you Averie!!!
So glad the blondies were a hit at your picnic last weekend! Thanks for trying them and for your support – I appreciate it :)
Bom D++++++++++
These bars will brighten anyone’s day!! Oh my goodness, they look SO GOOD!
This is the first time I’ve ever felt the need to comment on a recipe I’ve tried out but I really need to THANK YOU for sharing this! I had family members sitting around the table waiting for it to cool down enough for them to attack it! :)
So glad this recipe inspired you to comment and that you had family members chomping at the bit – love that!
I made these yesterday–such ooey-gooey yumminess!! Our whole family loves them, but I need to give them away ASAP; I keep helping myself to a “little taste” every time I walk by them in the kitchen. :). Love how easy these are to make, and especially appreciated your detailed instructions how to make the lovely Nutella swirls. I could actually “see” how to do it because you were so descriptive–thank you! :)
My girls are off from school today so we are going to make your apple pie pancakes for a fun lunch! They have been on our wish list to make ever since you posted them, so excited to finally get the chance to!
Love this comment and so glad you and your family loved the blondies and that my description of the swirling technique was good enough that you got it down pat! Wonderful! And donating baked goods…I am very familiar or I’d weigh 900 lbs :)
The pancakes are really good & hope you ladies enjoy! :)
Hi! This looks soooo delicious I’m planning on trying it out tonight! Haha. But if I can’t find peanut butter chips, can I use regular peanut butter instead? Will that work?
I have made this recipe a few times since you first posted it and it is too good not to comment on! The first couple of times I made it I followed the recipe exactly. Ooey gooey goodness!!! My family of 5 devoured it in no time! Then I started getting creative and came up with a vegan version. I used Earth Balance in place of butter, egg substitute, Enjoy Life chocolate chips (in place of the peanut butter chips), and homemade nutella. I also put in a tsp of baking powder for a little bit of a fluffier texture. These blondies are the bees knees! It can be easily doubled and baked in a 9×13 pan for the same 20-25 minutes too. This is such a no-fuss and adaptable recipe. Definitely one that I will keep making…hey, my kids can even make it! :)
I am so glad you love these and have made them more than once! I’ve made them with margarine/vegan butter too, but I’ve never taken out the egg. Good to know it works with egg sub. I personally love the dense, flat slab texture – ha! So I skip the baking powder but many ppl like to use a pinch in their blondies. And yes, very easily doubled in a 9×13. I just have a small family and bake…daily. We need small batches! So glad you love them. It’s my go-to base for literally 25 bars on my site!
I just made these tonight and they were a huge hit. I tweaked the recipe a bit by browning the butter and throwing in a few milk chocolate chips along with the PB chips. It all came together fabulously! Thanks for the recipe!
Oh I love browned butter and I love making blondies with it. So good. I bet yours turned out wonderfully & great idea to add a few choc chips along with the PB chips. I have no doubt these were a big hit. Thanks for coming back to LMK you tried these!
You’re right Averie, nothing better than Nutella & PB :)
These look INSANE!!
I saw your gorgeous brownies on FG today! So eyecatching!
Those bars look so decadently good!
Oh my! These blondies look divine :) they’ve already got my mouth watering!
Ooey gooey goodness!!
So…I made these delicious treats and substituted sunflower butter for the Nutella and chocolate chips for the Reeses peanut butter cups. This trade off worked great! So great, that I made 2 8×8 pans and they are already gone. LOL! One of my boys sprayed whipped cream all over the top to make it bigger! :-) Another winner, Averie! Thanks so much for all the great recipes. So fun and so easy to make! LOVE! xo
Love hearing stories like this – the substitutions you made so your kid’s food allergies weren’t an issue, that you made TWO pans and they’re already gone, and that one of your boys sprayed whipped cream all over the top, love it :) I would LOVE these with SFSButter. I dont have any here but I have a craving for it!