Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Bars
Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Bars — These peanut butter chocolate bars are loaded with chocolate chips and creamy peanut butter. This is a one-bowl dessert you’re bound to love!
Addicting Peanut Butter Chocolate Bars
I have so many peanut butter dessert recipes on my blog, but you can never have too many. That’s what I tell myself anyway.
Check out the Related Recipes below for a small sampling of all the peanut butter bars I’ve made on my blog. And there’s at least a dozen more in Peanut Butter Comfort. When I want an easy, fuss-free recipe that I know everyone will love, I call upon my trusty blondie base. With 25+ versions and counting, it never lets me down.
It’s an easy recipe to memorize because everything is ‘one’. In the 1 bowl used, melt 1 stick of butter, stir in 1 egg, 1 cup of brown sugar, 1 tablespoon vanilla, and 1 cup flour. For this version I added 1 cup chocolate chips and peanut butter. The only thing that’s not ‘one’ is the amount peanut butter (1/3 cup).
I made these peanut butter chocolate bars in my hot, un-airconditioned kitchen in Aruba. I’ve been on vacation the past couple weeks and it’s been great, other than my oven. It runs horribly hot and browns things too fast on top, but there are worse things.
These peanut butter chocolate chip bars are super soft, slightly chewy, buttery, and peanut buttery. Between the butter and the peanut butter, they’re super moist and just melt in your mouth. There’s an abundance of chocolate in every bite. There’s no other way to do chocolate other than in abundance. These peanut butter bars were definitely worth heating my house up for.
What’s in Peanut Butter Chocolate Bars?
For this peanut butter dessert bar recipe, you’ll need:
- Unsalted butter
- Peanut butter
- Egg
- Brown sugar
- Vanilla extract
- All-purpose flour
- Chocolate chips
Note that you don’t want to use natural peanut butter for these peanut butter chocolate bars as it has a tendency to be too oily or to separate. You want to use a peanut butter brand like Jif, Skippy, or Peter Pan.
How to Make Peanut Butter Chocolate Bars
In a mixing bowl, whisk together the melted butter, egg, vanilla, brown sugar, and peanut butter. Stir in the flour and chocolate chips and mix until just combined. Turn the batter into a greased 8×8-inch pan and sprinkle a few more chocolate chips on top for good measure.
Bake the peanut butter chocolate chip bars until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. You’ll need to let them cool in the pan for 30 minutes before slicing and serving (I took these photos in Aruba on a very hot day, so my bars were pretty melty).
Can I Double This Recipe?
Yes, you can easily double the ingredients in this recipe and bake these peanut butter chocolate bars in a 9×13-inch pan. Just note that the bake time will differ, so keep an eye on your bars near the end of their bake time.
Can I Use Oil Instead of Melted Butter?
No, oil can’t be substituted for the melted butter in this recipe. Your bars won’t have the correct texture if you use oil!
Can I Use Another Kind of Chocolate Chips?
Of course! You can use peanut butter chips as well in these peanut butter bars, or you can chop up a chocolate bar if you don’t have chips on hand.
Tips for Making Peanut Butter Chocolate Bars
For this recipe, I used a metal 8×8-inch pan. If you bake with a glass pan, it may alter your bake time since metal conducts heat better than glass.
I’ve never made these peanut butter chocolate chip bars with anything other than all-purpose flour, so I can’t speak to whether or not gluten-free flour or whole wheat flour would work for this recipe. Same thing goes for egg replacers!
If desired, you can scale back on the amount of vanilla you add to these bars. I always add at least 2 teaspoons of vanilla to my baked goods because I love the flavor it lends to any bar or brownie I make, but feel free to adjust the amount to suit your personal tastes.
Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Bars
These peanut butter chocolate bars are loaded with chocolate chips and creamy peanut butter. This is a one-bowl dessert you're bound to love!
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter (1 stick), melted
- 1/3 heaping cup peanut butter*
- 1 large egg
- 1 cup light brown sugar, packed
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips + 2 tablespoons, for sprinkling
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 peanut butter, egg, brown sugar, vanilla, and whisk until smooth.
- Add the flour and stir until just combined, don’t overmix.
- Stir in 1 cup chocolate chips.
- Turn batter out into prepared pan, smoothing the top lightly with a spatula.
- Sprinkle evenly with 2 tablespoons chocolate chips, smoothly the top lightly with a spatula.
- 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. 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.
Notes
*I use Jif, Skippy or similar; natural PB can separate and/or be too oily.
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
9Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 379 Total Fat: 21g Saturated Fat: 11g Trans Fat: 0g Unsaturated Fat: 9g Cholesterol: 48mg Sodium: 63mg Carbohydrates: 45g Fiber: 2g Sugar: 31g Protein: 5g
More Peanut Butter Desserts:
Easy 4-Ingredient Perfect Peanut Butter Cookies — The cookies are impossibly easy and can be made in advance with ingredients you likely already have on hand!
Peanut Butter Cup Peanut Butter Bars — The bars are super soft, slightly chewy, buttery, and have plenty of peanut butter flavor with enough chocolate to balance it.
Better Than Anything Peanut Butter Cake — This Peanut Butter Cake is a super easy poke cake recipe. It’s packed with peanut butter flavor and topped with a mix of peanut butter chips and peanut butter cups.
Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Bars — he bars are soft, chewy, and filling. They’re definitely on the denser side and if you’re looking for a hearty, comfort food breakfast, you’ve found it.
Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge Bars — You don’t have to pick between a peanut butter or a chocolate dessert in these no-bake, one-bowl, gluten-free, fast, and easy bars.
Slow Cooker Peanut Butter Cup Swirl Cake — Yellow cake is spiked with peanut butter, hot fudge, topped with a peanut butter glaze, more hot fudge, and sprinkled with peanut butter cups!
Loaded Peanut Butter Cookie Pie — The cookie pie is slightly crisp around the edges and buttery soft and chewy in the center. There’s lots of texture from the sprinkles, the crunchy Reese’s Pieces shells, and it’s exploding with bigtime peanut butter flavor.
You can never go wrong with PB and chocolate. These look amazing!!
Thanks for pinning too :)
omigoshhhhhh YESSS! These bars are so goooey and chewy and packed full of YUM
Peanut butter bars = brilliant! These look absolutely wonderful!
This recipe was calling to me so I had to use what I had – 1/2 milk chocolate chips & 1/2 peanut butter chips. I was concerned when the dough was much thinner than regular cookie dough, but they turned out great – had to bake 30 min. Thanks for another great recipe!
Yes this batter is much thinner than regular cookie dough, much more blondie-batter consistency than cookie dough consistency. Glad they came out great for you and you enjoyed them! Great way to use up your odds & ends, too!
Averie, these look SO good! What’s could be better than the flavor of chocolate and peanut butter?! Thanks for sharing them!
Fantastic recipe! These turned out amazing! Baking in Aruba..deal lord.. you are a trooper! haha Thanks for the great recipe..these really hit the spot and they are so simple/so few ingredients?!!? LOVE IT! P.S. I’m just sharing this in case it helps one of your readers…I used the Peanut Butter with Coconut Oil type of PB from Costco (in Canada) and this still turned out amazing.
Peanut Butter with Coconut Oil is so good! I’ve had it before and sometimes when I make my own PB, I will add a little coconut oil (but it’s really runny that way and not recommended for baking) but sounds like the kind you used worked great! Glad you loved these :)
MMMM. Sounds great. Yeah, it turned out wonderful. These disappeared sooo quick.
Baking in Aruba? Hellooo paradise!
These look so simple, but so yummy. pinning!
Greetings from Shanghai! I love your awesome blog! I made these last night and substituted GF flour and xanthan gum for the all-purpose flour. They were amazing! Thanks for sharing your talent with us!
Glad they worked out great and that your substitutions worked out well for you!
Hi Averie! I’ve been following you for a while but it’s my first comment over here! I was wondering if it would be a good idea to substitute chocalate chips for nutella (adding it like a swirl) and also add some walnuts to it, what do you think?
BTW, I LOVE your recipes!
Have a great day!
I have the recipe you’re talking about! It’s linked in the Related Recipes (go back and check the post) Nutella-Swirled Blondies. Same concept. I used PB chips too, or you could use nuts. This dough base the ‘everything is a one’ concept I wrote about – very flexible.
I made these today and liked them a lot! Simple and delicious. I did use natural peanut butter, but I made up for the extra oiliness by halving the melted butter. Which is a significant reduction, yes, but I wasn’t doing it only because of the natural PB; I also wanted the bars to be slightly drier than the gooey, almost raw-like consistency shown in the photos here. And it worked! The bars came out exactly how I wanted them: still soft and chewy, but not gooey.
They were also done in 15 minutes, but perhaps I just have a fast oven. It’s something I’ve been suspecting. (I don’t know if you remember that I’m a dorm room baker . . . ? Anyway, it’s a new year so I have a different room with a different oven, which is why I don’t really know yet how it behaves.)
Glad these came out great for you, and just the way you wanted them. Good call on all the tweaks you made & good luck with your new oven!
There will never, ever, ever be such a thing as too many PB recipes. But with how many times a day I stick a spoon straight into the jar, it’d be a miracle for me to make them all… I run out of PB almost as fast as dark chocolate, and that’s saying something! ;) You always take the most amazing mouthwatering photos of cookies. I don’t know how you do it, but you always capture their ooey gooey-ness and melted chocolate so well!
Thanks for all the comments yesterday – loved reading them all :)
I was craving something chocolate and I had pinned this the other day. They are so good. Thank you!!!
Thanks for pinning it, making it, and glad you enjoyed it!
These bars for us were too sweet. Is the amount of brown sugar correct? Is there a way to make them less sweet?
Yes the amount of sugar is correct. You could eliminate the chocolate chips, you could maybe reduce the sugar by 1/4 cup, but going less than that and you won’t really have very much batter since these are a pretty ‘flat’, thin bar to begin with.
Can you increase the amount of peanut butter?
Yes probably slightly, without having to then change the flour amount or other ratios. Whenever you change one thing in baking you have to remember how it will effect other ingredients.
WOW these bars look amazing! Recipe pinned and first batch in the oven for family dinner tonight! The condo is just starting to fill with a yummy chocolate peanut butter smell. (Also thought I would add that your Caramelitas were a big hit last night! They froze great)
Glad to hear you’re making these and they’re making your house smell great!
Awesome that the Carmelitas froze well and they were a big hit!
Could you double these for a 9×13 batch?
Probably although I haven’t personally tried. LMK how things work for you!
They doubled beautifully! 40 minute bake time.
AWESOME to hear! Thanks for reporting back!
I know I want to make a chocolate peanut butter bar to take to a Super Bowl party tomorrow, but I can’t decide between this one and your Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Bars https://www.averiecooks.com/2013/03/peanut-butter-chocolate-chunk-cookie-bars.html)
Can you explain the taste/texture differences between the two? Thanks!
Probably you’ve already decided but this one is more of a blondie with peanut butter and a bit more soft-and-squishy, whereas the other one is like a soft and chewy peanut butter cookie with chocolate that’s baked in bar form. They are VERY similar and only someone like myself who’s written an entire cookbook devoted to PB recipes would probably notice these more subtle nuances :) LMK what you made!
I made this recipe for my Superbowl party and it was a big hit. I added a chocolate topping (1/2 cup chocolate chips melted with 1 Tbs of peanut butter then poured on top) because I wanted them to be dark brown on top. I cut the bars into football shapes and piped on some white frosting laces. Super cute and SOOO yummy!
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it came out great for you and the idea of the PB/choc for a brown topping AND cutting them into football shapes, wow! You need to start a food blog! You are so creative – thanks for sharing that fun idea!
I actually have a food blog! It’s http://www.sweetprecipes.blogspot.com. It’s mostly just a fun way for me to keep track of my own favorite recipes. (read: I haven’t figured out how to make any money with it yet!) Have you figured out that secret recipe? ; )
Hi Averie! I was looking for a super simple dessert recipe that my husband would enjoy eating, and my 18-month old would be able to help me make (she’s big on wanting to help in the kitchen these days). =) I stumbled across these + they turned out fab – thank you! Here the little one is in action, helping me prep ’em. =) http://instagram.com/p/ykETklw9pn/?modal=true
ADORABLE PICTURE!!! Omg too cute :)
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it came out great for you and that you were able to make your hubs and your lil one happy in the process!
Was delicious! I tweaked the recipe a little. Added 1/4 cup of flour and pressed it in a 10×8 sheet pan.
Sounds like it came out great for you with your little tweaks! Thanks for trying the recipe!
I just made these bars today but used 1/2 cup of mini semi sweet chips instead. I had to cook them about ten minutes longer than the original recipe, as they were gooey inside after cooking and sitting for 30 minutes. I still love the bar and will be making it again!
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it came out great for you and that you adjusted the baking time as necessary for your oven. There can be so much variance in ovens and climates I’ve found that can cause baking times to range quite a bit. Glad you’ll make them again!
Just finished making this recipe not quite what I expected. If I were to make the recipe again I would add something (not sure what). It turned out slightly dry and not quite as peanut buttery as I had expected. I followed the recipe exactly, not sure what I did wrong.
turned out slightly dry and not quite as peanut buttery = use another 1/4 cup of peanut butter or so next time AND bake for a few less minutes!
These are absolutely incredibly delicious! And so easy! Basic ingredients that I always have on hand. This is now my go to dessert! Thank you!
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it came out great for you and it’s your new go-to dessert!
These are FANTASTIC! Wouldn’t change a thing! I’m bringing them to a friend’s house for dinner and luckily made a double batch in a 9×13 so we can keep some here, too.
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it came out great for you!