Peanut Butter Brownies Recipe (2024)

My mother always added a blob of marshmallow fluff to her chocolate icing and fudge, and now I do. It does something to hugely improve the texture, and if you go easy on the powdered sugar, is not too sweet. I usually eschew weird processed additions, but this one does help a lot.

I have been making this recipe since I found it in the 1992 Southern Living as Frosted Peanut Butter Brownies.Absolutely the best recipe! Only difference is the original recipe calls for a 12 oz jar of chunky peanut butter. It’s a personal preference as both are good. Just don’t overcook the bottom layer. These brownies can be made a week ahead and stored in the refrigerator. Best eaten at room temperature. They also freeze beautifully.

Looked through the 16 comments for useful tips from people who actually made the recipie (isnt that what the notes are supposed to be for?), found two from people that made the recipie. Still no flour at pandemic-streiken grocerystores here, but found brownie mix. Made the brownie section according to the mix, then made the peanut butter layer and forståing as directed in the recipie. Marshmallows did fluff up the frosting nicely. Peanut butter layer easy and salty-good. Wonderful!

The photo looks amazing but the marshmallows are giving me pause. Can anyone say more about the taste and texture of the frosting? Thanks!

This tastes great! I did cut down on the sugar and definitely used the marshmallows - Jess sometimes we just have to throw our preconceived marshmellow worries out the kitchen door! A big hit with the family-

These were -- not to put too fine a point on it -- bad. I had two tiny squares after they were done and immediately felt sick. The underlying brownies were dry, crumbly and tasteless. The peanut butter and not-so-chocolatey frosting were terribly rich. I'm sad I wasted the ingredients.

Regarding marshmallow... I add it to my basic buttercream frosting. We have a family recipe that uses it as a whoopie pie filling, and I pirated it to use on cakes and, especially, cupcakes. It gives a wonderful texture. Being a New Englander, it has to be Marshmallow Fluff. I think the marshmallows in this would add a similar texture boost.

This recipe was disappointing- cloyingly sweet and the texture of the brownie was dismaying. If you want a perfect brownie I’d stick with Mark Bittman’s recipe.

This looks interesting. Would vegan marshmallows be ok for the frosting? My grandkids are vegetarian and I don't use marshmallows with gelatin.

Made these brownies last night. The balance between the layers are nice. The actual brownies are not super sweet with the 2 cups of sugar but the frosting is very sweet with the 4 cups. Cooked very quickly, 25 minutes was way too long. These brownies have a different chewy, since they are refrigerated. If you’re looking for a fudge-like texture, these are not for you. Just one piece a day for these brownies though! Calories are probably off the charts!

Jess, it looks like the marshmallows act like a shortcut of a meringue base and create a frosting to hold its shape. I'm game to try the recipe but will cut back on sugar in the brownies. 2 cups seems like a lot when there's just 1 1/2 cups of flour.

I admit I don't have strong feelings about brownies, but I think a lot of the complaints about both the texture of the brownie ("too fudgy") and the sweetness of the frosting are resolved by serving the brownies at room temp. Even refrigerating them congeals the butter in the brownie, making them fudgy, neutralizes the peanut butter flavor & gooeyness, and crystallizes the sugar in the frosting, making it painfully sweet. Try them at room temp.

To me, it's the sweetness (the flavor) that is the problem, not so much the actual sugar. If I were you, I would cut back on the sugar as others have done, rather than add something else that tastes sweet.

The brownie party of this dessert is awful. To cut the sugar, I sprinkled flaky sea salt on both the Brunei’s and the chocolate coating to help with the sugar high.

@Jess if you’ve ever made Rice Krispie treats, the concept is the same. Melt the marshmallow and butter, add the other icing ingredients and whisk away. Try it! Will not be difficult and will be tasty, no matter what. Let us know how it worked for you.

This brownie base is excellent for ice cream sundae w cocoa (chocolate) sauce- 1/2 cup CP 1 cup sugar 1/2. cup water; heat to simmer over med heat until thick smooth and slow bubbling for 10 minutes then add 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of vanilla and pinch of salt.

Ever since the pandemic, these have been in my baking library — good for parties, great to make ahead, always a crowd pleaser.I add 1/4 cup less sugar to the brownies and don’t use heavy sweetened peanut butter. I don’t add salt and I use salted butter — a keeper!

Loved the peanut butter and fudgey topping layer, but the brownies weren’t quite chocolatey enough. I would make again but use a different cakey brownie for the bottom layer. I do think it needs to be a cakey-type brownie rather than a fudgey brownie (which I otherwise prefer) for this particular recipe.

We had high hopes for this recipe being chocolate peanut butter combo lovers here, but we were sorely disappointed. So disappointed that we threw out the whole batch after each having one bc they weren’t even remotely worth the calories in our opinion. The brownie was a spongey texture that wasn’t sweet enough, and the frosting was way overly sweet. Somehow these two things did not balance each other out. A miss for us.

I cut on sugar. 200g for the brownies, 150g for the frosting as it was already sweet enough. That way I could actually taste cacao :)

I made this with almond flour and didn't have any marshmallows, so I used the NYT chocolate buttercream recipe. I cut the sugar in the brownies in half and made a half-recipe in an 8x8 pan. I still used the amount of cocoa powder called for in the whole recipe--1/3 cup. They were delicious! Everyone loved them.

Everyone who tries these loves them! One friend even called me the next day to see if I had any left over that she could have. :D Chewy brownie layer with a thick, creamy frosting yumminess. Very sweet, though, so I cut them in pretty small pieces. They freeze well too. Just freeze in a single layer and then stacked with parchment in between.

Don’t listen to any of the haters. It’s a gooey, delicious, mess and you deserve it.

I made this for my husband’s birthday a few months ago and it was a big hit, though I could have used more time to chill it. The brownies are extremely rich and a little goes a long way. The only change I made is that I used about 1/3 the amount of confectioners sugar called for in the icing - mostly bc we didn’t have enough but I also didn’t want it to be too sweet. That may have affected the texture & explained why the icing didn’t set as well, but the taste was perfect.

Followed the directions exactly and they were a total hit. My kids gave them a 10/10.

Waaaaaay too sweet. I even cut some of the sugar in half and it was intolerable. I took them in to work and they did not get eaten.

The photo enticed me, but as previously mentioned, this recipe was a letdown. The brownie was fudge-like--or would be considered fudge-like with a higher cocoa content. Due to limited confectioner's sugar, I used half the quantity listed. This meant that my bars were not quite as sweet as everyone else's, and the frosting consistency wasn't quite right. My frosting was more of a glaze. Should I have whipped it in mixer instead of hand whisking? Flavors and layer consistency were disappointing.

These were ok. I won't make them again. The tip someone else gave about not overcooking the brownie layer is important. The freezer dries out that layer and if it's too done to begin with it becomes much too dry. They are much better at room temp than cold. But the taste is mostly very sweet and very peanut buttery without much chocolate flavor. If I did make again, I'd cut the peanut butter in half and leave the brownie layer very moist. I'd probably skip the second freeze step too.

Not a fan. There are better recipes out there. This recipe sounds similar to my favorite peanut butter brownie from a local bakery, but it didn't come together well. When the brownies are allowed to warm to room temperature, the peanut butter layer is too soft to hold the frosting, and it ends up being a mess. Perhaps the PB needs to have some sugar and butter in it to help firm it up. The brownie is like a dense cake - I am ok with that texture, but it didn't have much going on flavor wise.

The brownies are not too sweet and are a nice foil for the sweeter toppings. I used half of the confectionary sugar and still found the chocolate topping to be cloying. I ended up drizzling the chocolate on top of the peanut butter and found that to be a good solution. Cutting the sweetness with a cream cheese or omitting the marshmallows would potentially be other options to explore if I made this again.