They look kind of boring without the chocolate on top. And they have a weird shiny (not but greasy!) surface. They definitely don’t need more chocolate on top, but I like things to be pretty.
They’re nice and gooey but if you decide to leave out the peanut butter filling, I don’t know how they’d be. I imagine that they rely on the sweetness and gooiness of the filling, but that’s just my feeling. So don’t do it, okay?! We need the peanut butter!
I tried making these with honey in the batter but they weren’t as good. But hey, at least coconut sugar’s better than white sugar. At least in the glycemic index department. So yay! Let’s celebrate and eat these gooey things. :)
100% Whole Grain Peanut Butter Cup Filling Filled Chocolate Brownies
- Prep Time:
- Cook Time:
- Ready in:
- Yield: 16 brownies
Ingredients
- 1 cup (~256 grams) natural peanut butter
- ⅓ cup (106 grams) honey
- ¼ (56 grams) cup refined coconut oil or normal butter, room temperature1
- ¼ cup (60ml) olive oil (or canola)
- ¼ cup (60ml) canola oil
- 1 cup (220 grams) granulated sugar or coconut sugar (159 grams)
- 3 eggs, room temperature
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- ¾ cup (85 grams) cocoa powder
- ¾ cup (90 grams) whole spelt, whole wheat pastry, or whole wheat flour
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Filling:
Brownies:
Directions
- Line an 8" x 8" pan with parchment paper or spray the pan with baking spray. Preheat your oven to 350°F / 175°C. Combine filling ingredients and place in fridge while you prepare the brownie batter. In a medium bowl, stir together the olive oil, canola oil, and sugar. Add the eggs and vanilla and beat just until combined. In a small bowl, mix together the cocoa powder, flour and salt. Add the flour mixture to the wet mixture. It will be really thick, but that's okay. Only stir until combined!
- Spread half of the batter into the prepared pan. To get the peanut butter filling somewhat evenly into the pan, I rolled the filling into balls and smooshed them to make them flat, and then used those to cover the first half of the brownie batter. Cover the peanut butter filling with the rest of the brownie batter. Bake for 20 - 25 minutes.
- Take them out when they are set in the middle. The top will be shiny and look strange but it has nothing to do with how done they are. They should not be the least bit cakey, but really really fudgy. Both the brownie part and peanut butter part won't appear to be done when you take it out of the oven, but it is. Let it cool and then put them in the fridge. They will firm up and get fudgy in there.
- For the chocolate topping, I just melted some chocolate and added some milk (you're supposed to use cream but I didn't want to open cream just for a tablespoon or so) until it was pourable. If you do that, you should probably keep the brownies in the fridge. I prefer them at room temperature, though!
Notes
- If your coconut oil is really hard like mine, which is stored in the fridge, soften it a little before making these. Either let it sit off at room temperature for about an hour or microwave at 50% in 10 second increments until it's soft enough to stir together with the other ingredients.
http://www.texanerin.com/2012/05/100-whole-grain-peanut-butter-cup-filling-filled-chocolate-brownies.html
64 comments on "100% Whole Grain Peanut Butter Cup Filling Filled Chocolate Brownies" — Add one!
I made these today and oh my goodness they are soooooo so good, especially warmed up in the microwave for 17 seconds. I don’t have my food processor on hand, so I had to use store bought natural peanut butter (Krema). I think the only difference it made was this made the filling more liquid like. I’m so sad that I made these the day before I have to leave for school orientation because that means I can’t have more. I’ll try smuggling them onto the plane perhaps.
17 seconds?! Hahaha. I’m happy that you liked them but I have no idea why your filling so was liquid. I’ve made them a few times and they always come out well. :) Thanks for the review!
Dear Erin,
I really love your blog! I recently started one called Sara's Healthy Cooking( and I look at your blog for inspiration all the time! I hope my bog becomes as famous as yours someday:) Please check it out!
Anyways, I made these brownies today, and like usual with your recipes, OMG is all I can say! Chocolate and peanut butter is my all-time favorite combination. Thanks so much for another great recipe!
Fondly,
Sara
Hi Sara! What a super nice comment. Thank you very much. :) I'm so happy to hear that you liked the brownies. Yay! They're SO darn gooey. And I'll go check out your blog tomorrow. And um, I don't know about my blog being famous but it made me smile anyway. Thank you. :D
This looks amazing and: The chocolate is just perfect on top! There is nothing such as 'too much chocolate'. :-)
Haha. Thank you! And I'm happy you think so. :) It certainly makes them look better!
These look incredibly awesome! And I'm all for adding the extra chocolate on top. :) I'm definitely saving this recipe to try out… I'm really loving looking around your blog!
Yay! I'm happy to hear that. I hope you find something you like. :)
I just made these! They were so good! I just used vegetable oil nstead of coconut in the peanut butter mixture and it got me thinking that peanut butter aready has so much fat in it- why the addition? Could I just mix together peanut butter and honey next time?
Yay! I'm so happy that you liked them. :) Vegetable oil is an interesting sub! It's not solid at room temperature so I'm wondering how that worked out. ;) I suppose you could just mix peanut butter and honey together, as the brownies already have quite a bit of oil. But I'm not quite positive. I just tried to copy the filling of a Reese's and they have some fat. So these got the fat. :) Thanks for your feedback!
I've made these about three times now – they are my new favorite! I love your blog!
I'm so happy that you like them! :) Thanks for stopping by to let me know. I really appreciate it!
I've made these about three times now – they are my new favorite! I love your blog!
Anon – It's okay! I used homemade peanut butter (just peanuts) and although they come out of the oven very runny (both the peanut butter and brownie part), they'll set. I'll add that to the directions now! I hope they turn out. I've made them several times and everyone has always really enjoyed them. :)