Fudgy Peanut Butter Cup Brownies
These Fudgy Peanut Butter Cup Brownies start with an easy homemade brownie recipe and are stuffed with peanut butter cups!
*Photos updated August 2017*
What’s better than just a regular brownie? A dense, fudgy brownie stuffed with peanut butter cups.
These Fudgy Peanut Butter Cup Brownies start with an easy homemade brownie recipe and are so simple to throw together. These brownies are such a simple and fun dessert and you probably have almost everything you need on hand to make a batch too.
Plus, how gorgeous are these brownies with the peanut butter cup in the center when you slice into them? I promise you they taste even better than they look too.
To make these brownies you’ll start out with some melted butter and sugar and whisk them together until they’re well combined. Then, you’ll whisk in a couple of eggs and vanilla extract. Just make sure that your butter has cooled some before you add the eggs. Hot butter + eggs = scrambled eggs.
For the dry ingredients, you’ll sift some flour, unsweetened cocoa powder, and a little bit of salt into the wet ingredients. One little tip when it comes to making good brownies, make sure to sift your dry ingredients to avoid any lumps of cocoa powder in your brownie batter.
Once the wet and dry ingredients are well combined, you’ll pour half of your batter into the pan and then line some peanut butter cups on top. You’ll need a total 12 peanut butter cups for this recipe. I like to place 9 whole peanut butter cups on top and then cut the other 3 in half and fill in the empty spaces.
There is definitely no shortage of peanut butter and chocolate anywhere in this recipe. Would you expect anything less of me?
The brownies will need to bake for about 30-35 minutes, you’ll know they’re done when the top looks set. Once they’re done baking, you’ll need to let the brownies cool almost completely before slicing into them.
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.livewellbakeoften.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Fudgy-Peanut-Butter-Cup-Brownies-5-300x300-1.jpg?fit=200%2C200&ssl=1)
Fudgy Peanut Butter Cup Brownies
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup (115 grams) unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
- 1 cup (200 grams) granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs room temperature
- 1/2 cup (65 grams all-purpose flour) (spooned & leveled)
- 1/2 cup (40 grams) natural unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 12 full-size peanut butter cups unwrapped
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Line an 8-inch square baking dish with aluminum foil, leaving some overhang for easy removal. Spray with nonstick cooking spray and set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the melted butter and granulated sugar until well combined. Mix in the eggs and vanilla extract until fully combined.
- Sift the flour, cocoa powder, and salt into the dry ingredients and mix until just combined, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.
- Pour half of the brownie batter into the prepared baking pan. Place the peanut butter cups on top of the brownie batter, cutting some in half as needed to make them all fit in one even layer.
- Add the remaining brownie batter on top and spread into one even layer, making sure all of the peanut butter cups are covered.
- Bake 350°F for 30-35 minutes or until the tops of the brownies look set. Remove from the oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Slice into 9-12 squares, serve, and enjoy!
Notes
Adapted from All Recipes
Love peanut butter cups? Try my Peanut Butter Cup Cookie Cake next!
I am drooling over these brownies, Danielle! They look so amazing, especially with that peanut butter in the middle! And I’m totally like you, I usually never follow a recipe exactly, whereas my husband always does. Love how easy these are to make! Pinned!
Thanks Gayle! The peanut butter is the best part. Thanks for the pin too!
“More brownie batter for you.” Ha! Love that! And these brownies! Wowzers…thick and fudgy CITY here! These look ah-MAZING, Danielle! 🙂
These definitely were thick and fudgy, but that makes them better right? Thanks Sarah!
I totally agree with you, the more fudge the better the brownie! These look delicious!
Glad I’m not the only one, thanks Karen!
These brownies look way to tasty! They look so soft and fudgy. Love the new blog design 🙂
Thanks so much Katie!
Peanut butter and chocolate are the best combo EVER! So, I’ve never made brownies from scratch. I know. So bad. I’ve always just used the box mix. But you’ve totally inspired me to do homemade! It sounds so easy, and I bet they taste even better.
I totally agree! So glad I inspired you, they’re just as easy to make!
Wow, these brownies look amazing. I love all that chocolate goodness. I too am the same with recipes. I hardly ever follow one exactly. I’ve found that is the hardest part of teaching my kids to cook. They want to follow the exact recipe. I say they are a guide 😀 Either way, glad you strayed and tried these with cocoa powder. Pinning!
I agree with recipes being a guide, I’ll try that one on Josh next time! Thanks for the pin too Cindy.
These brownies look so moist and delicious! I like anything with peanut butter and would definitely love these!
Peanut butter makes everything better, especially chocolate!
I love the peanut butter and chocolate combination! They look amazing!
Thanks, Bri!
Thank you so much Mary Frances, you’re the sweetest! This comment just made my day.
I may just have to make a special trip to the store this weekend to pick up the ingredients. These look incredibly good. My husband isn’t a huge sweet fan – but brownies he loves. I bet I’d even score some extra wife points. Haha! Thanks for sharing 🙂
I bet he’d love them! Thanks Jess!
I love the new site redesign, Danielle! So fresh and you look gorgeous in your author photo. I just want to stick around and browse 🙂
Also, I want a stack of these brownies! Or maybe crumble them on some ice cream. Mmmm. Chocolate and PB is the best!
Thanks Allison! I’m wondering now why I didn’t think to eat these with ice cream!
Gorgeous!! these brownies are so decadent and so delicious.. Chocolate-peanut butter match made in heaven.. 😀 what a great idea to add peanut butter cups… Superb!!
Thanks Arpita! I agree, you just can’t go wrong with chocolate and peanut butter.
These look fantastic!! I’m in love with anything brownie + peanut butter cup!
Oh Danielle, these look incredible! I seriously gasped when I saw that first picture. Can you tell I’m craving chocolate? Haha I tend not to follow recipes to a ‘t’, instead using them as a guideline. Sometimes that works, something…not so much! I would definitely follow this brownie recipe exactly, though. LOOKS. SO. GOOD. Pinning! 🙂
I need a larger batch. If I double this recipe, do I use a 9×13 pan or a 13 x 18?
Thank you.
You can double the recipe and use a 9×13 pan. I have a similar brownie recipe in a 9×13 pan here as well: http://www.livewellbakeoften.com/homemade-fudgy-brownies/.
Thank you. Would the recipe in the link you provided work if I chopped up miniaturel peanut butter cups and made a peanut butter cup layer like the recipe above?
I think it would be fine to chop them up and add them in the middle. I do prefer regular peanut butter cups though since there’s more peanut butter in them.
I just need these and they are delicious ! Thanks for the recipe!
Made these yesterday for a Teacher lunch at my son’s school. So good! I needed a much larger batch so I multiplied everything by 4 and used a 12×18 sheet cake pan. Came out perfect and they are so good! I know they will be a hit at the teacher lunch
i just made the peanut butter cup brownies. They are easy to make and very delicious with a wonderful fudgy consistency. My dough was not “pourable” like in instruction 4, but quite dense, which worried me, (worried I had forgotten something), but it turned out fine. Definitely make those again – peanut butter and choc heaven!
These look SO good! If I double the recipe in the 9×13 pan, do I need to adjust the cook time?
The baking time should be pretty similar! I’d check them at about 25 minutes just to see how they look though.
These were soooooo good! I wasn’t sure if I was gonna have enough batter to spread evenly for both layers but it ended up working out. Thank you for this recipe, def a keeper!