Brownie Batter Peanut Butter Squares
4 Layer no-bake Brownie Batter Peanut Butter Squares. Ready in under 30 minutes to satisfy your chocolate and peanut butter cravings!
Brownie Batter Peanut Butter Squares
During the summer, I love any dessert that goes good with ice cream. You can’t have summer without ice cream, and in my mind, you can’t have ice cream with something else delicious to go with it. Another thing I like in the summertime is not having to turn on the oven. So with these Brownie Batter Peanut Butter Squares, nothing can go wrong. These bars are my dream dessert during the summer, especially because it’s peanut butter and chocolate.
These bars aren’t your normal peanut butter squares. First of all, they’re very sweet, rich and oh, so good. With two peanut butter layers and two chocolate flavors, it’s like a double-decker peanut butter candy bar. We love our desserts sweet, making it (for me) impossible to eat more than one square. For my mom, she’s said more than once she could down the whole pan, but she hasn’t showed us yet. 4 layers of sweet happiness. I would make all of the layers of the bars and eat them separately if I could!
Let me tell you about the different layers in this bar. First of all, we have a Nutter Butter crust. Who doesn’t love Nutter Butters? It’s a nice and crunchy crust that gives the bars some texture. The brownie batter layer is just three simple ingredients: A box brownie mix, cream cheese, and butter. Remember our S’more Brownie Batter Bars? Yep…same idea. The peanut butter layer is peanut butter, butter, powdered sugar, and vanilla. And last but certainly not least, you’ll spread melted chocolate chips on top.
Are you wondering how to get a clean cut on these squares with that hard chocolate on top not cracking? There’s two tricks.
1. Don’t wait until the chocolate is completely hardened before you cut the bars. You can let the bars set just on the countertop, which would take an hour or two, or you can speed up the process by sliding the pan into the fridge. If you put the pan in the fridge to set the chocolate, set the timer for 5-10 minutes at a time. Keep checking and cut the bars while the chocolate is still a little soft.
2. If you are like me, you’ll forget completely about the bars sitting in the fridge. You’ll come back into the kitchen, remember the bars and the chocolate will be completely set. Here’s a hint on how to slice them and still have them look presentable. Take a very sharp knife and run it under hot water until the knife blade is nice and hot. Make one cut in the peanut butter squares, then rinse the knife in hot water again and make another cut. This is a little tedious, but it is not hard. The hot water is will melt the chocolate just a bit so you can cut this sweet treat easily.
Store these bars in the fridge. Serve with ice cream and chow down on a great summer treat!
Brownie Batter Peanut Butter Squares
4 Layer no-bake Brownie Batter Peanut Butter Squares. Ready in under 30 minutes to satisfy your chocolate and peanut butter cravings!
Servings 16
Prep Time 25 minutes
Total Time 25 minutes
Ingredients
Crust:
- 2 cups crushed Nutter Butter cookies
- 4 tablespoons butter melted
Brownie Batter:
- 1 box brownie mix 13x9 family size
- 4 ounces cream cheese softened
- 6 tablespoons butter melted
Peanut Butter Layer:
- 1 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
- 4 tablespoons butter softened
- 1 3/4 cup powdered sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/2 cup chocolate chips
- 1/2 tablespoon coconut oil or shortening
Instructions
- Line an 8x8 baking pan with parchment paper, tin foil, or grease with butter.
- In a small bowl, mix the crushed Nutter Butter cookies with the melted butter. Press this mixture into the bottom of the prepared baking pan. Set aside.
- In a medium size bowl, mix together the brownie mix, softened cream cheese and melted butter. You may have to use your hands to mix and get all of the brownie powder combined. Spoon the brownie batter onto the Nutter Butter crust in small clumps. Press the brownie batter down to form a layer over the crust.
- For the peanut butter layer, cream together the butter and peanut butter using a stand mixer or a hand-held mixer. Add the powdered sugar and vanilla. Mix until well combined and creamy. Press the peanut butter mixture on top of the brownie batter layer.
- In a microwave safe bowl, melt the chocolate chips and coconut oil (or shortening) in 20 second intervals, mixing in between times, until the chocolate is melted and smooth. Pour the chocolate on top of the peanut butter layer and use a rubber spatula to smooth the chocolate. Allow the chocolate to set for 10 minutes in the refrigerator. Cut the bars before the chocolate sets completely in order to get clean cuts. Hold a sharp knife under running hot water, then cut through the chocolate if it is too hard to cut. It will help get a cleaner cut line.
- Store in an airtight container.
Nutrition
Calories: 728kcal | Carbohydrates: 86g | Protein: 12g | Fat: 39g | Saturated Fat: 14g | Cholesterol: 34mg | Sodium: 817mg | Potassium: 166mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 57g | Vitamin A: 415IU | Calcium: 27mg | Iron: 2.1mg
I’m so into these 🙂 Love everything about them! pinned
3 of my favorite things … chocolate, PB and brownies!! Ok, make that 4 – no bake!! 🙂 Pinning!
Julie, I love PB and Chocolate – it’s another food group right 🙂 These look fantastic!
I MUST try these!! I can’t believe how good they look….seriously!!!!!
Very rich, sweet with lots of chocolate and peanut butter involved? I’ll take them, with ice cream! Love these!
Geez…this has got to be dangerous…I mean, nutter butters, brownie mix and peanut butter! I bet it’s awfully sweet!
Pinning it for sure. Thanks for sharing!
My favorite combo, ever! Thanks for linking up with What’s Cookin’ Wednesday!
Awesome! Thank you, Nettie!
These were very good and came out great!!! I even gave some to my friends at school and they absolutely loved them!! They were begging me to tell them what recipe site I found them on lol. Very great recipe and very simple to make!! 10/10!!