There aren’t many combinations that go together like peanut butter and chocolate. Well, I could name a few others.. lemon and lime, sour cream and onion, butter and garlic, sea salt and caramel, chocolate and peppermint, french fries and milkshakes. But don’t we all agree that peanut butter and chocolate tops ALL of those? No. French fries and milkshakes might be the best actually. But that’s really another category. That just slipped into the list when I got carried away.
This Four Layer Peanut Butter Brownie recipe is fun because it adds a layer to the traditional peanut butter bars. Well, two layers actually = brownies and ganache. It’s essentially two desserts in one and I ain’t complaining about that!
I am usually all about making everything from scratch, but honestly, when you are craving peanut butter and chocolate, time is of the essence! One of my favorite boxed brownies is the Ghiradelli version that has chocolate chips in the batter. They are suspiciously similar to homemade brownies. So I am using these in the recipe below but you are welcomed to make them from scratch using my Dark Chocolate Brownie recipe (skipping the sea salt). But since there are four layers to these Peanut Butter Brownie Bars, I didn’t want to overwhelm with soooo many ingredients and steps. That’s no fun. What’s really fun is getting to the finish line as fast as possible so you can be eating these babies in no time.
For all of your peanut butter + chocolate desires, allow me to introduce you to these other pb+c fantasies:
Peanut Butter and Chocolate Shortbread Cups
Salted Peanut Butter Patties
Fudgey Peanut Butter Filled Cookies
BAKING TIPS
1) The ganache layer is important as it acts as the glue between the brownies and peanut butter layer. Without this, the layers won’t adhere and you will end up with two detached desserts.
2) Store the bars in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to two weeks.
3) A 9×9 inch baking pan is used, you could also use 9×13 or similar sizes but it will result in the bars being a bit thinner/more flattened.
4) The only special tools I use in this recipe is food handling gloves (like usual for any
recipe that requires getting “handsy” with my food) and an offset spatula. You can still make this recipe without these items.
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