These blondies are a jam-packed with things that make me very happy.
A super soft, buttery, brown sugar base, loaded with peanut butter chips, and swirled with Nutella.
I used my go-to blondie recipe that never lets me down. The batter comes together in one bowl, in 5 minutes, without using a mixer.
That’s especially important when you don’t have a dishwasher, and each and every dirty dish counts.
I’m on vacation and don’t want anything fussy or that takes more than 30 minutes from start to finish.
Although I sometimes can’t find tomatoes or cream in Aruba, I spotted a bag of peanut butter chips in the local grocery store. Sold. Never mind that they were $6 dollars. I love peanut butter, what can I say.
Use chocolate chips if you can’t find peanut butter chips, or if you’re feeling more frugal.
Everything tastes better with swirls, especially swirls of Nutella. I was going to use peanut butter, but wanted a pop of chocolate. You don’t even have to dip your fingers in it for this recipe.
If you don’t have Nutella, try Homemade Peanut Butter or Homemade Chocolate Peanut Butter. The recipe is highly adaptable, another reason I love it.
While they bake, the butter and brown sugar caramelize, and the bars take on caramel and vanilla flavors.
They’re supremely soft, moist, and dense. No chemical leaveners such as baking powder or soda are used, and you’ll just want to sink your teeth into these softies.
Mine are especially soft and gooey because my kitchen here is un-airconditioned. It was 88F and very humid when these pictures were taken. Everything melts and gets very soft. In more normal conditions, your blondies won’t be as soft and melty.
The peanut butter chips are the perfect flavor nuggets, adding bursts of peanut butter flavor, without overtaking the flavor and making them taste like peanut butter blondies.
Not that that would be a bad thing. There’s a recipe for Peanut Butter Blondies with Nutella Swirls in my cookbook and they’re wonderful.
These were so good. And a little messy.
And that’s what napkins are for.
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Nutella-Swirled Peanut Butter Chip Blondies
Ingredients
- ½ cup unsalted butter, 1 stick, melted
- 1 large egg
- 1 cup light brown sugar, packed
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 cup Reese’s Peanut Butter Chips
- about 1/3 cup Nutella (Homemade Peanut Butter or Homemade Chocolate Peanut Butter
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F. Line an 8-by-8-inch baking pan with aluminum foil, spray with cooking spray; set aside.
- In a large, microwave-safe bowl melt the butter, about 1 minute on high power.
- Wait momentarily before adding the egg so you don’t scramble it. Add the egg, brown sugar, vanilla, and whisk until smooth.
- Add the flour and stir until just combined, don’t overmix.
- Stir in the peanut butter chips.
- Turn batter out into prepared pan, smoothing the top lightly with a spatula.
- Evenly add and swirl the Nutella. To create the marbled pattern shown, drizzle Nutella over batter in 5 wide, evenly spaced, parallel lines, each spanning the length of the pan. Like 5 rows of long train tracks. Rotate pan 90-degrees. With a toothpick, starting at the top of the pan, “draw” 4 or 5 evenly spaced lines through the Nutella. You’re dragging the toothpick perpendicularly through the first set of lines to create the marbling.
- Bake for about 20 to 25 minutes, or until done. A toothpick inserted in the center should come out clean, or with a few moist crumbs, but no batter. Bars shown in photographs were in 90F Caribbean heat and humidity, and very soft and melty. Allow bars to cool in pan for at least 30 minutes before slicing and serving. Bars will keep airtight at room temperature for up to 1 week, or in the freezer for up to 6 months.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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What’s your favorite fast and easy go-to dessert? Favorite way to use Nutella or peanut butter (chips)?
I might have missed a previous question to this effect, but, how did you make the Nutella pourable? Did you thin it out at all or just heat it? Also, I’m making it for a potentially large group, would a double recipie work in a 9×13?
15 seconds in the micro generally will soften Nutella if you have a ‘thick’ batch. Some batches are much thicker than others Ive found and some are quite pour-able/runny.
And this recipe would be fine to double. I haven’t personally tried that but I’m fairly sure it will be okay.
I’ve tried your recipe 3 times! it took me till the third time to at least get something fudgy and moist like the ones you baked! however, i’ve been using chocolate chips & choco peanut butter instead of peanut butter spread and nutella… However….. somehow, the peanut butter flavour just doesnt stand out :(
chocolate chips & choco peanut butter instead of peanut butter spread and nutella = THAT’S why you were having issues. First, chocolate chips and chocolate peanut butter will be much THICKER than just using peanut butter and Nutella as I did. Secondly, you’ll be lacking flavor because the chocolate peanut butter isn’t as peanut buttery tasting as regular peanut butter. If you follow the recipe using the ingredients I called for, I’m sure you’ll have results much more in line with mine. Enjoy!
Made these bars and everyone loved them so much that they were requested again for a party tonight! These are the best. Thanks for the recipe!
Thanks for making them and glad it’s a popular recipe with your friends/family! So nice of you to bake for everyone :)
Hi, I am a fellow with Teach for China,and I am placed in a rural middle school. I have been experimenting with baking out of a rice cooker, and plan to try this recipe next!
Typically the only substitutions I have to make is oil for butter–
Keeping my fingers crossed this recipe works out :)
Absolutely amazing!!!! This will be my go to recipe from now on. Thanks so much for something so easy and delicious!
Im so glad you love them and yes, so easy, but so delicious :)
Can I use peanut butter instead of peanut butter chips because they don’t sell that in the uk! Roz
You can but just don’t over do it too much or you’ll have a gooey mess with BOTH the PB and the Nutella. Just use common sense and keep it on the lighter side so it’s not totally gooey or they won’t set up. LMK how it goes!
SO DELICIOUS! I used your peanut butter base from the Triple Peanut Butter Monster Bars and swirled in the Nutella, and they were to die for. As always, so easy, so yummy, and I already had everything on hand. Perfection!
This recipe is amazing! So delicious and easy to prepare. I didn’t had the peanut butter chips, so I add some cashew instead. My family loved it.
And I love your pics! Greetings from Brazil!
So glad you like them and thanks for saying hi all the way from Brazil!
I’ll definitely let you know which I go with, but either way I’m quite sure they’ll be delicious. After I made your triple peanut butter monster bars, I knew I needed your cookbook!
Averie these look FANTASTIC–I was debating between making these and the ones you mention are in your cookbook (I got it for Christmas!), but I can’t find a recipe for Peanut Butter Blondies with Nutella Swirls in the cookbook. I found Peanut Butter Swirled Chocolate Chip Blondies, and Nutella and Peanut Butter Marbled Brownies–is one of those what you’re referring to? I can also just make these since they look scrumptious, but I’m a huge pb fan like you so the more peanut buttery the batter, the better :)
Peanut Butter Swirled Chocolate Chip Blondies are the ones or there’s PB & J Blondies – either are similar to these, with of course choc chips/jelly. You can’t go wrong with any of this stuff. Make what sounds good to you! Thanks for buying my book and for your support, Erica! :) LMK what you try and how it goes!
I baked these today but I could not find peanut butter chips anywhere so I used crunchy peanut butter instead and they turned out really lovely. I also heated them up and had one with ice cream which made for a great dessert! thank you very much for the recipe, I’m so taking some to my friend tomorrow!
Sounds like the crunchy PB worked and I bet they’d be great with ice cream. Hope your friend enjoys them as well! Thanks for trying the recipe!
I have them in the oven right now. I can’t wait. My only issue is that they are not cooking in the middle. I am not sure what I am doing wrong. I have had them in 35 minutes.
I used a fresh jar of Nutella, so it swirled beautifully. Thanks for the recipe. I can’t wait to try some other things on your site.
Do you see how gooey, soft, moist, and drippy mine are! Yes, that’s normal. I would say just bake until they seem to set up in the middle slightly without the edges getting too browned; however 35 mins does sound a bit long. I’d also buy a 5 dollar oven thermometer and double check your oven is running totally up to par. Enjoy the bars!
Oh my gosh, this has got to be one of your best blondie recipes yet!!! They look so, so delicious Averie. Thanks for always coming up with so much peanut buttery goodness for us… I am a pb fiend and I always know that I can come to your site for an immediate fix! Hope that you and your family had a wonderful Christmas. Happy NY for next week! xxx
Glad you love your pb as much as I do!
I have a batch of these in the oven right now! Have to say, that batter was SOOOO delicious!!
Thanks for trying the recipe and yes, the batter is pretty fab, isn’t it :)
Yum!
I have made these twice now – they are delicious! however, I cannot get the Nutella to swirl…and i end up just having a layer of Nutella on top of the entire brownie pan. so, they taste amazing and are a huge hit, but they just don’t LOOK amazing. the first time I made them, the Nutella was too thick to drizzle. the second time I made them, I decided to heat the Nutella to try to get it to drizzle, but this did not work either. what am I doing wrong???
Some jars of Nutella are really thick and almost ‘dried out’ even when you open them…ugh. For those jars, I heat the jar in the micro for 10 secs and stir really well. That should be enough. But heat in 10 sec bursts til it’s softer. Then, sort of drizzle it on or add it. If it’s still thick, almost like toothpaste, you can still work with that by using a toothpick to ‘cut’ into the thicker blobs and smooth them/swirl them. It can be a very delicate balancing act b/c Nutella (sadly) is NOT a uniform product. At least when I open a jar of Jif PB, it will always be the same; Nutella, meh not so much. Lmk how the next attempt goes!