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)?
great
Can’t believe these haven’t been rated yet! I was scouring the internet for one-bowl desserts on a whim last night and came across this recipe. They are addictively delicious. Be careful, they were devoured so quickly that we are making more tonight. Thanks for an awesome recipe!
Thanks for the five star review and for being the first to give it a review! I’m glad that these are getting devoured quickly for you!
Can’t believe these haven’t been rated yet! I was scouring the internet for one-bowl desserts on a whim last night and came across this recipe. They are addictively delicious. Be careful, they were devoured so quickly that we are making more tonight. Thanks for an awesome recipe!
Hey, I have s pistachio spread and was going to use chocolate chips. Do you think this combo would work?
Thanks
Something about pistachio spread doesn’t sound super appealing to me here but if you like it and think it would be good, you can try it. I prefer Nutella.
Oh my these sound incredible. Thank you for sharing this delicious sounding recipe.
Simon
these sound amazing! I am searching for an easy dessert for an office potluck and I think I just found it! Thank you :-D
I am just putting these in the oven now and am so excited to eat one! I ended up low on both Nutella and PB chips, so I used a combo of chocolate-PB spread and Nutella, as well as a combo of chocolate and PB chips. Also used a ziploc as a “piping bag” to make my Nutella “tracks”
Glad you were able to make due with that you had and I’m sure they’re delicious!
hi
these look great :)
i was wondering if you could put up the measurements in the recipe in grams etc for the flour, chocolate chips etc
how would i measure the nutella?
ive only started baking so this would help if you dont mind of course!
thanks :0
There are online tools that you can plug the info into. Google baking conversion tools.
Made these last night to bring to a friend’s house, and they were a big hit! Rave reviews all around. Plus my roommate said they were her favorite treat from all that I’ve made in the past 6 months – looks like I’ll be making them again!
My Nutella swirls ended up more like blobs than swirls though… gotta work on my technique! I just saw your tip about microwaving it so it drizzles better, will have to try that next time.
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it came out great for you!
Oh – I read another comment regarding the nutella spreading. I wasn’t sure if heating it would be ok, so I spooned some in a good quality ziplock back, cut off the corner tip, and piped it through. Perfect.
Glad that worked great and that you plan to make a double batch next time! :)
My husband picked out this recipe for me to make for him today, to enjoy this weekend… Well, after having just made them this afternoon, I can attest that they are super easy and ridiculously delicious. I’m really not much of a sweets person, and most of the time, I don’t bother to eat his cookies and brownies, but I had one bite and it lead to eating two whole brownies. Delicious with afternoon coffee. My only criticism – I would never just make one batch. This needs to be doubled in the future, they’ll be gone too soon.
can peanut butter itself be used instead of the reeses chips or chocolate chips?
Probably but you’d have to make other adjustments. If you want to just use PB, make these https://www.averiecooks.com/peanut-butter-chocolate-chip-bars/
I tried baking this, but I’m not too familiar with using measurements in cups… Is that like literally a cup? I tried googling the amount in grams for each ingredient from 1 cup but I don’t think it was right as the sugar was like, a heapload. But I did follow the instructions step-by-step. I’m not sure what went wrong! They came out of the oven soft and weird… and when I bit into them I could taste all the sugar and it wasn’t like smoothly blended in. I could feel the sugar crack under my bites if you know what I mean. I couldn’t even pick it up, it was so fragile and would break if I tried. The top also wasn’t like how yours looks in the pictures. It was just all like a mushy thing. I really don’t know what I did wrong but I’d like to give it another go. Could help me out? Thanks x
Cup means yes, 1 cup. Use an online calculators for converting cups into grams for sugar. It sounds like you perhaps over-measured the sugar, didn’t mix it well enough (hence it being granular and not smooth) and sounds like you underbaked it since it was on the softer, mushier side. Quite a few things you did wrong but all are easy fixes.
Okay, thanks! I’ll try it out again soon :)