Peanut butter has the potential to make just about everything better, and blondies are no exception: The rich, nutty flavor of peanut butter is a perfect complement to the butterscotch notes of this classic bar cookie. But making a peanut butter blondie wasn’t as simple as stirring some peanut butter into our classic blondie base. By the time we added enough for super-nutty flavor, our blondies were dense and heavy from all the added fat. We maxed out at ½ cup of peanut butter, and even then we had to decrease the amount of butter to accommodate this amount. Chunky peanut butter packed double the peanut flavor of creamy, and we didn’t mind the texture it added, either. But we wanted still more peanut butter flavor. Stirring some toasted and chopped nuts into the batter gave our blondies an earthy crunch, but it still wasn’t enough. The only peanut product we had left to test: peanut butter chips. We didn’t think the candies would help—and we couldn’t have been more wrong. They provided pockets of concentrated peanut butter flavor for the blondies of our dreams. If you store your peanut butter in the refrigerator, note that room temperature peanut butter will combine more easily with the batter.
Ingredients
- 1½ cups (7½ ounces) all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1½ cups packed (10½ ounces) light brown sugar
- 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
- 2 large eggs
- 4 teaspoons vanilla extract
- ½ cup chunky peanut butter
- ½ cup (3 ounces) peanut butter chips
- ¼ cup salted dry-roasted peanuts, chopped
- Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Make foil sling for 13 by 9-inch baking pan by folding 2 long sheets of aluminum foil; first sheet should be 13 inches wide and second sheet should be 9 inches wide. Lay sheets of foil in pan perpendicular to each other, with extra foil hanging over edges of pan. Push foil into corners and up sides of pan, smoothing foil flush to pan. Grease foil.
- Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt together in bowl. Whisk sugar and melted butter in second bowl until combined. Whisk eggs and vanilla into sugar mixture until combined. Whisk in peanut butter until combined. Using rubber spatula, fold in flour mixture until just combined. Fold in peanut butter chips and peanuts.
- Transfer batter to prepared pan and smooth top. Bake until toothpick inserted in center comes out with few moist crumbs attached, 30 to 35 minutes, rotating pan halfway through baking. Using foil overhang, remove blondies from pan. Cut into 24 pieces before serving.
