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All Fridays in December need something sweet, enter these Salted Milk Chocolate and Peanut Butter Blondies.
If there was ever a chocolate bar recipe to have in your back pocket, it should be these blondies. In fact, I should really be calling these Back Pocket Salted Milk Chocolate and Peanut Butter Blondies…but I’m feeling like that title might be a little on the long side.
Point is, these are the best blondies I’ve ever had. Granted, I haven’t had a lot of blondies, nor made a lot of blondies (although I do have a recipe on HBH from my very first year of blogging…the photos are scary), but still these blondies here are the best.
Milk chocolate + peanut butter + flaky salt.
I mean, what’s not delicious about that, you know?
I mentioned yesterday that my parents have a ton of guest in town. Here’s the thing, when my parents have guests in town, that means I have guests in town too. For those of you unfamiliar, I live next door to my parent’s house, maybe a football field away from each other, and everyone who comes to visit knows two very important things, my house has the food…and the alcohol.
Sometimes I really wish this was not the case, but for the most part, I don’t mind being the place that everyone comes to for good eats. My two younger brothers, Malachi and Red are currently home and with them come friends. Many friends. Red’s home for a couple snowboard competitions, and Kai is here to film both new recipe videos for the HBH Instagram and Red snowboarding…although he’s mostly been filming Red these days.
Anyway…we have a lot of people around right now. The boys will be here into January and the rest of the family comes in a couple of weeks for Christmas (can’t wait to see my cousins!), so I’m going to have plenty of mouths to feed. This means I need some really good dinners, and even more sweet treats,, for people to snack on when they come in from the cold (and let me tell you it is cold, it’s been in the single digits all week and snowing as I write this!).
I decided to make these bars kind of on a whim this week, after many failed attempts at what could have been a very cute holiday cake, but I just could not get it right. After a few cakes, many sticks of butter, and a sweater covered in powdered sugar, I threw in the towel and baked these blondies instead.
I needed to make something that I had confidence would be a success. Thankfully these turned out amazing, because I could not deal with another failed dessert. Again, you just can’t go wrong with anything chocolate and peanut butter.
I really don’t know why this is, but it’s always the simplest recipes that I love this most. This is a one bowl, mix, and bake kind of recipe. These blondies take less than an hour start to finish, and my guess is that you may even have most, if not all, of the ingredients on hand right now.
The recipe starts with melted butter and creamy peanut butter. Add some brown sugar and plenty of vanilla extract. Then add flour and a handful of semi sweet chocolate chips, stir everything up in one bowl (yes stir). Seriously so easy.
The key is layering the blondie dough with some additional peanut butter so you get gooey peanut butter with every bite. Then just bake. But you guys? Please, please just under bake these. Over baking them is going to ruin their deliciousness. Trust me.
During the last-minute of baking you’ll add that milk chocolate and let it just slightly melt over the top of the bars. Then, add flaky sea salt.
OH MY GOSH. I think I may have just described heaven in a Christmas Blondie Bar.
For real. These are fudgy, peanut buttery, moist, doughy, sweet, extra chocolatey, and just a little salty. AKA the most perfect dessert.
Ever.
If you decide to eat these warm, I totally get that. Baked goods are better warm, no matter what any recipe says. Warm and gooey beats cold every time.
PS. packing these up in a cookie box would make anyone who loves chocolate and peanut butter very very happy this holiday season. You should do it…just sayin.
Salted Milk Chocolate and Peanut Butter Blondies
Servings: 24 blondies
Calories Per Serving: 200 kcal
Nutritional information is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) salted butter
- 3/4 cup creamy peanut butter
- 1 cup light brown sugar
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
- 2-3 ounces milk chocolate chunks
- flaky sea salt
Instructions
- 1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9x13 inch baking dish.2. In a microwave safe mixing bowl, melt together the butter and 1/2 cup peanut butter on power level high, stirring every 30 seconds until melted. Stir in the brown sugar, sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Add the flour and baking powder. Transfer the bowl to the freezer and chill 5 minutes or until the dough is no longer warm to the touch. Stir in the chocolate chips. 3. Spread 1/2 the dough out in the prepared dish. Dollop and then gently swirl the remaining 1/4 cup peanut butter into the dough. Add the remaining dough overtop, don't worry if it does not fully cover the peanut butter. Transfer to the oven and bake for 20-22 minutes, just until set in the center. Remove from the oven and sprinkle the milk chocolate over the blondies. Return to the oven for 1-2 minutes to gently melt the chocolate. Sprinkle with sea salt. Let cool and then cut into bars. Store for up to 5 days in an airtight container.
Friday night plans? Blondie making and eating, while watching The Santa Clause. I love December!
This post was originally published on December 8, 2017
Seriously so easy and delicious! My neighbors LOVED these! the recipe makes plenty to give in cookie boxes for my neighbors. And they turned out delicious! I love the peanut butter!!! And my neighbors love all your recipes I’ve Made. Win! Win! Will tag you on Instagram.
That is so great! Thank you!
Can I use natural peanut butter in this recipe?
I have not tried it with natural, but I think it should be fine. Please let me know if you have other questions. Hope you love this recipe! Happy Holiday’s ? 🙂
Your dessert photos give me some serious cravings! Just pinned this – will definitely be making this. Can’t wait!!
Great! I hope you love these!
I’ve already made these twice! They are so easy and amazing…I used almond flour and subbed coconut sugar for the regular sugar and they turned out fabulous! Will be a go-to for many years to come 🙂
That is so great! I am really glad it worked out with the almond flour and coconut sugar! Thanks Rachel!
Just put these in the oven! Due to not reading the instructions (d’oh) put all of the peanut butter in with the butter. Oh well. Not my first and certainly won’t be my last mistake when it comes to reading/not reading instructions!?
It is starting to smell wonderful in the kitchen! Can’t wait for these to be done!
I hope you love these Sandra! Thank you!!
Tiegen, these are in the oven now. Easy and look delicious. I also added some salted caramel ships that were left over. I can’t wait to dig into them.
I hope you love them! Thank you Joyce!
hey tieghan! these look amazing and i’m looking to make them tonight. if i wanted to make them thicker, could i make them in a 9×9 or an 8×8 pan? or could i double the recipe and still do in a 9×13? i know this would affect baking time but would it also affect the consistency/density of the bars? thanks so much!!
Hmm, honestly not sure. I think doubling or baking in a smaller dish could both work, but again I have not tested this so I can’t say for sure. They will need to be baked a lot longer, maybe even double the time. Just be checking for doneness ever 5 minutes or so after the called for time in the recipe. Please let me know if you have other questions. Hope you love this recipe! Happy Holiday’s ? ?
I need these blondies in my life – so good!
Agreed!! I hope you love these, thanks Laura!
Wow, these look great! I’m making these ASAP!
Thank you Jennifer! I hope you love these- let me know!
I made these for a Christmas party this afternoon. I realized about an hour before we left that I wanted to bring something and happened to see your Instagram post. They were delicious!! And not very difficult to put together. I love a recipe that calls for ingredients that I typically have in my pantry. Everyone at the party loved them. Even my very picky (“I only eat vanilla ice cream”) four year old loved them!
I am so glad you were able to make these and that everyone enjoyed them! Thank you Christie!
I made these last night. They were amazing. Thanks so much for sharing this recipe. Great texture and flavor.
Thank you Jen!
I made those with powdered peanut butter to decrease the calorie count a bit—they turned out fabulously! They were a hit at my friend’s birthday party!
I am so glad you liked these! Thank you Alice!
These look to die for! Must make these immediately!
Thank you Leigh!
These are making my mouth water! Love all the chocolate!
Thank you Natasha!
Haha i love that your parents pull you in the hosting! I bet they loooove your help and food. YUM! I’ll invite myself as a guest next
Haha would love to have you there! Thank you Lindsay!