Rich and Chocolatey Keto Peanut Butter Brownies With Coconut Flour
This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my full disclosures here.
Keto peanut butter brownies that are sooo fudgy and rich you’d never guess they’re healthy! Made with my always perfect keto brownie batter as a base and thick creamy peanut butter swirls. The perfect easy gluten free sugar free peanut butter treat!
Is there anything better than peanut butter and chocolate together?!
Brownies are one of my go-to quick and easy keto desserts. And since I’ve already developed my perfect keto brownie recipe, it was just calling out to be turned into rich and fudgy keto peanut butter brownies.
I wanted the texture of the peanut butter swirl to live up to the decadent never fail keto brownie batter, so I tested and tested it until it was absolutely heavenly and perfect.
If you’re in a hurry, feel free to hit that Jump To Recipe button at the top of this post. But as always, I’m sharing loads of advice to help you improve your low carb baking that you won’t want to miss. I’m also answering some of the most commonly asked reader questions. There’s a good chance you might be wondering the same things!
How To Make The Best Keto Peanut Butter Brownies
Choose Your Peanut Butter Carefully
Make sure the peanut butter you buy is truly keto friendly and doesn’t contain any form of sugar. The only ingredients should be peanuts and salt (or simply unsalted peanuts!). It’s so easy to inadvertently add extra carbs by accidentally buying sweetened peanut butter.
Use Coconut Flour
This recipe uses coconut flour instead of almond flour for all of our BIK folks that (like me) can’t do almonds or tree nuts (peanuts are legumes). BUT you can certainly substitute almond butter in place of peanut butter if you have a peanut allergy (and your keto brownies will be just as delicious!)
Line The Pan
Line the pan with parchment paper so that you can easily and cleanly lift the keto brownies out of the pan to cut. This is the easiest wait to get perfect, neat squares. And cutting brownies in the pan (whether metal or glass) will permanently scratch the pan.
Don’t Overcook Your Keto Brownies
Dry brownies are usually the result of overbaking. For perfect, super fudgy brownies, bake just until the center of the brownie batter is barely set and jiggles as one.
Use a good quality, light color 8”x8” metal pan. I recently treated myself to this pan made by Fat Daddio’s and it bakes sooo evenly. I highly recommend it (find it on Amazon HERE). Glass and dark metal pans will bake darker and more quickly. Glass also retains heat much longer, so baked goods continue cooking long after they’re removed from the oven.
Chill For Neatly Sliced Brownies
The best way to get super neat and clean slices is to chill the brownies before cutting them. I use a long, Granton edge slicing knife like this one (on Amazon HERE). This type of knife is super thin which means it’s also perfect for slicing straight across large cakes and cheesecakes. I still use the same one I’ve had since culinary school 20 years ago!
Use Good Quality Cocoa Powder
The chocolate flavor of these keto brownies depends entirely on the cocoa powder, so it’s important to buy a good quality, direct trade or fair trade brand. Optionally, sprinkle some keto friendly chocolate chips on top of the peanut butter brownies before baking to amp up the chocolate factor!
What’s The Difference Between Cocoa and Cacao?
There’s a lot of confusing info about cocoa and cacao on the internet, and the difference between them. I didn’t really understand it myself until I began making my own bean to bar chocolate.
So what’s the difference between cocoa and cacao? In the chocolate industry, the term cacao is only used for the living plant, the fruit (the pod itself), or the raw unprocessed beans (some would also include the fermentation stage here). Anything that has been processed beyond that stage is considered cocoa. Simple as that. In other words, as soon as it leaves the cacao farm or fermentation facility, it’s considered cocoa.
The next step in production is typically roasting the beans. However, many companies have popped up selling “raw” cocoa products, which are simply made with beans that haven’t been roasted. This can be confusing, as these products are often incorrectly marketed as “cacao” despite having been processed into chocolate bars, cocoa nibs, or cocoa powder.
This means that in the grocery store, you can generally assume that products labeled as “cacao” are produced using unroasted beans and products labeled as “cocoa” are produced using roasted beans.
Want to make things even more complicated? “Cocoa” in English translates to “cacao” in many languages around the world, such as Spanish and Italian.
Further complicating the matter is the fact that the fermentation process actually heats the beans above raw foodies’ widely accepted limit of 118° F. So that chocolate bar or cocoa powder you see at the local health food store labeled “raw cacao” is neither raw, nor cacao.
So is it better to buy products labeled “cacao” or “cocoa”? I don’t recommend buying products labeled as cacao (remember, these are typically the products made with unroasted beans) and there are a few reasons why.
First, unroasted beans have a sour, flat flavor. Roasting beans perfectly is an art that elevates and rounds out the flavor…and wow can you taste the difference!
Second, all sorts of harmful bacteria can (and do!) grow freely during the fermentation stage. Farmers then routinely battle their climate during the drying stage, when beans must be dried enough to bag. Considering that much of the world’s chocolate is grown in humid, tropical climates, we should generally assume that unroasted beans will be contaminated with pathogens.
I’ve seen this process first hand and while it’s just as awesome as you’d imagine, no one would ever call it sterile. Not even close. That’s why roasting the beans is very important for food safety, in addition to flavor.
How To Store Keto Peanut Butter Brownies
Store these low carb sugar free brownies in an airtight container for up to a week (not that there’ll be any left by then!).
If you’re the only person eating keto in your house, however, I recommend individually wrapping your leftover keto brownies in plastic wrap and foil, and freezing the extra peanut butter brownies so you can grab a treat any time!
More Delicious Keto Brownie Recipes To Try
Keto Cheesecake Swirl Brownies
And More Keto Peanut Butter Recipes To Satisfy Any Craving
Soft and Chewy Keto Peanut Butter Cookies
Keto Peanut Butter Chocolate Cheesecake
Creamy Homemade Peanut Butter Eggs (Copycat Reese’s Peanut Butter Eggs!)
Keto Peanut Butter Brownies Made With Coconut Flour
Ingredients
For The Brownie Batter
- 1/2 Cup Allulose 96g (or sub 1/3 cup granulated Swerve sweetener or Erythritol)
- 1/3 Cup Cocoa Powder (organic fair trade) 32g
- 2 Tbsp Coconut Flour (Bob's Red Mill) 14g
- 2 Tbsp Collagen Peptides 12g
- 1/2 tsp Cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
- 1/4 tsp Salt
- 1/3 Cup Brown Swerve 64g
- 2 Large Eggs, room temperature
- 1/2 Cup Butter, melted 57g
- 2 tsp Vanilla Extract
For The Peanut Butter Swirl
- 3/4 Cup Peanut Butter 192g
- 2 Tbsp Allulose 24g
- 2 Tbsp Butter, melted 28g
Instructions
To Make The Chocolate Brownie Batter
- Preheat your oven to 300° F.
- Prepare an 8" square light metal baking pan by greasing it with butter. Next, cut an 8" wide strip of parchment paper and lay it in the pan so it lines the bottom and two of the sides.
- Sift together all of the dry ingredients (except the brown Swerve) into a large bowl and then whisk in the brown Swerve.
- Add the eggs, melted butter, and vanilla to the bowl and whisk to combine. The coconut flour will slowly absorb more moisture, eventually creating a very thick batter. You want to be done whisking before that happens!
- Spread the batter evenly in the pan and set aside.
To Make The Peanut Butter Swirl
- To a medium bowl, add the peanut butter, allulose, and melted butter and mix with a fork or spatula to combine.
- Scrape the peanut butter swirl mixture out onto the brownie batter. Use a butter knife or a small offset spatula to swirl the brownie batter and peanut butter mixture together.
- Bake at 300° F for 22-25 minutes or until the center is just barely set, turning the pan halfway through the baking time. Do not overbake.
- Allow the pan to cool completely and then use the parchment strip to lift the brownies out of the pan and onto a cutting board. Slice into 16 squares. For extra neat slices, chill the pan in the fridge before cutting.
Nutrition facts have been calculated using Cronometer, with the carbs from all erythritol and allulose sweeteners subtracted because I do not personally have to bolus insulin for Swerve, erythritol, or allulose as a Type 1 (autoimmune) Diabetic. All Bake It Keto recipes have been tried and used successfully, but results may vary from person to person. All information provided regarding nutrition on the Website is intended to be used for informational purposes only. I am not a nutritionist. Consult your medical professional before using any recipe if you have concerns about how you may individually react to the use of any particular recipe or ingredient. By voluntarily creating and using any recipe provided here, you assume the risk of any potential injury that may result. Please see my full disclosures at https://www.bakeitketo.com/disclosures-privacy-policy/.
How To Make Keto Peanut Butter Brownies Healthy And Gluten Free
