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Reese’s Brownies have chopped peanut butter cups baked into a fudgy chocolate base, topped with a crackly finish. My secret: freezing the chopped peanut butter cup pieces first keeps them intact so they don’t melt into the batter, and you get candy in every bite. The deep chocolate balances all that sweetness.
I make these for bake sales, holiday cookie trays, and any time we have leftover Halloween candy. They cut into clean squares, travel well, and stay fudgy for a few days in a covered container. Bring them to a potluck, and I promise they’ll be the star!
Y’all know I love the peanut butter and chocolate combination, as evidenced by the number of recipes on this site that have just that: my Peanut Butter Pound Cake, Three Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies, Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip Cookies, and my favorite, Peanut Butter Cookie Cups.
I’m old enough to remember when Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups first came out, and they ran advertisements with someone holding a Hershey’s Chocolate Bar who then ran into someone with a jar of peanut butter. Anyone else remember those commercials? Reese’s quickly became my favorite candy and has remained so for all these years.
These Reese’s Brownies started as a “what if I just folded chopped peanut butter cups into a brownie batter” experiment. The challenge was figuring out how to keep the Reese’s recognizable in the finished pan instead of letting them melt and disappear, and how to keep the fudgy texture with the crackly top that makes a brownie feel like a real brownie. After multiple tries, I think we nailed it!
Testing results for Reese’s brownies
- Bittersweet versus milk chocolate. Tested both types of chocolate, and bittersweet won by a long shot. Milk chocolate, plus the Reese’s, plus the sugars, made the brownies too sweet.
- Freezing the Reese’s versus folding them in straight from the bag. Room-temperature Reese’s mostly melted into the batter, leaving peanut butter swirled through the brownies. Frozen Reese’s held their shape and gave actual pockets of peanut butter cup in every bite.
- Pulling them out underdone versus baking through. I almost always underbake brownies because we like them gooey, and these are no exception. The brownies keep cooking from residual heat as they sit in the pan, and that’s what gives them a fudgy middle instead of a dry, cakey one.
I hope you make this recipe. I think you’ll love it!
Ingredient notes
Here are a few things to know about the ingredients.
➡️➡️➡️ The full ingredient amounts and instructions are listed below on the printable recipe card. Scroll below the recipe card for frequently asked questions and tips for success.
Bittersweet chocolate. Use a bar of bittersweet chocolate, around 60% cacao, not chocolate chips. Chips have stabilizers that keep them from melting smoothly. Bittersweet gives the depth that keeps the brownies from being too sweet once the Reese’s are folded in. Milk chocolate is too sweet here. The Reese’s cups already bring plenty of sugar, so you want something darker to balance them.
Mini Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. The mini cups chop more evenly than full-size cups, and the ratio of chocolate shell to peanut butter filling is better for folding into the batter. Regular-sized cups work if you chop them small enough. Keep them in the freezer until the moment you fold them in.
Light brown sugar. Adds moisture and a touch of molasses flavor that goes well with the peanut butter cups. Dark brown sugar works too if that’s what’s on hand. The combination of brown and white sugar is what gives brownies the chewy-around-the-edges, fudgy-in-the-middle texture.
Cocoa powder. Unsweetened and sifted. Sifting matters because cocoa clumps in the bag, and clumps stay clumpy in batter. A small wire sieve over the bowl does the job in about ten seconds.
Eggs. Three large eggs at room temperature. Cold eggs from the fridge take longer to beat to the pale, voluminous stage that builds the crackly top.
Pin this now to save it for laterHow to make Reese’s brownies
Here’s the step-by-step for making fudgy Reese’s brownies with a crackly top and peanut butter cup pockets throughout.
- Melt the butter and bittersweet chocolate together over low heat until smooth, then let the mixture cool while the chopped Reese’s go into the freezer.
- Beat the white sugar, brown sugar, and eggs on medium-high speed until pale and voluminous, then add the vanilla and the cooled chocolate, and mix on low speed until uniform.
- Sift in the flour, cocoa powder, and salt, and fold gently with a spatula until just combined.
- Fold in the frozen Reese’s, scrape the batter into a parchment-lined 8×8 pan, and bake until the edges are set and the center still looks slightly underdone.
- As soon as the pan comes out of the oven, scatter the extra chopped Reese’s over the top, then let everything cool completely before slicing.
Why freezing the Reese’s matters
Room-temperature Reese’s peanut butter cups melt fast. The chocolate shell starts to soften before the brownies are halfway baked, and the peanut butter center spreads into the batter. The result is brownies with peanut butter swirled through them rather than brownies with peanut butter cups in them. Both are fine. They’re just not the same thing.
Putting the chopped Reese’s in the freezer while the batter comes together does two things. It firms up the chocolate shell so it holds its shape through the bake, and it slows down the peanut butter so it stays as a pocket instead of melting outward. You still get some melt at the edges of each chunk, which is what you want.
The extra chopped Reese’s that get scattered on top right after the pan comes out of the oven don’t need to be frozen. The residual heat melts the bottoms just enough to anchor them to the brownies as they cool, and the tops stay intact.
Variations
- Reese’s Pieces. Swap in Reese’s Pieces for some or all of the chopped mini cups. Pieces don’t melt the same way, so freezing isn’t necessary. The trade-off is fewer peanut butter pockets and more candy-shell crunch.
- Peanut butter chips. Fold in a half cup of peanut butter chips, along with the frozen Reese’s, for a more pronounced peanut butter flavor throughout.
- Sea salt finish. Sprinkle flaky sea salt over the warm brownies right after you layer on the extra Reese’s. The salt cuts the sweetness and makes the chocolate and peanut butter taste richer.
If you make this recipe, please leave a comment and ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ below!
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Reese’s Brownies Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup Mini Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, roughly chopped
- 1 cup unsalted butter
- 4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
- ¼ cup white sugar
- 1 ½ cups light brown sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- ¾ cup all-purpose flour
- ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup Mini Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, roughly chopped
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and line an 8×8-inch square baking pan with parchment paper or greased aluminum foil, leaving an overhang to help lift the brownies out later.
- Put 1 cup Mini Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, roughly chopped into a freezer-safe bag and place in the freezer while the brownie batter comes together.
- In a medium saucepan over low heat, melt 1 cup unsalted butter and 4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped together, stirring until smooth and glossy. Remove from the heat and let cool for 5 minutes.
- In a large mixing bowl, add 1/4 cup white sugar, 1 1/2 cups light brown sugar, and 3 large eggs. Beat on medium-high speed until pale and voluminous, about 2 to 3 minutes. Add 2 teaspoons vanilla extract and the cooled melted chocolate. Beat on low speed until uniform in color.
- Sift in 3/4 cup all-purpose flour, 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted, and 3/4 teaspoon salt. Gently fold into the batter using a rubber spatula until just combined. Do not overmix.
- Fold in the frozen, chopped Reese’s. The freezing helps them hold their shape during baking.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake for 30 minutes, or until the edges are set and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with a few moist crumbs. The center should still look slightly underdone.
- As soon as the brownies come out of the oven, scatter 1/2 cup Mini Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, roughly chopped over the top. Cool completely in the pan before turning out.
- For clean slices, chill the cooled brownies in the refrigerator for 30 minutes before cutting with a sharp knife. Wipe the knife between cuts. Slice into 2 inch by 2 inch squares.
Nutrition
Questions and tips
Make-ahead and storage
Make ahead. The brownies can be baked a day in advance, and the texture actually improves overnight. Wrap the cooled pan in plastic and leave it at room temperature. The texture turns fudgier overnight.
Storage. At room temperature in an airtight container, the brownies keep for up to four days. In the refrigerator, they hold up to a week, and the texture turns dense and almost truffle-like when cold. To freeze, wrap each square in parchment paper or plastic wrap and stack them in a freezer bag. They keep up to two months and thaw at room temperature in about an hour.
Yes. Make the mix according to the box, freeze the chopped Reese’s while the batter comes together, fold them in last, and scatter more on top right out of the oven. You won’t get the same depth of chocolate flavor as the from-scratch version, but the technique for the peanut butter cups stays the same.
Mini Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups work best. They chop more evenly than full-size cups, and the ratio of chocolate shell to peanut butter filling distributes more evenly throughout the batter. Full-size cups work in a pinch if you chop them into roughly mini-cup-sized pieces. Reese’s Pieces are an option, too, though they give you crunch instead of melty pockets.
Doubling the recipe and baking it in a 9×13 works well for a crowd. Increase the baking time by about 10 minutes and start checking at the 40-minute mark. The brownies should still look slightly underdone in the center when you pull them.
A hand mixer makes the egg-and-sugar beating step easier, but a whisk and some elbow grease will get the job done. The goal is a pale, voluminous, slightly thick result, which usually takes three to four minutes by hand. That foamy structure is what gives the brownies their crackly top.
