Chocolate peanut butter buttercream is an easy, decadent frosting for all of us peanut butter chocolate lovers. Perfect for birthday cakes, swirled on cupcakes, slathered on brownies, or just to eat off the spoon!
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It’s no secret that I have a deep love for all things chocolate and peanut butter. And I find that adding a healthy dollop of peanut butter into my basic chocolate buttercream recipe just takes it to a whole new level.
Let’s talk ingredients:
- Butter-I like to use salted, but that’s a little controversial in baking spaces so if you’d like, you can use unsalted but make sure to add a little pinch of salt. Be sure your butter is softened. (Butter not softened but you’re itching to make some buttercream? See “How To Soften Butter Quickly“)
- Peanut Butter-regular, not natural peanut butter. Natural peanut butter tends to separate out into oil and solids. We do not want that in our buttercream.
- Cocoa Powder-packs a chocolate punch without having to worry about melting and cooling chocolate. Plus we add in plenty of sugar to this buttercream to compensate for the bitterness of cocoa powder. Dutch vs. regular cocoa powder-doesn’t matter that much for this recipe because we aren’t baking it. The Dutch is a little softer in flavor and darker in color. I’ve used both in this recipe to great success.
- Powdered Sugar-because it’s well, powdery. It’s refined down to a powder like consistency that blends in well with the butter and peanut butter. We don’t want grit in our buttercream (trust me-I made that mistake with this pie once and it was…not the best…). Powdered sugar is also known as confectioners sugar or icing sugar.
- Heavy Cream-you can also use whipping cream. They are a little bit different but for our purposes, it doesn’t matter too much. The cream adds creaminess and when beaten into our buttercream, fluffiness. The fat in the cream helps compensate for the bitterness of the cocoa powder.
- Vanilla Extract-for flavor.
- Water-to thin out our buttercream. Be sure to only add a tablespoon at a time into the buttercream, it’s easy to over thin and much harder to re-thicken. It depends what you’re using it for as to how much you’re going to need. I use less on cakes because I usually want to pipe decorations but more when I’m simply frosting some brownies.
Can I freeze chocolate peanut butter buttercream?
Yes. Simply put unused buttercream in a freezer safe container and freeze for up to 6 months. To thaw: place on the counter until it comes to room temperature. You can, if you’re feeling risky and short on time, thaw it in the microwave on 5 second intervals, stirring between each interval, but you run the risk of melting your buttercream.
Recipes that use chocolate peanut butter buttercream:
Really, anywhere you think chocolate and peanut butter belong is a good choice but here are some of my favorites:
- slathered on brownies, maybe chop up some peanut butter cups on top…
- covering a chocolate cake
- use instead of chocolate chips on peanut butter pizza
- swirled on cupcakes
- sandwiched in between peanut butter cookies
Chocolate Peanut Butter Buttercream
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup salted butter softened
- 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter don’t use natural
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup cocoa powder
- 4 cups powdered sugar
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 1/4 cup water for thinning, may use more
Instructions
- If using a stand mixer, fit with paddle attachment.
- Cream together butter and peanut butter until well combined and fluffy.
- Drizzle in vanilla extract.
- With the mixer on it’s slowest possible speed, SLOWLY add in cocoa powder and powdered sugar. The mixture is going to get SUPER thick. Drizzle in some water (2-3 tablespoons) to keep everything smooth
- Add in heavy cream and beat on high speed for a minute or two. This whips up the heavy cream and gives the frosting a little more “fluff”
- If the frosting is still to thick, add in more water-1 tablespoon at a time, until the desired consistency is reached. I like a really spreadable frosting so I used the whole 1/4 cup of water but if you are planning to pipe anything with it, you don’t want to add as much water.
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Happy Baking!
Happy Baking!