Chocolate peanut butter tray bake is a fantastic recipe to serve up at parties or as a special treat. The sponge cake is baked, covered in delicious peanut butter and then smothered in smooth milk chocolate. This is one of the best chocolate tray bakes you will ever try!
Chocolate peanut butter tray bake is one completely amazing chocolate peanut butter recipe!
Who doesn't love the combination of chocolate and peanut butter? It's like a marriage made in heaven isn't it?
I mean look no further than my Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cheesecake which at the time of writing this recipe has been shared over 67,000 times!
Unlike other chocolate peanut butter tray bake recipes that have a biscuit base, this one has a sponge base.
I baked it using sunflower oil rather than butter and I found that gave it a lovely light and fluffy texture.
When you bite into one of these baked chocolate peanut butter squares you get a simultaneous mouthful of that light tasty sponge to enjoy and a glorious slab of chocolate to crunch on too.
This is a bake that you need to savour and give yourself time to enjoy.
You really want to eat this slowly and give yourself time to taste it.
Take some time out of your day to sit down and mindfully enjoy each mouthfull. Sit down somewhere where you're comfortable and where you won't be interrupted!
As I mentioned in last week's Flu Busting Spicy Chicken Noodle Soup recipe post, this is probably one of those recipe treats that you might want to consider as the 20 of your 80/20 routine.
It's not that its overly calorific, indeed it's still lower in calories than some of those cakes you'll find as a comparison at your local coffee chain.
It's just that when I took the first batch of these into work for my colleagues to trial they were instantly snapped up all on the pretext that I've become known for my "healthier" recipes!
I did stick a label on the box advising these were "best shared with a friend" but that was ignored. I think people just read the "Chocolate Peanut Butter" part and grabbed them!
So, if you are on a calorie counting / lower calorie diet or currently weight conscious, you've had your warning. 🙂
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Other Delicious Tray Bakes For You To Try
- Orange and apricot tray bake makes for a healthier low fat bake to go with your morning or afternoon cuppa. It’s only 246 calories per slice!
- Healthy carrot cake traybake is so easy to make. It’s deliciously moist, naturally sweetened and a perfect recipe for sharing with friends and family!
- Cherry Bakewell tray bake. This easy to make tray bake is an alternative version of the classic Bakewell tart. A sponge base topped with cream cheese icing and glacé cherries. It’s just delicious!
Chocolate Peanut Butter Tray Bake Recipe
Make sure you use greaseproof paper in the bottom of your baking tin as opposed to tin foil which can break easily. The greaseproof paper means you can easily lift the sponge out of the baking tin and place it back in without breaking it.
It also means the baking tin is easier to clean at the end after you've lifted the final chocolate covered slab out and cut it into squares.
Make this amazing tray bake for a coffee mornings, afternoon tea meet-up's or just for any occasion you deem acceptable. I can assure you, this chocolate tray bake will go down well with whoever you choose to share it with!
I used Reese's smooth peanut butter for this recipe, but if you prefer a little extra crunch by all means use crunchy peanut better instead!
I’d love to hear what you think of my recipe in the comments below and please do rate my recipe if you like it! 🙂
Chocolate Peanut Butter Tray Bake Recipe
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Equipment
Ingredients
For the cake: -
- Low fat olive oil cooking spray.
- 225 g self-raising flour
- 50 ml sunflower oil
- 175 g light muscavado soft sugar
- 1.5 teaspoon baking powder
- 3 eggs
For the topping: -
- 300 g smooth peanut butter
- 450 g milk chocolate
Instructions
For the cake: -
- Preheat oven to 180C Fan and lightly spray a baking tin of about 12”x9” / 30x22.5cm size with low fat cooking spray and line the base with greaseproof paper. Leave enough greaseproof paper hanging over the edge of the tin so you can use it to lift the sponge base out later.
- Sift the flour into the bowl, add the oil, muscavado sugar and baking powder.
- Break the eggs into a separate bowl and lightly whisk these together before adding them to the rest of the mixture.
- Beat the mixture firmly with a wooden spoon or use a stand mixer paddle on lowest speed to mix all of the ingredients together.
- Scrape all of the ingredients from the mixing bowl into the tin. Smooth the top flat.
- Bake for about 20 minutes. Once the mixture has risen and turned a golden colour use a wooden skewer to check that the middle is cooked. (Skewer should come out clean from the mixture).
- Remove from oven. Allow to cool for 10 minutes but not go cold then remove from tin, using the greaseproof paper, to a wire rack.
For the topping: -
- Whilst still warm, spread the peanut butter all over the sponge, spreading evenly to the edges. Then place the peanut butter covered sponge back into the tin and pop in fridge for about an hour or so to allow the cake to fully cool.
- Melt the chocolate in a glass bowl over a saucepan of gently simmering water and then spread it evenly over the peanut butter sponge layer, leaving the layer still in the tin. Again place in fridge to allow chocolate to harden for about 2 hours.
- Run a sharp knife around the edge of the chocolate so you can lift the whole tray bake out of the tin and slice into 15 equal slices.
Neha
The cake looks wonderful but I don’t think I will take more than two seconds to polish off all that topping over it. Love chocolate and peanut butter together. Thanks for this one!
neil@neilshealthymeals.com
With you being an expert on the cakes front Neha I thought you would like this one. Thank you! 🙂
Neha
Oh you are being very generous! I am just an amateur baker and a very new food blogger learning something new with each passing day. Your appreciation means a lot!
David @ Spiced
I totally agree with you that chocolate and peanut butter are a marriage made in heaven. It's funny just how well those 2 flavors do together, isn't it? Like you, I send a lot of my baked goods to coworkers (via Laura), and I always appreciate getting feedback from them. But "share with a friend"? If I saw that, I would translate it as "Take two. One for me now. And one for my future self later." My future self is a friend, right? Haha! I love this dessert, and the use of sunflower oil is interesting. I'll have to try that one out sometime! Hope you have a great weekend ahead, Neil!
neil@neilshealthymeals.com
Ah, David I think you've come up with the reason why these chocolate peanut butter bars went so quickly when I took them into work for my colleages! Like you say they must have thought the note "share with a friend" meant take 2!! Ha ha ha! 😀
Rebecca @ Strength and Sunshine
Ah, chocolate and peanut butter; a combo no one can ever turn down 😉
neil@neilshealthymeals.com
The only person who had to turn these down unfortunately Rebecca was a lady who had a nut intolerance. I felt so bad for not having something else to offer her. I'll need to make up for that in the future!
Mimi
Wow! I know this is delicious! I was surprised there was no peanut in the cake layer!
neil@neilshealthymeals.com
Thanks Mimi, I considered adding peanut in the sponge layer but felt that would make it too dense.
Christina
I giggled when you said "mindfully enjoy each mouthful" because when it comes to chocolate and peanut butter I'm more likely to strap on a bib, face plant into the deliciousness, and go to town! Seriously though, this looks utterly irresistible!
neil@neilshealthymeals.com
Ha ha! Yes I will agree Christina, that with these (or indeed anything chocolate and peanut butter related) its pretty easy to get totally carried away with all their deliciousness. Glad you like them! 🙂
Jeff
Yum! I've never heard of a "tray bake," but I want one now!
neil@neilshealthymeals.com
This will now be on your mind Jeff until you give in and have to make them! 😉
GiGi Eats
I would eat the WHOLE TRAY OF THESE SO FAST you will have thought your dreamed you made them as opposed to actually making them 😉
neil@neilshealthymeals.com
I'll need to get baking another tray double quick then GiGi! Ha ha! 🙂
Shashi at SavorySpin
Chocolate and Peanut butter is a combination that I find hard to resist - so I am drooling looking at this! Wishing I had had a slice instead of the Almond butter and banana on toast I just polished off! Loving that sneaky creamy layer of PB in the middle of that sponge and crunchy chocolate! Simply delicious!
neil@neilshealthymeals.com
That Almond Butter and Banana on toast sounds as if it is just a starter Shashi. 🙂
This Chocolate Peanut Butter Tray Bake could be the main course. 😀
Fiona Ashworth
I made this today and it is absolutely amazing. Thank you. I wondered if it is freezeable as it is huge for my husband and me and I would love to use it at a party in a couple of weeks. Fiona.
Neil
Hi Fiona, glad you liked my recipe! I confess I have never had a chance to check if it is freezable. Unfortunately there has never been any left for me to freeze! I think it should freeze OK, but I could not definitely say for sure.