Peanut Butter Bread
Peanut butter bread is moist, rich and bursting with peanut butter flavor. Add chocolate chips or spread peanut butter onto this quick bread and enjoy it for breakfast or as a snack!
All these years I’ve been baking and I’ve never made or even tried peanut butter bread!
Banana Bread is one of my favorites so if I am going to make a quick bread, that’s my go-to.
But once I tried peanut butter bread, I realized it’s a contender for the top spot in my heart against banana bread!
If you want to add chocolate chips to this recipe, DO IT! It tastes like a giant reese’s cup then!
Ingredients
creamy peanut butter: adds flavor
granulated sugar & brown sugar: adds sweetness and flavor
egg: binds the batter together by providing structure
vegetable oil: adds fat and moisture
buttermilk: makes the bread moist & fluffy
vanilla extract: adds flavor
all purpose flour: flour is necessary to build structure
baking powder: helps to leaven and lift the batter
salt: just a pinch to balance the sweetness and enhances the other flavor
How to make peanut butter bread
- Combine the peanut butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar with electric mixer.
- Add in eggs, buttermilk and vanilla extract.
- Add the dry ingredients.
- Pour batter into the prepared pan and bake.
How to properly measure flour
- Fluff the flour with a fork
- Use a spoon to scoop the flour into your measuring cup
- Use a butter knife to level off the flour in the measuring cup
Sticking the measuring cup straight into the bag of flour will result in too much flour to be packed into the cup, which can result in dry peanut butter bread.
Gluten free peanut butter bread
I have made this bread multiple times with King Arthur’s Gluten Free Measure for Measure Flour with great success. You can also try another brand of gluten free all purpose flour. Be sure to measure the flour properly.
How to freeze peanut butter bread
To freeze the whole loaf: allow it to cool completely, then wrap well in plastic wrap, then in aluminum foil. Place inside a ziplock bag. To thaw, place the wrapped bread in the fridge overnight.
To freeze individual slices: allow the loaf to cool completely and slice. Wrap each slice in plastic wrap then in aluminum and place inside a ziplock bag. To thaw, place a slice in the fridge overnight. Or unwrap and microwave for 30 second intervals.
Total time required
- 5-10 minutes to prep the batter
- Bake for 60-70 minutes at 350ºF
- 30-60 minutes to cool
Quick bread pro tips
Tip #1 – Do Not Over Mix the Batter
- I have been guilty of this myself and I am learning to be okay with lumps in my batter. For quick bread, do not use your electric mixer to beat in the dry ingredients, using a spatula and mixing by hand will give you more control. “Mix just until incorporated” means mixing the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients until you can just no longer see any flour streaks. Yes, you should still scrape the sides and the bottom of the bowl, but do that as you’re mixing in the flour.
Tip #2 – Be careful to not over bake the bread
- Sometimes the bread can trick you, it can look done on the outside but still be doughy in the middle. That’s when tenting the bread with aluminum foil comes in handy. It protects the top from becoming too brown, overcooked or crusty.
Tip #3 – Know what size loaf pan you have
- There’s two popular loaf pan sizes – 9×5 and 8.5×4.5. Even though the numbers are similar, the pans actually differ in size by 15%. The 8.5×4.5 pan will yield a tall, more domed bread and will take 5-10 minutes longer when baking. The total suggested bake time for a 8.5×4.5 inch pan is 55-65 minutes and 9×5 inch pan is 45-60 minutes.
More breads & muffins
Peanut Butter Bread
Ingredients
- 1 cup creamy peanut butter, not natural
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- ⅓ cup brown sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350º F. In a large mixing bowl, beat together the peanut butter, sugar and brown sugar with an electric mixer until combined, 1-2 minutes.
- Beat in the eggs, buttermilk and vanilla extract, mix briefly. Gradually add the flour, baking powder, and salt, mixing on low to prevent over mixing. Be sure to mix just until combined.
- Spray a loaf pan (either 9×5 or 8.5×4.5 – it’s important to know what size pan you have) with non-stick cooking spray. Transfer the batter to the pan and spread even with a spatula.
- Place the pan in the center of the oven and bake for 45 minutes. After 45 minutes check to see if the bread is browning too much. If so, tent the bread with aluminum foil and bake for 10-20 more minutes. **If you didn’t tent at 45 minutes, check again at 55 minutes, then tent, and bake for 10 additional minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- The total suggested bake time for a 8.5×4.5 inch pan is 55-65 minutes and 9×5 inch pan is 45-60 minutes. Be sure to know what size your pan is.
- Allow the loaf to cool completely before slicing or removing it from the pan.
I am also guilty of over beating my batters! This peanut butter bread looks fabulous- most of the time you see peanut butter added to something else, but here it’s definitely the star :)
Very true! It’s PBs time to shine!
Amazing post Beth! Oh how I love peanut butter, so this recipe really sounds so good. I would like to try it, but just a bit nervous about baking the bread to be honest. I have never baked bread before. I will give it a go one day =)
Quick breads are so easy, you can do it!
Browsing for good recipe’s and this looks yummy. Going to try this for an extra for Thanksgiving!
Oh this is so good! Enjoy!
What is the texture like?
Can this be made in the breadmachine?
Hi Dawn! I have no experience with the breadmachine so I am not sure, sorry!
Awesome bread! Thank you so much for sharing. Made it and it was gone in a matter of hours! Easy, Thank You!
Made no changes to this recipe, except, next time..DOUBLE IT, its that good. We have toasted and added jelly, and once you eat one slice, you sneek to have another telling noone, and blaming one of your kids!
Wooohooo!!
What is the texture of this bread? I had a dense peanut butter quick bread that reminded me of a less sweet peanut butter cookie that I want to replicate! Thanks
Hi Brooke! It’s like a traditional quick bread texture.
Hi there… is it really a tablespoon of baking powder? I have the bread in the oven now and had added the flour and started to stir, rechecked the recipe and saw it was a TBSP and not a TSP so had to dash back and add the rest. It smells lovely, like peanut butter cookies. And I did add chocolate chips. Fingers crossed!
Yep! It’s one TBSP!
Just made this bread. I doubled the recipe to make 2 loaves. I used crunchy peanut butter and mini chocolate chips in one loaf. And left the other loaf as original recipe. Both were great and everyone liked them. Will make again.
SO happy to hear that!
Can you substitute the peanut butter for almond butter?
I haven’t tried it myself! I’m guessing it won’t work as a one for one substitute. This recipe needs a creamy peanut butter, and almond butter is usually thicker and contains less sugar.
Oh, sounds delish. I have been making a quick bread each week during this time at home, but had never heard of a peanut butter bread. If I divide into mini pans what do you think for a baking time? Thanks. (I may get crazy and add chocolate chips to the batter. Or, swirl some raspberry jam throughout, once I have the batter in the pans!)
Hi Paula! It really depends on the size of the mini pans, there are so many types now! I would probably check on them at 15 minutes and adjust from there.
Can I make muffins instead ? How much time would they need to be in the oven if I make muffins?
Hi Marina! I haven’t tried baking this recipe as muffins, so I’m not sure what the appropriate baking time would be.
I’d set your timer for 15-18 min and do the toothpick test. Add more time to the timer in 2-3 min increments till the toothpick inserted is clean. I’ve had some bake fully in 18 min; some need closer to 25 min. Hope this helps.
Eating this right now, couldn’t even wait for the loaf to completely cool. Slathered my sliced bread with strawberry jam, heavenly. Where has this recipe been all my life? I even had to use vanilla yogurt because that was all I had. Oh my!
Did yogurt work well? I have plain 2% Greek, maybe that would work as a sub for sour cream?
Delicious! I’m going to make another loaf with chocolate chips mixed in!
Dark or light brown sugar?
I typically have light brown sugar in my pantry!
Is there a reason you can’t use natural peanut butter? I do not buy non-natural ever, and I use my natural one in every recipe so far and it’s never been an issue.
Hi Cheryl, I haven’t tried it with natural peanut butter to know if it will work okay. Natural PB typically doesn’t have the same sugar content as regular PB so the texture of the bread may be different.
I have to sub Almond milk for the regular milk, But I don’t have a sub for the Sour cream. Any Ideas if it would work without it or if there is another nondairy item I could use?
Greek yogurt typically subs well for sour cream.
Mayo is a good non dairy replacer for sour cream in quickbreads. I use it in my banana bread all the time.
I made this peanut butter bread this morning for our Sunday brunch. The only change I made was to use crunchy peanut butter instead of creamy. It was absolutely delicious!!! Everyone loved it and I will definitely be making it again.
Can you freeze this bread ??
Hi Kathi! You can definitely freeze this bread. Allow it to cool completely, then wrap it well in plastic wrap with an outer layer of aluminum foil.
This look so good! It is nice to mix up the breads from sweet to savory! Does it matter what kind of peanut butter you use?
I used creamy peanut butter, like Jif or Skippy.
Thanks for sharing! Does it keep long?
3 days in an air tight container!
I am out of baking powder. Any idea if I can use self-rising flour instead? Thank you.
Hi Beth, I live in Wyo. What are the adjustments for high altitudes.
Thank-you,
Sharee
Hi Sharee! I don’t have experience baking at high altitude, sorry!
This was great! So easy.
New keeper recipe for my family
So, is everyone baking in a 9×5 or an 8×4 pan? I don’t want a flat-topped loaf, I love a nice rounded one!
I’ve get so many compliments on this recipe. People beg me to give them some. I usually make mini loaves. I also put in chocolate chips and peanut butter chips. Extra yummy.
I’m at 1 hour of cooking. I just tented the top.
This is definitely a winner! I made this into muffins (cooked just over 15 min) and the rest of the batter I used for a small loaf of bread (45ish minutes in the oven). I didn’t have quite enough flour for this so I subbed in about 1/3 c of almond meal. I also added mini chocolate chips. Hope this helps for anyone wondering about modifications.
Took longer to bake than instructed in recipe…think it’s my oven 😕 hopefully it’s not over baked, it’s still cooling😋
I’ve made this twice and it’s fabulous! I made two changes: added 1/4 cup more peanut butter and upped the vanilla to 1 1/2 tsp which really makes it more flavorful. The bread bakes to a high gorgeous loaf and was enjoyed by several picky eaters. Thank you for sharing.
Yummy! I never leave comments but this recipe is amazing if you love peanut butter! And I love everything peanut butter!!!! I made it exactly as written. Enjoyed it with raspberry jam. Definitely my new comfort food.
Made it this weekend….. soooo dry. Any suggestions?
Hi Ara! Would type of pan (dark and size) did you bake it in? Did you spoon and level the flour?
Made it in standard size loaf pan, but took forever to get done. Should it be large loaf pan?
Hi Judith!
There’s two popular loaf pan sizes – 9×5 and 8.5×4. – which did you use? Even though the numbers are similar, the pans actually differ in size by 15%. The 8.5×4.5 pan will yield a tall, more domed bread and will take 5-10 minutes longer when baking.
Tastes great, BUT got so hard had to cut it off. I tented it like suggested, any other ideas, or did I do something wrong??
Thanks
What got hard? The whole loaf? Have you checked your oven temperature recently?
I added peanut butter chips to the batter and sprinkled some on top. I had to bake it 30 minutes longer than time stated in recipe, but it was worth it. 😊
HI ,CAN I USED BUTTERMILK INSTEAD OF SOUR CREAM, MY COUNTRY DOSEN’T HAVE THAT PRODUCT, IM FROM TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO IN THE WEST INDIES ..
Why do you never put the exact pan size down, 4×8 or 9×5 ? It is always use a regular size pan, or use your judgment what size you need, this is non sense. You are supposed to be the ones with knowledge, write down the size, you want us to buy your cookbooks, comment on your recipes, at least be reasonable.
Hi Brenda! There’s two popular loaf pan sizes – 9×5 and 8.5×4.5. Even though the numbers are similar, the pans actually differ in size by 15%. The 8.5×4.5 pan will yield a tall, more domed bread and will take 5-10 minutes longer when baking. The total suggested bake time for a 8.5×4.5 inch pan is 65-70 minutes and 9×5 inch pan is 60-65 minutes.
What happened to the original recipe that used sour cream? It was a great recipe and buttermilk is so expensive and hard to find. Where can I find the original?
Hi Christa!
I retested this recipe and we found that we liked using buttermilk instead of the previous sour cream and milk mixture. Here is the original recipe ingredients:
1 cup creamy peanut butter not natural
⅓ cup granulated sugar
⅓ cup brown sugar
2 large eggs
¾ cup milk I used skim
½ cup sour cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tbsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
I live in Australia & all of our cup/ tsp/tbls measurements are different from yours. As I only bake by weights, do you have conversions to weight? Thanks
This was a very easy recipe, to put together, most ingredients are already in the pantry. I used crunchy pb, because I had it on hand, I added mini chocolate chips, which worked perfectly with this batter. I followed the baking instructions, as listed, and it turned out perfectly!!! I gifted it to a friend, and she was delighted. Now I’ll have to make one, for my family ;)
How many chocolate chips do I add. Whole bag?
I suggest 2 cups of chocolate chips!
Hi, question for you. In the comments I see 1 cup of sour cream, but in the recipe it shows 1 c. of butter milk. Is this a typo in the recipe?
Thank you
Hi Darcy! The recipe in the recipe card has been updated after additional recipe testing. Please follow the recipe card and use 1 cup of buttermilk.