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Gluten-free Reese’s Brownies

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If you love chocolate and peanut butter together, you’ll love these gluten-free Reese’s brownies! These gluten-free brownies with peanut butter cups and peanut butter chips are best enjoyed with a glass of cold milk.

Best gluten-free peanut butter cup brownies on plate

It is no secret that I love the combination of peanut butter and chocolate. In fact, I already have a delicious gluten-free peanut butter brownie recipe here on my site. I probably have 20-30 recipes that use this combination of yummy ingredients. A favorite recipe that pairs chocolate and peanut butter together are these gluten-free brownies with Reese’s. Each bite of these chewy gluten-free brownies with Reese’s is full of fudgy chocolate and peanut butter flavor. 

I made these yummy Reese’s Brownies back in my gluten-eating days, and was so glad to find out I could easily adapt them to be gluten-free. Just a swap to using a good quality gluten-free flour blend and verifying all my other ingredients were gluten-free, and this gluten-free brownie recipe turned out amazing!

Reeses Gluten-free Brownies on plate with milk in background

Are Reese’s peanut butter cups gluten-free?

According to the Hershey’s gluten-free list, all Reese’s peanut butter cups are gluten-free EXCEPT the seasonal shapes.  So don’t pick up those cute heart-shaped, egg-shaped, tree-shaped, etc. peanut butter cups.  As I clicked to view all products that are gluten-free, and selected Reese’s, it currently shows 243 Reese’s gluten free products! Even ones with holiday wrappers are. It just appears still that it is the ones that are holiday shapes that are not – apparently from cross contamination wherever those shaped ones are made.

So to clarify, are Reeses’s cups gluten-free? Yes. Are Reese’s shapes gluten-free? Apparently not.

I noticed that much of the Reese’s packaging has been updated to show that products are gluten-free. Here’s a peek at the back of the snack size peanut butter cups package I got – you can clearly see the words gluten free on the back (just above the code).

picture of package of Reese's peanut butter cups with gluten-free label

When bags of Reese’s peanut butter cups are on sale, I like to pick some up to make these gluten-free Reese’s brownies.

The Reese’s peanut butter baking chips are also gluten-free per the list and also say gluten free on the packaging! A big GF right on the front as you can see in my pic below! 

Now let’s talk about the other ingredients for these Reese’s brownies.

Ingredients for gluten-free Reese's brownies

Notes on ingredients for these gluten-free Reese’s Brownies:

  • Gluten-free flour: I have tested this recipe with several of my go-to flour blends: gfJules, King Arthur Measure for Measure, and Gluten-free Mama with great results with all. You can buy gfJules gluten-free flour blend directly or from Amazon. You can buy King Arthur Measure for Measure here on Amazon.
  • Cocoa Powder: I like to use Saco cocoa powder or Hershey’s cocoa.
  • Butter: The butter is melted for these. Not just softened, melt all the way. You can do this in microwave or stovetop. Be sure to cover in microwave so the butter doesn’t splatter everywhere.
  • Peanut butter cups: Reese’s peanut butter cups come in various sizes. I used snack size Reese’s peanut butter cups this time, and it took about 14 of them to yield the 1 1/2 cups chopped. Depending on the size you buy, you will need more of less.
  • Peanut butter baking chips: Reese’s peanut butter chips (baking chips) amp up the peanut butter flavor in these, but if you don’t have them, you could use more peanut butter cups or use some milk or semi-sweet chocolate chips instead of the peanut butter chips. 

Your self-control is going to be tested when you get to this part of making these Reese’s brownies. I know I couldn’t resist a taste after I got everything stirred together too!

Mixing bowl with gluten-free brownie batter

After these come out of the oven, place on a cooling rack to cool completely before cutting. I like to use a plastic knife for clean cutting these. This is the Bakeware Buddy plastic knife I use and have pictured here.

pan of gluten-free brownies cut into squares with plastic knife showing

If you’re wanting to wow with presentation, you can sprinkle with additional peanut butter cups on top of the brownies before serving, as I did for these photos here. I put them on after cutting so I wouldn’t have smeared melted chocolate everywhere, but you can do whatever you prefer.

You can also serve additional peanut butter cups on the side. This works great too if you’re offering brownie sundaes, as these brownies plus ice cream plus additional chopped peanut butter cups would be amazing!

Gluten-free Reese's Brownies on plate with additional peanut butter cups and peanut butter chips in bowls.

If you want to make ice cream sundaes, you can start with this no churn vanilla ice cream recipe. My peanut butter ice cream topping would also be amazing served over brownie sundaes made with these brownies. Or maybe some homemade hot fudge topping to really top these off! So sweet but so good! 

If you make these and love them, please come back and give this recipe a 5 star rating in the recipe card! Feel free to comment with tips or to share any successful substitutions you made.

I hope you and your family enjoy these as much as mine did!

Gluten-free Reeses Brownies on plates with cups of milk and a few Reese's peanut butter cups in package sitting beside

Gluten-free Peanut Butter Cup Brownies:

Yield: 18 brownies

Gluten-free Reese's Brownies

Best gluten-free peanut butter cup brownies on plate

If you love chocolate and peanut butter together, you'll love these gluten-free Reese's brownies! These gluten-free brownies with peanut butter cups and peanut butter chips are best enjoyed with a glass of cold milk or in a brownie sundae!

Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 35 minutes
Additional Time 30 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 15 minutes

Ingredients

  • 1 cup butter, melted (2 sticks)
  • 3 cups sugar
  • 1 Tbsp. pure vanilla extract
  • 4 eggs
  • 1 1/2 cups gluten-free all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 tsp. xanthan gum (*if needed, see note)
  • 1 cup cocoa powder
  • 1 tsp. salt
  • 1 1/2 cups chopped peanut butter cups (=about 14 Reese's cups)
  • 1/2 cup Reese's peanut butter baking chips

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350°. Lightly grease a 9x13 baking dish. I prefer using a glass one.
  2. In a mixing bowl, combine the melted butter, sugar, and vanilla. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each, until thoroughly blended.
  3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, xanthan gum, cocoa powder, and salt. Gradually stir the flour mixture into the butter mixture in the mixing bowl until blended. Stir in the chopped peanut butter cups and the Reese's peanut butter chips. Spread the batter evenly into the prepared baking dish.
  4. Bake in a preheated oven at 350° for about 35-40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean or with moist crumbs only, no batter.
  5. Remove from oven, and cool pan on a wire rack before cutting.
  6. I recommend using a plastic knife for cutting these.
  7. You can sprinkle cooled brownies with additional chopped peanut butter cups if desired.

Notes

If using a gluten-free flour that has xanthan gum already in it, then omit the xanthan gum listed in this recipe.
Please see blog post for tips and ingredient info and substitutions.

Pin this to your gluten-free desserts board on Pinterest:

Best Gluten-free Brownies with Reese's Pin

Post updated with new photos, and clarified instructions in March 2022.

Old photos from original post in Feb 2013: 

Reeses Brownies {Gluten-free}

 

Gluten-free Reese's Brownies - This has peanut butter chips AND peanut butter cups!

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Alia

Thursday 17th of August 2023

OMG!!!! We had a going away shindig for a co-worker with Celiac disease and so many people were telling me these were SO delicious! People were going back for seconds. Thank you so much for this recipe! I added a peanut butter drizzle on top of the crushed reeses on top and it looked so professional.

Jen

Thursday 21st of November 2019

This is my third recipe in a row from your page and I can’t say enough with how happy I am. My husband is GF and I simply love cooking and each one I’ve tried has come out perfectly. Today I told I wanted to bake after getting home from work and he suggested brownies, and I found this and he’s also a big fan of Reese’s cups! I can’t wait to try another one of your recipes soon! We all love the brownies and this was actually my first time using Cocoa powder!

Lorraine Paterson

Thursday 30th of April 2015

I live in Melbourne, Australi. Is "all purpose" flour SR or "plain". Can I substitute with ordinary 'crunchy' peanut butter? We don't have the one you suggested. Thanks

Aysegul - Ice

Monday 10th of March 2014

Wow.. These look amazing. I am new to the gluten-free world and this blog has so much good information. I cannot wait to try these.. Cheers! Ice

Mykel

Thursday 13th of February 2014

If I was to cut back on the coco powder some would I have to put extra anything on it? Say I cut to 1/2 cup coco powder would I need to add more....flour.

Michelle Palin ~ My Gluten-free Kitchen

Thursday 13th of February 2014

Mykel, I'm not sure why you would want to cut the amount of cocoa. If you just don't have enough baking cocoa on hand, I'd suggest cutting the entire recipe in half and baking it in an 8x8" pan instead. If you are wanting to make this less chocolatey (heaven forbid!), then I would think you could safely cut it back to 3/4 cup without much effect on overall texture. I can't guarantee though since I haven't tried that!

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