baked 4 way brownies in a pan

Pantry Brownies-4 Ways, One Pan

sliced 4 way square brownies on a plate

Who doesn’t love a good ole fashioned chocolate brownie, right? Hmmmm, they just seem to be perfect anytime, don’t they? This recipe is a fall back to my culinary school days and items in my pantry to create these Pantry Brownies-4 ways. Four fabulous ways!

Growing up, I still remember mom making us brownies and putting a few squares in my lunch box, best part about lunch hands down. Such a great memory. She would always dust them with powdered sugar and I loved the black and white contrast. Till this day, I still love to eat them that way.

stacked 4 way brownies

However, my sweet tooth and imagination merged to try something different in the flavor department without having to bake separate batches of each of those flavors. Why not just put them all in one pan in a foursome; one pan, one bake!

Pantry

First up, is my what I have on hand in my pantry. Gosh, so much to choose from. As a baker, I always try to keep a well stocked pantry so when inspiration and creativity hits, its my go-to place for multiple things in which to choose from. Of course, goodies I have in the freezer are equally great to have on hand for more inspiration and options.

I decide on the following for the pantry brownies- 4 ways:

  • Peanut Butter: I’ve been so addicted to this lately
  • Raspberry Jam: One of my favorites
  • Chocolate Chip Cookies and Chocolate Cookies in the freezer
  • Chocolate and White Chocolate chips, and mini pretzels

I guess you could say, half of these brownies are a take on peanut butter and jelly (one of my fav’s, never gets old).

4 way brownies sliced on a platter

Brownies

Brownie recipes are fun to experiment with. I have tried many different recipes and they all produce pretty yummy results. For this pantry brownie recipe, I thought it would be fun to go back in time to my culinary school days and use the recipe they taught us in Baking class.

Special Memory

Still have memories making this one and how excited I was to venture into the baking part of the curriculum. I knew then where my heart was going to take me. All things sweet.

Also, the recipe comes from one of my favorite Chef Instructor’s recipe box.

Recipe is super simple to make and taste pretty close to anything you buy in a box at the grocery store. Give it a try and see what you think.

Additionally, I scaled the original recipe down to make an 8″ pan of these delights since it is just my husband and me that will be devouring them.

Not to mention, once baked, they can be sliced into 4’s, wrapped, and placed in the freezer to enjoy later. My friends laugh at me because I freeze just about everything. I simply tell them, the freezer is your friend 🙂

sliced 4 brownies with various toppings on a plate

Love Brownies, here are a few more ideas:

Print

Pantry Brownies-4 Ways, One Pan

Delicious brownies with peanut butter, jam, cookies, chocolate chips, and pretzels sectioned in 4 quadrants for one brownie, four ways

  • Prep Time: 25 minutes
  • Cook Time: 25 minutes
  • Total Time: 50 minutes
  • Yield: 4 brownies 1x

Ingredients

Units Scale
  • 12 TBS unsalted butter
  • 1 3/4 cup sugar
  • 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
  • 3 large eggs
  • 3/4 cup flour
  • 1/2 cup + 2TBS cocoa powder
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1/4 + 1/8 tsp baking powder

Toppings

  • 1 TBS peanut butter (slightly warmed in microwave about 15 seconds)
  • 1 TBS raspberry jam (slightly warmed in microwave about 15 seconds)
  • 1/4 cup cookies (crumbled or broken into small pieces)
  • Handful chocolate chips and pretzels

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 8″x8″ square pan with cooking spray and line with a sheet of parchment with the flaps overlapping the sides.
  2. Melt butter and pour into a medium bowl. Add sugar and vanilla and whisk by hand.
    Add eggs and whisk well.
  3. Add flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt and whisk well till mixed well and a smooth batter is formed.
  4. Pour batter into the pan and smooth out evenly with an offset spatula.

    Place each of the four the toppings into the batter in 4 quadrants (corners) of the batter.

  5. Jam: Place dots of jam in one quarter quadrant of the brownie batter. Use a knife and connect the dots with a swirl motion horizontally.

    Peanut Butter: Heat peanut butter in the microwave 10-15 seconds till slightly melted and thinned. Use the same technique as with the jam to swirl the peanut butter into a different quadrant.

    Cookies: Sprinkle the cookies into another quadrant of the batter, slightly press to push into the batter.

    Pretzels and Chocolate Chips: Sprinkle in the remaining quadrant of the batter, slightly push into the batter.

  6. Bake 25-30 minutes till done. Remove and cool completely.
    Refrigerate an hour to make slicing easier.
  7. Remove the brownies by lifting up the the parchment sides to life out of the pan. Remove the parchment paper. Slice into 4 sections using the toppings as your guide.

Notes

Freezing:  Wrap each section in plastic wrap, place in freezer bag and freeze.  Remove and thaw to enjoy.

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