Updated 2022, Originally published December 2008
I almost wish I hadn’t updated this microwave peanut butter fudge recipe.
Why? It’s dangerously easy.
I don’t mean it’s dangerous in that you’ll hurt yourself making it. I mean that it’s too easy to make when you are hunting for a snack and in the mood for something with peanut butter.
It takes five minutes to put together and time to cool in the refrigerator. That’s it.
This four-ingredient recipe for peanut butter fudge is probably one of the easiest things you’ll have in your cookbook and is perfect for when you are assembling your Holiday treats to give as gifts.
Microwave Peanut Butter Fudge
Easy microwave peanut butter fudge
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter + extra for greasing
- 1 cup peanut butter
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 pound powdered sugar (confectioner's sugar)
Instructions
- Line an 8x8-inch pan with a square of foil that has been well-greased with butter.
- Cut and grease a piece of wax paper to fit over the fudge. Set aside.
- Place the butter and peanut butter in a large microwave-safe container at least 6 cups in size.
- Microwave on high for two minutes. Watch carefully for the butter and peanut butter to be fully melted.
- Carefully remove the container from the microwave and give it a good stir. When you first remove it from the microwave, it will be in three separate layers. Stir enough to create a smooth consistency.
- Return to the microwave, cover, and heat on high for another two minutes.
- Be careful. The peanut butter is extremely hot. Remove the container from the microwave.
- Stirring constantly, add the vanilla and powdered sugar.
- Once the mixture is smooth, press it into the foil-lined pan and cover it with your wax paper. Place in the fridge to cool.
- Allow it to cool completely (at least two hours),
- Using the foil to lift it, carefully remove it from the pan.
- Cut into squares and enjoy
What do you need to make microwave peanut butter fudge?
- 1 cup butter + extra for greasing
- 1 cup peanut butter
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 lb powdered sugar
- a large microwave-safe container, I like to use my 8 cup batter bowl
- an 8×8 inch pan
- foil
- wax paper
- spatula
Anything to be aware of when making peanut butter fudge with kids?
This is a kid-friendly recipe with supervision. The peanut butter mixture is very hot. If your child is young, you need to steady the bowl to ensure they do not splatter themselves, as with any candy this can cause a severe burn.
Even though this is a microwave recipe, your child needs to be stove-ready to handle the recipe on their own due to the temperatures involved.
Enjoy!
I cheated, this year, and made it with Sw Cond Milk and PB Chips. (3 c chips, 1 can sw cond milk, 1/3 c butter, splash vanilla, at end. heat on stove to just melt. Pour into lined 8″ square.)
I’m not a big fan of the chips, but I can’t stop eating this smooth yummy PB Fudge. I made more, last night, for just me. PB should be its own food group.. 🙂 Yum-o!
*I’m ignoring the hydrog crap in the chips, btw..*
I’ll try this one.
I don’t pay too much attention to nutrition when it comes to treats. My personal guidelines are to eat healthy 90% of the time and not stress about the other 10%.
Looks like a great recipe! Question–is this good with natural peanut butter, or does it only work with Skippy or Jif or the like?
I don’t know, if it doesn’t work you’ll have a great topping for ice cream. We use Peter Pan, as it doesn’t have HFCS.
This is the same recipe I used about a month ago and got great response. Quick, simple and good! What more could you ask for?
Oh, it’s not so much about nutrition–I have the other ingredients on hand, but only natural PB. I think I’ll probably just wait till I can pick up some regular PB.
The nutrition comment was at Heidi in reference to her hydrogenation comment. 🙂 I honestly don’t care for the flavor of natural peanut butter, we’ll blame my parents and I’m perpetuating it.
The trick for using natural PB is likely going to be to pour off some of the separated oil. Natural PB is not emulsified to keep the solids and oil mixed, and my experience is that when you mix it thoroughly, it becomes pretty runny. So I would pour off all of the oil and then slowly stir it back in, stopping when a consistency similar to commercial peanut butter is reached. Then it should be good to go. Some commercial PBs also contain corn sweetener and lots of salt, so you might want to taste-test your natural PB creation and add more sugar and/or salt if needed.
I’m going to make this today with natural PB, and I’ll post the result this evening or tomorrow. I think I may put chocolate chips in mine, though. ;o)
Ok, I used Tree of Life Organic peanut butter to make this recipe. I used a whole 18 oz. jar – just slightly more than 1 cup after the separated oil was poured off the top. I didn’t bother adding back any of the oil because the PB was already pretty liquid, except for the very bottom. I increased the sugar and vanilla slightly to compensate for the extra PB.
I stirred the PB back together before I microwaved it. The PB/butter mix was very liquid after 2 minutes in the microwave. I used a whisk to remove a few remaining lumps of hard PB.
After adding the sugar, I decided the mix still looked too wet, so I kept adding sugar unti the mix looked dry and pulled away from the sides of the bowl by itself.
I did a variation using Ghiradelli 60% Cacao Bittersweet Chocolate chips by placing a layer of chips on the bottom of the lined pan before I put the warm fudge dough over the top.
I slapped the fudge thoroughly with the palm of my hand to remove voids, covered with a piece of parchment and placed on a cooling rack in the refrigerator.
The dough that was left in the bowl tastes almost exactly like the inside of a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup. :o)
Pictures are here: http://flickr.com/photos/keter_magick/sets/72157611349225302/
I’ll add a photo of the finished result once it has cooled.
Skippy makes a Natural peanut butter w/o trans fat and w/o HFCS. The ingredients are: roasted peanuts, sugar, palm oil & salt. It tastes like their regular peanut butter and there’s no separation of oil It has the brown lid vs. the blue.
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!!!!!
Results photos are up. The only thing I would do differently is that I would melt the chocolate with some butter and sugar using a method similar to the fudge – the chocolate chips did not melt as I expected them to and made the fudge difficult to cut. (Nothing a hot knife couldn’t deal with.) I also cut the fudge into 16 pieces – and the result was too large for one serving. I would recommend using two pans if you use a whole jar of PB as I did to make the fudge thinner. I’m guessing a thickness of about 3/4″ to 1″ would be about right, mine came out about 1-1/3″.
I was JUST about to recommended the skippy natural PB, but I see someone else did. Its delicious!
Yay! Just made this in a hotel. Hopefully my arm will be able to recover before long. 🙂
Not sure how long I’ll be able to let it cool–it smells so good!!!
I’ve made this a couple times since you posted it…both times came out great.
I made it again yesterday as a second layer for chocolate peanut butter fudge.
I didn’t realize until after I had already put it all together that I had used reduced fat peanut butter instead of regular.
It still tastes good, but has a strange consistency — almost like the filling of those Abba Zabba candy bars- like a cross between fudge and taffy…
Just thought I’d pass this along.
Thanks again for all you do
Guess I will need to make some of this for the family for Christmas. The things I do for these people! 🙄
You may be making it for the family, but what about us? The folks who brought this delectable goodness to your life? We feel the love. We do.
Well come on to town and get some!
Thank you, Heather! This was delicious… I need to test it with plant butter for my grandson that cannot have dairy.
Oh! I should test that, too! I mean, it’s in the name of science and all.