Peanut Butter Frosting

Rich and fluffy peanut butter frosting is sweet with just a hint of salty roasted savoriness from the addition of peanut butter. This is an American-style buttercream frosting, one with a base of butter and confectioners’ sugar whipped together with a little milk. It’s easy to make, and as long as you have softened butter ready to go, you can whip up this easy peanut butter frosting recipe in just 10 minutes. It’s an excellent topping for brownies, cupcakes or any chocolate cake recipes.

Peanut Butter Frosting Ingredients

• Butter: The base of American buttercream is butter, typically unsalted butter. This recipe calls for well-softened butter, so plan to leave it out at room temperature for at least 45 minutes before starting.
• Peanut butter: An equal measure of peanut butter as regular butter gives this peanut butter buttercream its big peanutty flavor. Creamy peanut butter will yield the smoothest frosting, but you can use crunchy if you like a little texture.
• Confectioners’ sugar: The fine, powdery texture of confectioners’ sugar whipped into the butter and peanut butter gives this frosting both sweetness and fluffiness.
• Milk: A little bit of milk helps the sugar combine with the rich and more solid ingredients to create a ribbony frosting texture. We generally use 2%, but any milk will work fine.
• Vanilla extract: A couple spoonfuls of extract add a sweet vanilla aroma to peanut butter frosting. It’s tough to beat a batch made with your own homemade vanilla.

Directions

Step 1: Combine the creamy ingredients

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In a large bowl, cream the butter, peanut butter and confectioners’ sugar until light and fluffy, three to four minutes.

Editor’s Tip: Make sure the butter, peanut butter and sugar are beaten together thoroughly before adding the liquid.

Step 2:  Add the liquids

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Beat in the milk and vanilla until smooth.

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Peanut Butter Frosting Variations

• Make a salty version: The sweet-and-salty combination of peanut butter and chocolate or candy that we love in a candy bar is just as good with this frosting. Use salted butter to make it, and once you’ve iced your cake, sprinkle it with flaky salt just before serving.
• Try it with chocolate: Add a couple tablespoons of cocoa powder to the peanut butter, butter and sugar mixture to make a chocolate peanut butter frosting.
• Add mix-ins: Punctuate creamy frosting with pops of texture in the form of chopped peanuts or mini chocolate chips.

How to Store Peanut Butter Frosting

Peanut butter frosting can be left out at room temperature on a cake, or in a storage container, for up to three days.

Can you freeze peanut butter frosting?

Wondering what to do with leftover frosting? You can store it in the fridge or the freezer in an airtight container. Keep it in the fridge for one week, or in the freezer for up to three months. If you do freeze it, let it defrost completely in the refrigerator and then re-whip it before using it for the best texture.

Peanut Butter Frosting Tips

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Can you make peanut butter frosting recipes with natural peanut butter?

Yes. Stir your peanut butter together well before measuring it to ensure that both the peanut oil and the solids of natural peanut butter integrate. Then mix it thoroughly into the butter before adding the sugar.

Do you need a stand mixer to make peanut butter frosting?

Not necessarily. It’s a real arm workout to make buttercream frosting by hand without any type of mixer, but as long as your butter is softened, you can easily make this recipe for peanut butter frosting with a hand mixer.

Do you need to sift confectioners’ sugar for peanut butter frosting?

If you’re opening a new box or bag of confectioners’ sugar to make a peanut butter buttercream frosting recipe, there’s no need to sift it. If, however, your sugar has been open for more than a week and potentially formed some lumps, consider sifting it to ensure accurate measurement and avoid any hard bits of sugar in your finished frosting.