Protein Brownies Recipe: PB Banana Chocolate, 11g

It is Friday night, the kids are finally down, and what you actually want is a brownie. The fudgy kind, with peanut butter swirled through the top, not a rice cake with almond butter scraped thin so it looks like enough. These PB Banana Chocolate Brownies from my Macro Friendly Sweet Treats guide take about 10 minutes to mix and 25 to 30 minutes in the oven, and one square comes in around 11 grams of protein, 15 grams of fat, and 20 grams of carbs. The protein comes straight from two scoops of protein powder folded into the batter, so the brownie you were already going to eat is now working for you instead of against you.

Why a Fudgy Brownie Works for Fat Loss

You are not losing progress because you want a brownie on a Friday. You are losing progress because the brownie turns into "well, the week is shot" and the shot week turns into a shot month. A dessert that fits your macros breaks that chain before it starts. You get the fudgy square, it counts toward your numbers instead of blowing past them, and you wake up Saturday still on track.

Look at what you are actually trading. A bakery brownie typically runs 300 to 400 calories with 3 to 5 grams of protein, almost none of it useful. This one lands closer to 230 calories with 11 grams of protein per square, baked from real bananas, peanut butter, and a protein powder that is doing actual work in the batter instead of sitting on a shelf. If you have been stuck on hitting your protein target without feeling like you are eating chicken breast all day, a dessert that quietly adds 11 grams is an easy way to close the gap.

It also protects the rest of your week. Most of the women I coach are not undone by one bad day, they are undone by a string of "it does not matter now" moments that start with exactly this craving. Having a brownie that fits is how you keep the weekend from undoing the week before you.

PB Banana Chocolate Brownies Recipe

Protein 11g | Fat 15g | Carbs 20g per serving (recipe makes 8 servings)

Prep time: about 10 minutes. Cook time: 25 to 30 minutes. From my Macro Friendly Sweet Treats guide.

Ingredients

• 3 ripe medium bananas

• 1/2 cup stevia

• 1/4 cup coconut oil, melted, plus 1 tbsp

• 1 tsp vanilla

• 1/2 cup flour

• 2 scoops Chocolate or Banana protein powder (I use Equip Prime Protein, 30% off with code COACHCAM)

• 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

• 1/8 tsp salt

• 1/2 cup cocoa powder, plus 1 tbsp for later

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350F.

2. In a bowl, use a fork to mash the bananas. Add the stevia, coconut oil, and vanilla. Whisk until fully combined.

3. Add the flour, protein powder, salt, and cocoa powder, and whisk until fully combined.

4. Use the remaining 1 tablespoon to grease a 9x9 pan.

5. Use the remaining cocoa powder to dust every side of the baking tray.

6. Pour batter into the prepared baking dish.

7. Use a spoon to add dollops of peanut butter on top of the batter. Use a butter knife to swirl the peanut butter into the brownie mix.

8. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until the center no longer jiggles when the pan is shaken.

Macros are from my cookbook and will vary by brand, especially the protein powder. Log the scoop you actually used.

What Makes the Macros Work

The bananas and stevia do the sweetening, so you are not adding a cup of sugar to get a brownie that tastes like one. The protein powder goes in with the flour, which is why it is folded into step 3 instead of whisked in at the end: it is acting as part of the structure, not just a flavor boost. Coconut oil keeps the fat moderate instead of letting a full stick of butter run the numbers up, and the cocoa powder, both in the batter and dusted on the pan, is what gives you that deep chocolate color and crust without adding real carbs. The peanut butter swirl on top is where most of the fat in this recipe lives, so if you are tight on fat for the day, that is the ingredient to go light on.

Tips for a Brownie That Does Not Fall Apart

The jiggle test in step 8 is the whole trick. Pull the pan the moment the center stops jiggling when you shake it, even if it still looks slightly underdone, because banana-based batters keep cooking from residual heat once they are out of the oven. Let the pan cool fully, at least 20 minutes, before you cut into it. Cutting warm is the number one reason these fall apart on the fork instead of holding a clean square. When you swirl the peanut butter in step 7, drag the knife in one direction only, a few passes. Overmixing blends the peanut butter in completely and you lose the swirl and the pockets of PB flavor.

Swaps and Variations

Banana protein powder leans into the banana flavor, Chocolate makes it read as a straight fudge brownie, and Chocolate Churro adds a cinnamon edge that works surprisingly well against the banana. If you are training hard that day and want more carbs, stir a tablespoon of oats into the batter in step 3, which adds roughly 8 grams of carbs per square. If you want more fat and more satiety, double the peanut butter swirl on top, which brings fat closer to 20 grams a square. No coconut oil in the house? Melted butter or avocado oil both work at the same measurements.

How to Fit It Into Your Day

At 11 grams of protein and 15 grams of fat, this is not your highest-protein option in the guide, so it fits best on a day where your fat and carbs still have room and you just want something that tastes like dessert. It works well after dinner, or as a mid-afternoon square with coffee if your morning ran light on carbs. Track it as one serving of flour plus your protein powder plus the peanut butter swirl and you will land within a gram or two of the numbers above.

Meal Prep Notes

This one batches well, which most of the single-serve recipes in this series do not. Bake the full 9x9 pan on a Sunday, cut it into 8 squares once fully cooled, and store in the fridge for the week or freeze individually. Frozen squares thaw on the counter in about 20 minutes or microwave for 15 seconds if you want it warm. Having 8 pre-portioned brownies in the freezer is exactly what keeps the 8:45pm craving from turning into a trip through the pantry.

Here is the shift most women need to make. The brownie was never the problem. Eating too little protein and fat all week, then losing control at the first thing in the house that tastes good, is the problem. Knowing how to fit food you love into your macros is a skill we teach every client in the first two weeks. If you are ready to stop white-knuckling Friday nights and start eating with a plan that includes brownies, book your call here.

The Protein I Use (and How to Get 30% Off)

Every recipe in my sweet treats guide is built on Equip Prime Protein, and these brownies are no exception. It is a gut-friendly, dairy free, whole food sourced protein made from grass-fed beef isolate. No whey, no gluten, no soy, no gums, no sugar alcohols, no fake sweeteners, nothing artificial, ever. That is why it folds into a batter instead of fighting it the way some whey powders do. Every flavor comes in a regular and a stevia-free version, and I buy stevia-free because I cannot stand the aftertaste. Chocolate and Banana both work here, and Cinnamon Roll, Peanut Butter, Chocolate Churro, and Cookies and Cream are the other flavors I always have on the shelf.

Go to equipfoods.com/COACHCAM and your 30% off is applied automatically, or use code COACHCAM at checkout. Grab Chocolate or Banana for this one and Chocolate for next Saturday's recipe. That is an affiliate link, so I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. It is the only protein I recommend to my clients and the one every macro count in this series is built on. Any powder works if a scoop is about 25g protein and 120 calories, just log the scoop you actually used.