Remember when I told you yesterday I was going to do a lot of baking today? Well I think I overdid it! I baked through lunch and by the time dinner rolled around I felt so sick from all of the sampling I was doing. It always seems like a good idea at the time! Last night my blog went down for maintenance (I had to upgrade to a better hosting plan because my blog outgrew the last one), and I was so stressed about how long it was taking! This is bad news because I am a major stress baker. I apologize if you tried looking for a recipe this morning, my blog was not back up and running until this afternoon. 14 hours and a fridge full of desserts later, things should be good now 🙂
Tonight is our friends’ housewarming party, so I made these chocolate peanut butter bars. About halfway in, I realized he can’t eat nuts – oops. Nice one!! I totally didn’t mind baking something else and keeping the peanut butter bars for our dessert next week, since I won’t be doing any baking for a really long time. Next week is my last week of my pediatrics rotation, then it’s vacation time! OK, back to these peanut butter bars…They taste exactly like Reeses® peanut butter cups, and they are so easy to make since they are a no-bake treat. The only thing is that it is a little bit painful waiting for them to chill in the refrigerator. I couldn’t wait longer than 1 hour, so mine are not completely set (as you can see in the photos). After another hour, they became really firm. When I was looking around for a recipe, I saw that most use a lot of butter. I tried to cut the butter in half, and they still came out great! The graham crackers will help them keep their shape. I was lazy and just tossed some graham crackers in my KitchenAid mixer along with the peanut butter and it crushed them up just fine. I guess the ideal way would be to crush them in a food processor first, but either way works!
- 1½ cups graham cracker crumbs
- ⅓ cup butter, room temperature
- ¾ cup confectioners' sugar
- 1 cup + ⅓ cup creamy peanut butter
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ½ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
- ½ tsp canola oil
- In a standalone mixer or large bowl, add butter and graham cracker crumbs.
- Mix with a paddle attachment or stir with a wooden spoon.
- Add 1 cup of the peanut butter, confectioners' sugar and vanilla extract. Mix well.
- Line an 8x8-inch baking dish with parchment paper, and spread the peanut butter mixture evenly on top.
- Add chocolate chips and canola oil to a small microwave-proof bowl and heat 25 seconds x3, stirring after each round.
- Add the remaining ⅓ cup peanut butter to the melted chocolate and stir.
- Spread the chocolate mixture over the peanut butter mixture.
- Chill for 2 hours before cutting and serving.
Mmm, I’ve made bars similar to this before, they’re amazing! Yours look so delicious 🙂 pinned!
omg I’m in loooooove with these!
and there’s nothing wrong with lots of baking!
I’ll eat anything Reeses, so these have my number! They look wonderful, and exceptionally tasty. Thanks.
What a great combo!
Ugh, host switching! I don’t blame you for all the taste-testing and baking. These are amazing bars!
These look so decadent and rich! I had a similar issue with my blog the other day (host was down for like 4-5 hours), and it was incredibly frustrating, so I feel you. Luckily, we readers sort of benefit from the stress w/ these baked goods 🙂
The bars look gorgeous. Is there a better combination than peanut butter and chocolate. Allergic to nuts? That is such a bummer. I’m not sure I could cope with a nut allergy. That’s a lot of baking and I’m glad your blog is up and running with its new server xx
Soynut butter is a great alternative for a nut allergy:)
Love the no bake recipes in the heat wave we are having here in HK. Love the layers and it looks so rich.
Ahhh Kristi these look SO GOOD!! And so perfect for Houston right now since they’re no-bake 🙂 I don’t think I’ve ever combined peanut butter and graham crackers together like this, but it sounds sooo delicious! 🙂
I’m drooling. I love no-bake options for those hot days. Plus I adore Reese’s PB cups. 🙂
I’ve pulled an all day bake-athon for my blog. It wasn’t pretty. 😉
i want to pick them up and eat right now.
Wow, these look amazing! I could use them with lunch today. 🙂
I can vouch for these bars! I’ve made them a few times and they are phenomenal!!!
These look yummy!! My son is allergic to nuts, so I will have to try this with soy nut butter:D Yay!! Can’t wait to make them.
Yes please!!!
These bars look so good and I love that they’re no-bake. Thanks for sharing the recipe.
I just made these using your recipe. Amazing! I couldn’t find graham crackers so I used digestive and shortbread biscuit crumbs, it was still delicious. I love chocolate and peanut butter together so this was a big hit. Thanks for the recipe, I’m going to make some more now 😀
JUST made them and can not wait to surprise my honey and three boys! Hurry up dinner, get done so we all can have the best part of the day. Thank you for sharing…I’m drooling already 🙂
Great recipe!