No-Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars
No-bake chocolate peanut butter bars are easy to make with 7 ingredients. They're like a peanut butter cup, but in bar form and are the first to disappear from our holiday cookie trays!
Servings: 16 bars
Cost: $5
Ingredients
Peanut Butter Base:
- ¼ cup salted butter (softened)
- 1 ½ cups creamy peanut butter
- 1 ¼ cup powdered sugar
- 1 ¼ cup graham cracker crumbs (10 full graham crackers, processed)
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt
Chocolate Topping:
- 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1 Tablespoon creamy peanut butter
Instructions
- Lightly grease or line a 9x9” or 8x8" baking pan with parchment paper. Set aside.**
- In a large bowl, mix together powder sugar, graham cracker crumbs and salt, set aside.
- In a mixer, beat butter and peanut butter together until creamy. Add vanilla and beat until combined.
- Add dry ingredients and beat until combined.
- Pour into your prepared baking pan and spread evenly with a greased spatula or your hands.
- Melt chocolate chips and peanut butter together in the microwave or on the stovetop, stir until completely combined and smooth. (If using the microwave, start by warming them for 60 seconds and stirring, and then if they still need to melt warm in 30 second increments after that, stirring after each).
- Pour chocolate peanut butter mixture over peanut butter base and spread until it’s evenly distributed.
- Cool in fridge for about 20 minutes or until chocolate is slightly hardened. Remove out before chocolate is completely hardened and cut into squares. Return to fridge until completely cooled.
- Serve cold or at room temperature!
Video
Notes
**This recipe is easily doubled to fit a 9x13" baking pan.
***You can make these into balls and dip them in chocolate - follow this recipe: chocolate peanut butter balls. NOTE: If your peanut butter mixture is too wet, add up to ¼ cup more graham cracker crumbs and/or powdered sugar until it reaches the correct consistency (as seen in the video). This happens to me if I use natural peanut butter. Ingredient Substitutions
***You can make these into balls and dip them in chocolate - follow this recipe: chocolate peanut butter balls. NOTE: If your peanut butter mixture is too wet, add up to ¼ cup more graham cracker crumbs and/or powdered sugar until it reaches the correct consistency (as seen in the video). This happens to me if I use natural peanut butter. Ingredient Substitutions
- Salted Butter: unsalted butter or vean butter are good substitutes.
- Peanut Butter: Make sure it's creamy and not too liquidy. I prefer a natural, no-stir variety so that the bars hold up better as they reach room temperature. If you choose to use a more runny peanut butter you will need to serve these bars cold or add more powdered sugar or graham cracker crumbs to get them to hold up well at room temperature.
- Graham Cracker Crumbs: use store-bought or make your own. This recipe needs 10 to 11 full sheet graham crackers.
- Chocolate Chips: Our favorite chocolate of choice is a semi-sweet variety. However I have used milk chocolate, dark chocolate, and even white chocolate with good results.
Nutrition
Serving: 1bar | Calories: 192.6kcal | Carbohydrates: 15.8g | Protein: 5.4g | Fat: 13g | Saturated Fat: 3.3g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2.8g | Monounsaturated Fat: 4.5g | Sodium: 80mg | Potassium: 0.6mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 9.5g | Iron: 0.2mg