Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars | Cookies and Cups

These no-bake chocolate peanut butter bars are fudgy, buttery, and straightforward to make with simply 5 components. These style JUST like peanut butter cups, with a crunchy peanut butter filling smothered in a chocolatey prime layer!

Craving extra dessert bar recipes? Strive my magic bars (you may additionally know them as 7-layer bars) and these chewy peanut butter passion bars.

Why You’ll Love These Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars

Is there something higher than chocolate and peanut butter? Not in my home there isn’t. I revisited these chocolate peanut butter bars as a last-minute dessert not too long ago. Boy, did they disappear rapidly! Right here’s why you’ll need to make these bars ASAP:

• Buttery and chocolatey. In brief, you’re taking a thick layer of crunchy peanut butter goodness and slather it with chocolate. These chocolate peanut butter bars had been impressed by Paula Deen’s recipe (love her!). Complete bliss.
• Give your oven a relaxation. This can be a no-bake dessert, so the oven can sit this one out. I really like making these bars once I entertain, or throughout the holidays, when my oven is in any other case occupied with baked ham or a casserole.
• 5 components. Dessert doesn’t get a lot easier, or higher. There’s an excellent probability that the components for these chocolate peanut butter bars are already ready in your pantry.

Components You’ll Want

If you realize Paula Deen, you realize that these dessert bars are loaded with butter! I’ve realized to simply embrace it. I’ve tweaked her authentic recipe for my very own ease, although, and included some ingredient notes right here. You’ll discover a printable checklist within the recipe card beneath the publish. 

• Butter – Salted or unsalted will work right here. Take your butter stands out of the fridge to melt earlier than you begin. You can too use margarine.
• Peanut Butter – Use clean or crunchy peanut butter (I really like the additional texture that comes with crunchy). Whichever you select, be sure that it’s shelf-stable peanut butter and never the pure sort, which makes these bars oily.
• Powdered Sugar – Additionally known as confectioner’s sugar. Sifting the sugar beforehand removes any lumps and retains the peanut butter filling clean.
• Graham Cracker Crumbs – Cookie crumbs assist bind the filling components in order that the bars maintain collectively. You can too use crushed Nilla wafers, or Ritz crackers for a sweet-salty mixture. 
• Chocolate Chips – You’ll soften semi-sweet or darkish chocolate chips (or chopped chocolate) for the chocolate prime layer.

Make Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars

I get so enthusiastic about these buttery bars loaded with chocolate that I generally overlook they want time to set. Right here’s a brief step-by-step exhibiting learn how to make the perfect chocolate and peanut butter bars. Scroll right down to the recipe card for printable directions.

• Put together the filling. Begin by mixing the peanut butter with butter, sugar, and graham crackers in a meals processor.

• Assemble the bars. Press the combination right into a frivolously greased casserole dish. Subsequent, soften the chocolate within the microwave. Unfold this over the peanut butter layer.
• Chill. Let the bars relaxation whereas the chocolate cools utterly, after which transfer them to the fridge. 

Add Toppings

I really like altering up these chocolate peanut butter bars with totally different garnishes. The trick is so as to add any toppings whereas the melted chocolate remains to be moist. Sprinkle over chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, chopped nuts, crushed pretzels, or rainbow sprinkles. 

After the chocolate has set, it’s also possible to drizzle the tops of your bars with icing, fudge sauce, or homemade caramel sauce.

Suggestions and Variations

• Solely frivolously grease the pan. Coat the baking dish or pan you’re utilizing with cooking spray after which wipe out the surplus grease with a paper towel. This manner the underside of the bars gained’t be too greasy.
• Chill the bars. Numerous chocolate peanut butter bar recipes suggest serving at room temperature. Nevertheless, I’ve all the time discovered that these bars arrange higher when chilled. They’re much less sticky and simpler to deal with. Be at liberty to serve these at whichever temperature works finest for you.
• Add a contact of honey. Sweeten up these bars with honey, as I do in my chocolate and honey peanut butter bars (one other straightforward no-bake recipe!).
• Give these bars a cookie crust. These chocolate peanut butter bars are loads like my Woman Scout cookie-inspired Tagalong bars. In that recipe, I swap the graham crackers for a baked shortbread crust earlier than including a peanut butter filling and chocolate. You may also like these chocolate caramel shortbread bars.

How Lengthy Do These Peanut Butter Bars Final?

• Refrigerate. Retailer your chocolate peanut butter bars in an hermetic container within the fridge for as much as 4-5 days. 
• Freeze. These bars might be frozen for as much as 2 months. Wrap them tightly in a double layer of plastic wrap or place them right into a freezer bag. Defrost within the fridge earlier than serving.

Extra Dessert Bar Recipes

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