The recipe for these oh-so- easy Crunchy No-Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars is a sweet sample of what you’ll find in the pages of Mary Younkin’s brand new cookbook entitled The Weeknight Dinner Cookbook featuring simple family friendly meals for everyday home cooking. You may recognize Mary from Facebbok or you may have seen her work around the web as she blogs full-time over at Barefeet In The Kitchen. In her just released cookbook you’ll find recipes for main dish entrees as well as fabulous side dishes and in her words a “sprinkling of sweet treats.”
The color photos are so handy allowing you to see how the dish is supposed to look as well as giving serving and styling tips to use when your entertaining. Mary includes the amount of time and effort it takes to make each dish, too. One thing I love about Mary is she uses everyday easy-to-find ingredients that don’t require multiple specialty shop visits to find. She also cooks homestyle which you know, is close to my heart. Some of the dishes you’ll find in the book are Sweet Chipotle Chicken Bites, Creamy Kielbasa and Broccoli Pasta, Philly Cheese Steak Potato Skillet, Honey Chipotle Meatloaf, Skillet Mexican Street Corn, Italian Rice Pilaf, Cinnamon Toast Cake, Lemon Curd Mini Cheesecakes, Never-Fail Blondies as well as these delicious Crunchy No Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars.
If you enjoy cooking or if you cook for a family and need ideas to jazz up meals, this cookbook is a must add to your cookbook collection. The gorgeous photos and easy-to-follow instructions will give you the tools you need to make delicious meals for your family and the kids can help, too. The Weeknight Dinner Cookbook is one of those rare finds that you’re sure to return to over and over again for mealtime inspiration.
You can purchase Mary’s book here on Amazon
See it at The Weekend Potluck here
- 1½ cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1 cup creamy peanut butter
- ½ cup honey
- ¼ cup unsalted butter
- 3 cups regular or frosted cornflakes
- Place the chocolate chips, peanut butter, honey and butter in a large glass mixing bowl.
- Microwave for 2 minutes at full power.
- Remove from the microwave and stir until the chocolate has completely melted and everything is well combined.
- Stir-in the cornflakes. Mix well.
- Line an 8 x 8-inch pan with parchment paper. Spread the chocolate mixture evenly into the pan.
- Chill until firm for at leas 2-4 hours.
- Slice with a sharp knife and store chilled in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.
I am thrilled that you like the cookbook! (and you chose one of my kids’ favorite dessert recipes to make, I’m going to be craving these bars all day now.) Thanks so much, Melissa!
I love your book Mary thanks for sharing it!
Hi please can you give the quantities in grams or ounces
If you need to convert amounts there are many free online sources to provide those values.
Should you crush the cornflakes before adding them in?
Not unless you want to.
My granddaughter has Celiac Disease and so any baking I do for her has to be gluten free. Is there another cereal which is gluten free (eg. Chex) that would work for this recipe? She would love these!!
Poor kid! I think any gluten free option she enjoys would work with these, sure. Perhaps adjust the amount depending on the size of the cereal but gluten free puffed rice cereal (If it’s available) would turn these into a crispy bar.
There is GlutenFree corn flakes. I also have to cook GlutenFree
You can use oatmeal.
How much oatmeal and should it be quick oats?
Same amount as cereal, although play with it adding less then checking the consistency. You can always add more, if desired. Yes, quick cooking.
Try using oatmeal, or something of the sort.
I would use which ever gluten free crunchy cereal option she has available. It’s the crunch that really makes these! 🙂
Nice looking cookbook, and who doesn’t love peanut butter and chocolate together. Pinned 🙂
Sounds fabulous! How I love the crunch of cornflakes. Thanks so much for sharing with us at Weekend Potluck.
Thanks so much!
Have you tried this recipe with milk chocolate chips instead of semi-sweet? Just wondering if it would work or be too sweet… Thanks
Hi Amy, I haven’t but for the most part chocolate chips are interchangeable so I think they would do fine.
You always have my mouth watering! Can’t wait to try these.
Thanks Julia!
Could you use rice crispies in this recipe rather than corn flakes?
I think you could, sure.
Lately when I try to melt chocolate chips they just clump together and will no melt. I have even tried putting a little oil/butter in the pan also. So by using the honey and peanut butter will it for sure do the trick. The recipe sounds like something I would love to make.
Eunice, they can be a challenge since they put stabilizers in them so they’ll keep their shape when baking. I find that some brands melt better than others and never have an issue with a good quality chip i.e. Ghiradelli or similar.
Maybe try melting them in a pan on the stove!
The 1/4 C. Of salt seems like of salt for candy made in an 8″/8″ pan?
There is no salt in this recipe.
Could you use salted butter?
Sure, no problem.
I think you were seeing 1/4 cup unsalted butter.
What could you replace honey . Not a honey fan.
I’ve only made this recipe using honey. Maybe corn syrup?
Maybe try syrup
Could you substitute pecans for the cornflakes
Sure, if you prefer or even Rice Krispies.
This looks so delicious. But I have a corn allergy. What could I use in place of the corn flakes?
Rice Krispies would work.
Would Kelloggs raisin bran work?
I’ve never tried that but, it likely would work fine.
Can I use GlutenFree margarine in place of the unsalted butter. Since I am both GlutenFree and Dairy free.
If you’ve had success using that as a substitute in the past it should however, I haven’t tried it myself.
Why would margarine have Gluten?
Hi, Melissa. Thank you for posting this fun recipe. I have been switching these up, with ingredients I have on hand. I love them made with semi-sweet dark chocolate. They do work well using light Karo (corn syrup) in place of honey, and using coconut in place of cornflakes. They also work using ground almonds, Life cereal, puffed rice, rice chex and rice crispies.
Awesome adaptations Nan, thanks for sharing!
Would using natural peanut butter be a problem? That’s really the only kind we eat. It doesn’t work well in some recipes though.
I haven’t tried it in this recipe. If you do, let me know how it goes.
I did not have corn flakes, so I used Rice Krispies, and these are so easy, and delicious. Gonna be my go to bar.
Terrific improv and it does work great.
Would it work if instead of chocolate chips i used cocoa and milk?
I honestly don’t think it would, sorry.
I stumbled across this recipe today on pinterest and absolutely loved it. I did tweak it a bit using crunchy peanut butter and cocoa rice krispies instead of corn flakes. Absolutely wonderful!
Hi Steve, glad you enjoyed this one!