No-Bake Peanut Butter Bars

These easy no-bake peanut butter bars are rich, creamy, and packed with classic chocolate peanut butter flavor. Made with simple ingredients and no oven required, they’re the perfect quick dessert for parties, holidays, or everyday treats.

Course Dessert

Cuisine American, Southern

Keyword easy-peanut-butter-bars-recipe

Prep Time 10

Cook Time 5

Chill Time 1

Total Time 1 15

Servings servings

Calories 366kcal

Ingredients

1 cup salted or unsalted butter melted (plus 1 Tbsp softened for the pan)
3 cups finely ground graham cracker crumbs
3 cups powdered sugar
1 1/2 cups creamy peanut butter i.e. Jif or similar
Chocolate Topping:
1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup peanut butter baking chips
4 Tbsp peanut butter
1/2 cup chopped peanuts

Instructions

Use a pastry brush to coat a 13x9-inch pan with 1 Tbsp softened butter.
Make the Bars: In a medium mixing bowl, use a silicone spatula or large spoon mix together the melted butter with graham crackers crumbs, powdered sugar and peanut butter. Stir until fully combined.
Press the peanut butter mixture evenly into the prepared 13×9 inch pan. Place into the refrigerator for 15 minutes.
Make the Topping: In a microwave safe bowl or double boiler, melt together semi sweet chocolate chips, peanut butter chips and peanut butter. Stir until completely smooth.
Remove bars from fridge and spread with melted chocolate. Sprinkle the top of the bars with chopped peanuts.
Cool completely at room temperature or chill in the fridge for quicker set up. Slice into squares for serving.
Store in an airtight container chilled for up to one week.

Notes

- Chocolate Chips: You can use your favorite brand of baking chips for this recipe. I recommend Ghiradelli as it tends to melt smoothly.

- Butter: You can use salted or unsalted butter in this recipe. Don’t sweat the small stuff.

- Peanut Butter: You could experiment with alternative nut butters, such as almond butter.

- Chunky or Smooth Peanut Butter: You can use chunky peanut butter in this recipe in a pinch, but creamy really does work best. Chunky peanut butter won’t taste different, but it does change the texture and I find it to be drier. This is one instance when the ingredients are so simple you should make as few changes as possible.

- Topping Variations: You can use all semi sweet chocolate chips or all peanut butter baking chips for the topping instead of a combination of the two. This won’t change the amount, only the flavor. You may also try replacing the peanut butter chips with butterscotch chips for a slightly different flavor profile.

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