No Bake Peanut Butter Bars – Just 5 simple ingredients and 10 minutes and you can have bars that taste like homemade peanut butter cups! The perfect easy dessert to make any day of the week!
This recipe was originally posted on the blog in 2011, when I first started blogging. So I figured it was time they got a little face lift and brought back to life. They are so darn good, they deserve their day!
Peanut Butter Bar Ingredients
- Butter
- Peanut Butter
- Graham Crackers
- Powdered Sugar
- Chocolate Chips
How to Make No Bake Peanut Butter Bars
- Start with melting the butter and peanut butter together. Stir until they are combined and smooth.
- Mix in the graham cracker crumbs and powdered sugar. The dough will be thick, so if you prefer a mixer for this step go for it.
- Press the mixture into a 13×9 inch baking pan and place in the refrigerator while you prepare the topping.
- Melt together the chocolate chips and remaining peanut butter until nice and smooth. Pour over the bars and let it chill for at least 1 hour for the chocolate to set.
I like to store the peanut butter bars in the fridge. After an hour and the chocolate is set, I remove the pan from the fridge and slice the whole pan. You can then remove the bars and store in an air tight container or just cover your baking dish. When it is time to serve I let them sit out for 15-20 minutes so they aren’t cold.
Recipe Substitutions
There are a few easy substitutions you can make with this recipe if you need or want to.
- Graham Crackers – if you are not in the US and can’t get these, digestive biscuits will work. You could even use something like Ritz crackers. If you do think make sure you use unsalted butter or your bars will turn out salty. You could even do something like Nilla Wafers if that is what you had. You just need something that compliments the flavor to give it structure.
- Chocolate – the recipe calls for milk chocolate chips, but you can really use any type of chocolate you enjoy. Dark chocolate, semi-sweet, even white chocolate. And it doesn’t have to be chips, you can use a bar that you melt down as well.
- Peanut Butter – if you have a peanut allergy, you can use sun butter or if tree nuts aren’t a problem almond butter works great.
Peanut Butter Bars
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter
- 1 cup peanut butter
- 2 cups graham cracker crumbs
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 1 1/2 cups milk chocolate chips
- 4 Tablespoons creamy peanut butter
Instructions
- Melt butter and 1 cup peanut butter together, mix until well combined.
- Add graham cracker crumbs and powdered sugar. Mix until fully incorporated.
- Press into a 13×9 baking pan. Refrigerate for 15 minutes.
- Meanwhile, Melt chocolate chips and 4Tbls peanut butter together, mix until smooth.
- Spread over peanut butter layer. Chill for at least 1 hour before serving.