Peanut Butter No-Bake Bars
- Total Time
- 20 minutes, plus chilling
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
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Ingredients
Yield:1 (8-by-8-inch) pan
- 3tablespoons butter
- 1cup peanut butter (smooth or crunchy), or use another nut butter
- Pinch of kosher salt (optional)
- ½cup cookie crumbs, such as graham crackers or gingersnaps, or use almond flour, coconut flour or shredded coconut
- About 1 cup confectioners’ sugar
- 6ounces chocolate chips or chopped chocolate, any percentage (1 cup)
- ½tablespoon coconut oil or butter
- Flaky sea salt, shredded coconut, sliced almonds, chopped honey-roasted peanuts, or crushed pretzels, for sprinkling (optional)
For the Base
For the Topping
Preparation
- Step 1
Make the base: Heat butter in a pot or skillet, letting it melt and bubble and turn brown. It will smell nutty. Add peanut butter, and turn off the heat. (If your nut butter is unsalted, add a pinch of salt.) Stir it all around until the peanut butter melts, then stir in crumbs.
- Step 2
Sweeten the mix to taste with confectioners’ sugar. That could mean 1 cup, but try it as you go.
- Step 3
Spread the mixture into parchment or foil lined 8-by-8-inch pan, but really, any pan will work.
- Step 4
Make the topping: Add chocolate chips and coconut oil to a small pot, and melt the chocolate on the stovetop over low heat, stirring constantly. (Alternatively, add to a microwaveable bowl, and microwave in 20-second bursts, stirring in between each one.)
- Step 5
Spread the melted chocolate over the peanut butter layer. Sprinkle any of the toppings over, and refrigerate until the peanut butter and chocolate layers are set, about 1 hour or so. Cut these into bars or squares with a knife, or use cookie cutters for shapes. (Store in the refrigerator after cutting; they’ll melt in a warm room.)
Private Notes
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Cooking Notes
Sarah
I used Rice Krispies as a binder and it turned out delicious and crunchy!
Mike
For anyone trying to reduce or sub out the powdered sugar, you may want to incorporate a tablespoon of cornstarch. Cornstarch is a component of powdered sugar and should help with setting the texture of the bottom layer so that it's not too soft/runny.
Jeff W.
Agreed that the base is too liquid, but the recipe is otherwise really yummy. Don't give up -- let's fix it together! One idea... next time I plan to... (1) refrigerate the bottom for a while until it's more solid and (2) add a bit of something -- vegetable shortening? a bit more butter? milk? to thin out the chocolate so I can pour it smoothly over the more solid refrigerated bottom. I think that will work, don't you?
Meagan
I made with almond butter, almond flour as the binder and monkfruit as the sweetner for a nice keto treat. Topped with flaked sea salt. Easy and delicious!
dianestable
Delicious treat! All the joy of peanut butter fudge or buckeye balls but with way less effort. Maybe this was supposed to be obvious, but you should refrigerate the peanut butter mix after you put it in the pan, before you top with chocolate. Let the base firm up. Otherwise it’s so soft that the chocolate sinks and forms a very uneven layer.
Ruth
made this a few days ago and it is delicious! Very easy to make - I used almond flour because that's what I had and about 3/4 cup of powder sugar. The bars are a hit! This former Wisconsinite won't eat a buckeye because that's just wrong, so having bars like this makes up for that in a big way.
Jennifer
Made a keto version of this with natural peanut butter, powdered Erythritol, one cup of almond flour (to thicken the peanut butter), dark chocolate, and toasted almond slices. Insanely good. Great recipe.
Meagan
I achieved what I believe to be the perfect bar and ratio of nut butter to chocolate. I used 5 Tablespoons of Kerrygold butter, 2 cups almond butter, 1/2 cup coconut sugar, 1/2 cup monkfruit sweetener, 1 cup of almond flour, and placed that in the freezer for 30 minutes. For the chocolate, I used 8 ounces dark chocolate melted with 1/2 cup of coconut oil, topped with sea salt and sliced almonds. Absolutely delicious! I plan on cutting up and freezing for a great snack/desert on the go.
Christa
Make sure the chocolate is absolute liquid, not just soft, or you will have a mess on your hands. Since I used gingersnap crumbs, I did not add any sugar.
harriseve
This is my all-time favorite flavor combination, and our shelter-in-place pantry conveniently had all the classic ingredients: Grahams, chocolate, & plenty of peanut butter. We have made this 3 times since the recipe appeared and it’s a delicious guilty pleasure!
Leah
The flavors in this are so good! But like others have said, the consistency is challenging. My PB lower layer is soft (like the filling of a peanut butter cup) but the chocolate on top is quite firm. I’d guess it needs a lot more crushed cookies or graham crackers in the PB base and more coconut oil in the chocolate layer.
Kanish
Topped w chopped ferrero rocher and flaky sea salt
EKSanfilippo
I wish these were terrible because then I would have some self control, but no. They’re fantastic.
Kirsten
easy and quick!-quicker than I though. However you need a bit more chocolate for the top.
Sarah
Made them for my husband's birthday and they were a hit. I added pretzels, peanuts, large coconut flakes and sliced almonds. The bars were a bit thin and the layers kind of merged together; next time I might try them in a smaller pan to make them thicker.
Beth
I wish I'd read the community notes before. I don't like really sweet so cut back on the sugar. Chocolate part was way too thick and not enough, ended up having to swirl it and while it all tasted ok it wasn't the visually appealing dessert it was supposed to be! IMO at least 8 oz of chocolate with some added butter and cream might be better.
Bonnie L
I made these because they were simple. Took them to neighbor's dinner. Loved, loved, loved! Bottom was too soft so will freeze next time. Definitely a make again. Used Ghiradelli 70 percent chocolate pieces and almond flour in bottom layer. Loved some of the other ideas so will be trying some for the next times.
Rachel
These are easy and delicious! A few tips... I used natural peanut butter (Kirkland brand from Costco) and they turned out great. After spreading the peanut butter mixture in the pan, I put it in the freezer for about 20 minutes to firm up before adding the chocolate on top. To make these easier to cut after they have chilled, I put the whole thing upside down (choc side down) on a cutting board, cut them into squares, then put them right side up (choc side up) back in the pan.
Elisheva
I even read all of the comments about the PB layer being too sticky/thin, put in extra thickening (plenty of almond flour, rice krispies), and yet it's still sticking and not firm at all. Very disappointing. I should have used more confectioners sugar, as well. Right now it's in the freezer to try to firm it up as much as possible. It's tasty, but doesn't quite work.
Mia
I make these often and what I do is a layer of chocolate on the bottom, same ingredients as the layer of chocolate on top. I find this really holds it together!
Barb
How did you deal with serving them? They seemed to melt very fast just as I was trying to cut them up. Tasted great but hard to deal with once they’re needing to come out of the pan.
Joyce
I made these with chunky peanut butter, graham cracker crumbs and 1/2 cup confectioners sugar. Chilled the base while I melted the chocolate. Added raisins to the chocolate and spread over “crust.” I used a 10” square baking pan lined with parchment, so the cookies were thin, but delicious!
Sooooo Yummy!
As others have done, I refrigerated the peanut butter layer to make it easier to spread the chocolate on top. I only used two tablespoons of "sugar". I follow a keto diet so used Lakanto as sugar, almond flour, and put chopped almonds/pecans and Maldon salt on top So delicious!!!!
Din
Added rice crispy as the binder
sarah
I would put the base layer in the fridge for a bit before spreading the topping on. Used almond flour and butter (no coconut oil). Sprinkled crushed potato chips on top. Delicious!
Dee
I only had half the needed peanut butter so used tahini for the other half. . It was heavenly, with notes of halavah. I got rave reviews! Thank you, thank you, thank you Melissa Clark!
Emma
I’ve made these twice, and they’ve been amazing both times. Today I added a little extra graham cracker crumb to the peanut butter mixture to hold it together more. My chocolate seized up so I added a Tbsp or so extra butter and a few splashes of heavy whipping cream. Sliced perfectly after a couple hours in the fridge!
AnneO
Super easy. Love the flexibility of add-ins. I’m a fan of shredded coconut & almond flour in the base and chopped peanuts and more coconut on top. The merging of the layers is not an issue for me. These are for one of those lazy afternoons when you need a sweet…and voila!
Hannah F
Made with graham crackers, coconut, almonds, pretzels, and dark chocolate. It was good but boy was it sweet. I only added about 2tbs of sugar. Next time I’m going to make it without any added sugar. And they do start melting quickly so I stuck mine in the freezer. All in all it worked out well.
Angela
I cook and bake all the time. I think these are the best things I have ever made in my life. Melissa, these. Are. Amazing. My whole family thanks you.
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