No Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars

No Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars: If you’re craving a chocolate peanut butter dessert and want something quick and easy – these no bake chocolate peanut butter bars are it! This no bake dessert uses simple ingredients and is a quick and easy recipe to make.

Quick Overview: Melt your first three ingredients in a saucepan, stir in the powdered sugar and graham crackers, pour in a baking dish. Melt remaining peanut butter and chocolate chips and pour on top, then chill your chocolate peanut butter dessert for 2 hours. That’s it!

Why you’ll love this

I absolutely adore Reese’s peanut butter cups! Peanut butter and chocolate are the best combination in my opinion (my fellow peanut butter lovers know what I’m talking about). Sometimes I get a craving for them but it’s not convenient to run out and get one, and that’s where this recipe comes in.

If you’re looking for something to satisfy that peanut butter and chocolate craving, this chocolate peanut butter bars recipe will absolutely do the trick. It’s made with simple ingredients that you can keep on hand, so you can make it in a pinch! Trust me, the hardest part of this recipe is not eating it all by yourself.

Jump to:

• Why you’ll love this
• Ingredients
• Instructions
• Substitutions
• Variations
• Storage
• Expert tips and FAQs
• Related Recipes
• No Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars

Ingredients

These easy peanut butter bars are comfort food, pure and simple. They are made with simple ingredients that I bet you already have on hand!

• 1 cup salted butter
• 1 ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 ¼ cups peanut butter, divided
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 cup graham crackers, crushed
• 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

See the printable recipe card below for quantities and step-by-step instructions.

Instructions

1. In a small saucepan, combine the butter, vanilla, and 1 cup peanut butter on medium-low heat until the butter is completely melted, and the mixture is homogenous.

2. Remove the pot from the heat and gently whisk the powdered sugar and graham cracker crumbs into the peanut butter mixture.

Note: To crush your graham crackers, you can use a food processor or simply place them in a ziplock bag and roll over them with a rolling pin until they are more crumb than cookie.

3. Pour the mixture into an 8×8 baking dish and melt the chocolate chips with the remaining peanut butter in a microwave-safe bowl in the microwave.

4. Pour the chocolate layer on top of the peanut butter layer and place the dish in the fridge for 2 hours.

5. Cut the bars into squares, serve, and enjoy! Enjoy your chocolate peanut butter slice with a glass of cold milk or hot coffee – either way, it’ll be delicious!

Substitutions

If you need to make a few changes to these no-bake chocolate peanut butter bars, here are my suggestions!

• Peanut Butter – you can use either creamy peanut butter or crunchy peanut butter in this recipe. I like to use smooth peanut butter, but using crunchy doesn’t have a major effect on the outcome of this recipe. I would not recommend using natural peanut butter for this recipe, though, as it does result in a different texture (natural PB is much softer).
• Chocolate Chips – you can switch out the semi-sweet chocolate chips for milk chocolate chips or dark chocolate depending on how much sweetness you want to add to the recipe.
• Vegan – if you want to make this sweet treat vegan friendly, simply use your favorite vegan butter alternative and be sure to select a brand of semi-sweet chocolate chips that are vegan certified.
• Gluten Free – all you’ll need to do to make this recipe gluten free is to swap the graham crackers for a gluten free graham cracker or graham crumbs!
• Graham Crackers – instead of graham crackers (crushed), you could choose to use digestive biscuits. These will result in a similar flavor and texture.

Variations

This old fashioned peanut butter bars recipe is a fantastic base to play around with! You can add so many fun things to turn this into your own unique creation.

• Festive – add sprinkles and candies to the top of your bars that match the holiday (red and green for Christmas, pink for Valentine’s Day, green clover sprinkles for St. Patrick’s Day…).
• Chopped Nuts – sprinkle some chopped peanuts or your favourite nut onto the top of the bars before the chocolate sets for a pretty and delicious garnish!
• Make it Oreo – instead of crushed graham crackers, use Oreo crumbs or crushed Oreo cookies!
• Extra Peanut Butter – if you are a super extreme peanut butter lover, you can replace the chocolate chips with peanut butter chips for no-bake peanut butter bars!

Storage

These chocolate peanut butter squares will last for 4 days in the fridge if stored in an airtight container.

You can also freeze these! You can individually wrap the bars in plastic wrap and put them in a freezer safe container or simply place the bars right into a freezer safe container. They should keep for a month or more this way.

Did you make this? I’d be so grateful if you left a review below to let me know what you thought! Then, the next time you need a quick and easy recipe, come back to Fantabulosity to browse all of my easy recipes!

Related Recipes

Looking for other easy, no bake desserts? Try our no bake cherry cheesecake (this one is a huge hit anytime I make it) and these classic no bake cookies (maybe you called them haystacks as a kid?).