My cousin Greg from DC stayed with us last night. It was great to see him. When we have company, what’s one of the first things that I think of? Dessert! I must have enough dessert to feed the guests! He arrived last night and finished up the Cookie Dough Brownies that I made the other night, so I knew I needed to make something else. After we had dinner, he went out to meet an old college friend for drinks and that was my opportunity to try a new recipe.
I LOVE Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, and this recipe produces an unbelievable tray of them in bar form. They’re really decadent, but incredibly good. I really enjoyed the fact that this is a no-bake recipe. It’s perfect for the summertime when you don’t want to turn on the oven.
I’m including the recipe as I found it on the Internet. I made a few changes though. Instead of using chocolate chips, I used a Russell Stover crispy chocolate Easter bunny (milk chocolate) that we had left over from the boys’ Easter baskets. It was only a 3 oz. bunny, so I added a handful of chocolate chips and melted them both together. Yum. I think the milk chocolate made the final product taste more like its namesake.
Using a pizza cutter is a brilliant way to cut these bars after they’ve chilled. The edges were nice and straight and they cut very smoothly. You can store these in either the refrigerator or the freezer. I just ate one right out of the freezer and it was delicious. They’re really just like Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. Really.
All four boys loved the bars, which surprised me because one of the boys has claimed for years that he doesn’t like peanut butter. Go figure.
Peanut Butter Cup Bars
Recipe from Michelle at One Ordinary Day
1/2 cup butter
1 3/4 cups confectioner’s sugar
1 cup peanut butter
3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips(Line a 8×8, 9×9, or 7×11 pan with foil for easy removal of bars later.)
Melt 1/2 c. butter of low heat. Remove from heat and stir in confectioner’s sugar. Add peanut butter and graham cracker crumbs, stirring until creamy. Spread mixture into pan, patting down evenly.
In same pot, on low heat, melt butter. Add chocolate chips and stir until chips are nearly melted and very soft. Remove from heat and continue stirring until chocolate is smooth and shiny. Spread over peanut butter layer. Refrigerate for 30 minutes. Cut into bars.
Store peanut butter cup bars in refrigerator.
Yield: 16 or more bars (depending upon how big you cut them)
Print This Recipe
Hooray… they were a hit! We just LOVE them and seeing your awesome photo makes me want to go make them again. They really are soooo good, aren’t they? And thanks for the link back to me!
Oh, yum. That’s all I can say!!
So delicious. We have made these in my house since I was a kid. We use milk chocolate instead of the semi-sweet to make them even creamier. I could eat the peanut butter mix by the spoonful.
Wow, those look great! Definitely a saver! I’m such a peanut butter addict!
Cheers,
Rosa
its hard to get reese peanut butter cups here in Singapore where I’m from. And when there is any rare find, we’d have to pay so much for a pack – 18 bucks! thanks to your recipe, i can finally make my own!
Oh my, this looks awesome (and easy)! I’m certainly going to make them – especially for my grandfather who’s a nut for treats and demands just this type of thing every time we visit.
Great! A Tasty Treat for all!
Yum. Thats enough to make me want to find people to invite over. Just to justify making a whole pan. It’s like extra-king size Reeses!
Hi! does the c. in the recepie stand for cup? if so how do I meger the butter? melt it?
Hi Lugi – yes the ‘c.’ in the recipe stands for ‘cup’. I just changed the recipe to make it more clear – thanks for your question.
You also ask about how to measure butter. 1/4 cup of butter is 4 tablespoons of butter which is also 1/2 a stick of butter. Hope this helps. If you’d like more information about how to measure butter, check out this link: http://www.ochef.com/837.htm
thank you !!!
I can’t eat wheat. What do you think I could substitute for the g. crackers?
Hi Paul,
I just did a search online and I found a number of sites that sell gluten-free graham crackers. I think I’d start with those as a substitute for regular graham crackers. If not gluten-free graham crackers, I might try a gluten-free sugar cookie or biscuit. Best of luck and let me know how they turn out if you try them.
-Diane
Diane, I had an incredible few days with you guys. One of the many highlights was definitely these bars. I think i’m going to try my hand at making these this weekend. I’m sure they won’t be as good as yours though.
See you guys soon.
Greg (the cousin from DC)
So glad you liked the brownies Greg. Good luck with your baking this weekend.
These were awesome! A co-worker brought them to work and I had to look up the recipe.
I’m a sucker for dark chocoate and have been making a variation of these with dark chocolate for the past year, although I’ve never made bars; just cups. The bitterness of the dark chocolate combined with the peanut butter mix is perfect for those of us who aren’t as into the super sweet. Thanks for the recipes, I’m going to try the bars tonight!
I just made these and put them in the fridge. As I sat down I read more closely and saw that it said confectioner’s sugar not just sugar 🙁 I may be making another batch of these tomorrow. Just thought I would share, they look delicious.
Hi Stacey – please let me know how they turned out using regular sugar. I bet they still taste great, but might not be as creamy as they otherwise would, but that’s just a guess.
I made these almost weekly as a kid and I never tired of them! I love peanut butter and these indulge my PB cravings perfectly! They are fantastic!
These Peanut-Butter-Bars are delicious! And they turned out just like in you photos.
Thank you Diane!
Peanut Butter and chocolate are the best food combination! I just made my first batch and they’re cooling in the fridge… I can’t wait to eat them… maybe putting them in the freezer will hasten the process 🙂
Hi
Greetings from Ireland !!love Reese’s cups! These look fab. Has anyone any idea what I could substitute for the graham crackers as we dont get them here!
thanks
@fiona – as an American living in London, I suggest using your favourite digestive biscuit or McVitie’s Hob Nobs (without chocolate) in lieu of graham crackers. It all depends on how much texture you want in the peanut butter mixture.
Thanks Graham! Much appreciated. Cant wait to try them now.
Actually that should have read ‘thanks Stephen’!…those Graham Crackers still on my mind!
I like them made with Ritz crackers rather than graham, just for the counterpoint of the saltiness.
I tried this recipe last night and it turned out delicious! Thanks for sharing it. BTW I used Ritz crackers as well and enjoyed the change.
YUUUUUUUUUUMMM,,,,peanut butter, what cant it do!!!!!
Stumbled upon this today, and it just made my morning! As a college student with sparse cupboards, I was thrilled to discover that this simple recipe could be accomplished with things we always have around (since no self-respecting college apartment lacks peanut butter, and I make a habit of keeping confectioner’s sugar around for rare moments when I have time to bake, lol). My roommates are ecstatic. Thank you for making our Sunday evening bright!
now im starting to love cookies. Great for the family festives.
Made these for my holiday cookie exchange and LOVE LOVE LOVE!
I made my fourth batch using rice krispies (ran out of graham crumbs) and it worked like a charm!
A great recipe that works really well.
Anything to do with chocolate and peanut butter together has to be good! 🙂 This looks awesome!
Believe it or not they used to make this in our school lunch room back in the seventies. I know they made them in house because I remember seeing the big baking sheets full of the uncut product back in the kitchen. these were the most popular thing period on the ala carte menu :-). I’ve been trying to figure out how they made them for years. Thank you! (hint: until now I’ve been buying the double stuffed Reeses, they taste even more like these if you want to be lazy.) They called them “Peanut Butter Goodies” back in the day.
Wow, these look really good, thanks for sharing!
Mmm these look so good! Here in the UK, only one place near where I live sells these and they are so expensive! Thank you so much for this 🙂 I only have crunchy peanut butter so it might turn out kind of lumpy but I’m sure it will still taste good.
Found this recipe using Stumbleupon, and I just made them. It’s so easy, perfect for the quick sweet tooth fix, and the peanut butter mixture tastes exactly like Reese’s. Thanks so much!
I found this recipe today via stumbleupon.com and I made these, with several changes. Everyone in the house except for me is diabetic so I made some exchanges to try and eliminate as much sugar as possible. Instead of regular confectioner’s sugar, I mixed some Splenda and corn starch in a blender to make sugar-free “powdered sugar” and only used 1 1/4 cups, since Splenda tends to have more of a bitter taste than sugar. I substituted Murray Sugar-Free Vanilla Wafers for the graham cracker crumbs and used only 1/2 cup instead of 3/4 cup. Also, I used Hershey’s Sugar Free Chocolate Chips and Smucker’s Organic Peanut Butter, which has only 1 gram of sugar per serving.
I guess after all of those changes it becomes a different recipe entirely but this served as a really good guideline for ingredient ideas and their proportions! lol And they turned out really great so I hope this helps anyone who needs a more diabetic-friendly recipe 🙂
I love any combination of peanut butter and chocolate…these look awesome! Can’t wait to try them 🙂
these look like HEAVEN!
Have already made these twice for my family. They are delish 🙂
I’m Asian and find that cutting them with a Chinese cleaver works best! I lightly spray the blade with butter-flavored Pam first.
Thanks for the tip!
Diane
These look incredible and looks like it is very easy to make. Thanks for sharing. Love your site — I’m now following you through Goodle Friend Connect.
Judi
I can’t believe it! My mom used to make these at Christmas! I haven’t had them for years! I’m going to make a batch this weekend! Thank you so much for posting!
hi, a post at foodgawker brought me here sometime last week and boy, was i happy! I tried looking around for an e-mail address i could write to you at but this was all i could find, so here’s a link to the ones i made. the peanut butter part was a bit squishy though, next time i might try reducing the butter in it, or maybe up the sugar? still thank you for a fabulous and easy recipe! http://picasaweb.google.com/kranthi.vemulapati/Food#5518257787304789410
I just made these! My husband is addicted to all things peanut butter ( I think he’d love me more if I was made of peanut butter ) and they are so freakin’ good! And easy! And it’s no bake baking, my favourite kind! Only hard part was waiting for them to set in the fridge…..
I’m so glad you liked them Stephanie. Aren’t they easy?