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)
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I just stumbled upon your recipe, and as a huge reese’s peanut butter cup fan, I ran to the grocery store to find the missing ingredients in order to make these! They’re cooling in the fridge as I’m writing, and it’s such a pain to wait…
Waiting for these to cool is soooo hard! Thanks for an awesome/easy recipe 🙂
I’ve made this recipe several times now. My husband is a huge fan and for a while there I was making it every couple of days. I now just double the batch when I make them, and they still don’t last long. Thank you for sharing this!!
These look fab! I live in the UK and not enough places stock Reeces so I would love to make these! Only problem is we don’t have Graham Crackers either – what are they? Crackers here are a savoury thing that we would eat with cheese. Hope you can help!
Great, thanks
Hi,
The closest thing to a graham cracker that I can think of is a digestive biscuit. They’re not exactly the same, but they should work pretty well in this recipe. Good luck!
Okay who’s making them first? I don’t care the airport is mins from me…
mmm DELICIOUS! Even better than reeses
I just made these and theyre delicious! Just don’t use all these measurements for a 9×12 pan..its all I had clean haha. Its wayy too spread out and you don’t get results as pretty as your picture.. Still tasty, just not thick enough.
I stumbled upon this recipe and as i needed something to make for dessert tonight anyway, i decided to give these a try! They look awesome! The only thing i did differently was use crushed up nilla wafers instead of graham crackers.. just because that’s what i had on hand. great recipe 🙂
Lol are these the same ones they gave you at lunch everyday in high school?
I Stumbled this about an hour ago and decided to make them for my boyfriend’s birthday. He isn’t a huge fan of cake, but loves Reese’s, so it’s perfect. The bars are cooling in the fridge right now. The warm peanut butter mixture alone… incredible. If I had less willpower, I think I could devour it in one sitting.
Thanks for the recipe!
OMG these are heaven. They taste exactly like Reeses and I always keep these ingredients on hand. Great. I’ll probably weigh a ton now.
These were AWESOME and easy! Tasted like homemade Reeses PB cups. I made these today with my 3 yr old son. To make it easier just melt the butter in the microwave in whatever micro safe dish your going to end up putting the bars in the fridge with so that you dont have to bother spreading them anywhere. I also meleted the chips in the micro and didnt bother with buttering the plastic container I used and it didnt stick.
This reminds me of reeses chocolate but this one is much more tastier.
We use to have these in the lunchroom in Junior High School, I can not wait to make them today!
This was a great recipe! I ended up doubling the recipe so that the bars were as thick as shown in the pictures and I doubled the chocolate topping as well so it was nice and thick. The squares were a hit with my boyfriend and my family.
Thanks Diane! I’m so glad you liked them!
I must say that these look very good. Nice photos by the way, makes your mouth water 🙂
I made these, but I didn’t have enough peanut butter. So I ended up using 1/4 c creamy peanut butter, 1/4 cup crunchy peanut butter, and 1/2 cup nutella. I also used more chocolate chips for the topping because 1/2 cup wasn’t enough to spread.
The crunchy peanut butter added a nice crunch to the bars and the nutella made them a bit more interesting flavor wise than a peanut butter cup. Sooo delicious, I will make these again. Perhaps the correct way next time to see which I like better.
Kimberly – Nutella sounds like an excellent addition to these bars. I might have to try them your way next time.
You should call these Disappearing Peanut Butter Cup bars because when we brought them to a potluck this weekend, they were gone fast! We made ours gluten free with GF graham crackers (kinnikinnick s’morables). Nice not to have to turn the oven on! A keeper recipe.
I’m so glad you liked the recipe!
There was some recipe book that came out a few years ago where they picked apart every popular restaurant and candy recipe in America, it was simply THE best. They picked apart Reese’s and so forth.
Thanks for bringing this to our attention. I’m a HUGE Reese’s fan!
wow! I made these a few days ago, they were a hit! We were going to make them for desert, but they didn’t last that long . . . We ate them all before that!! l.o.l. We are about to them again! My family and I are huge Reese’s fans, we loved them!!! 🙂
It was late at night and I really wanted a snack. I didn’t have any ingredients to make anything. Somehow I stumbled upon this page and realized I had the ingredients already (I always have these ingredients in my house). So I got right to it and made them. They are AMAZING. They taste EXACTLY like Reeses! My family loves them, especially my mom whose favorite candy is Reeses. Thank you for sharing! :o)
I’m so glad you had all of the ingredients on hand and that you liked them! I haven’t made them in a while. I think it’s time.
Hey! I noticed that this calls for two different things of butter, but it then does not tell you what to do with the 1/2 cup of butter. Is there something that is suppose to be there. Not butter?
the 1/4 cup butter is supposed to be melted with the chocolate chips for the topping.
Not going to lie, I just made these and I put them in the freezer so they cool faster. 🙂 Brilliant recipe! And super easy!
Just made these but used pulsed fibre one bran cereal in place of the graham crumbs……sooooo good and a little bit of a “healthy” ingredient to justify eating them all!!
Made these last night and they are already gone 😉 Great recipe
They’re called buckeye bars in Ohio! There really good.
These are great! I added shredded coconut to the top (so it sort of stuck to the chocolate) because my 5 yr. old loves coconut, and they are yummmmmy!!
Needed a quick recipe for tonight, got company coming at the last minute. However I am afraid the men in the house who looooovvvve peanut butter cups will end up hording them and will not share any with the company! Can’t wait to try it! I do have to say licking the bowl was very inspirational!
Love your recipe and blog. Great how you responded to so many comments + so quickly. I used to purchase a wedge of what looks like this, when I? used to have jobs in Malibu, CA. (I’m a Baby Nurse, so you work a couple weeks or months at each job.) I don’t remember graham cracker crumbs in it (or any other type of crumbs) It also had a layer of chocolate on top + bottom. I will double or triple the chocolate + try this.
Thanks for your comment Tracy. Please let me know how yours turn out if you double or triple the chocolate.
Diane
Most excellent recipe and I have learned to make double batches EVERY TIME. Boss loves it, and a great way to make people smile. Tasty treat that people love, and lets them know you appreciate them! Thank you!
Made these tonight. They are cooling right now. Kids are excited to eat em up! I used milk chocolate chips and doubled the chocolate part…
These look out of this world!!! Thanks for sharing
My mom made these for the family and they are absolutely delicious!! The crunchy graham crackers make them better than Reece’s!
Yummy, also in the UK like one of your other commentors so will give this a try with digestives as suggested, can’t wait to try!
These are my FAVORITES!!! I am also required to bring them to each family get together for my brother-in-law. I gave the recipe to my sister, but she said I make them better, so I am known as the “peanut butter bar specialist”. 🙂
Made these tonight, didnt have graham cracker crumbs so use oreo cookie crumbs instead. Colour is obviously not the same but the taste was delicious nevertheless! Much quicker to put together than peanut butter balls dipped in chocolate and just as yummy! thanks!
@Nathalie – They sound delicious with an oreo crust. Yum.
I made them tonight and added a mini peanut butter cup on the top of each piece… yummy!
@Sam – ooooh, that sounds delicious!
i made these. absolutely delish~ oh ya, did i mention how good these are? yum-O!!!!
These were easy to make and delicious. The graham cracker crumbs give the filling a satisfying crunch. Is this your post with the most comments ever?
I’ve made two pans of these bars and they disappear in no time. I used milk chocolate instead of semi sweet. It definitely didn’t hurt. Anyway, I’m about to say goodbye to a third pan.