No Bake Peanut Butter Bars take only 5 ingredients and 10 minutes (plus chilling time). My Grandma calls them âAlmost Reeseâsâ for good reason!
Here is a delightfully simple candy recipe with that eternally delicious combination: Chocolate and Peanut Butter. With 5 ingredients and about 10 minutes, you can be on your way to a batch of homemade âAlmost Reeseâsâ!
My grandma coined the term âAlmost Reeseâsâ for obvious reasons (she also gave us this chocolate cream pie; thanks Grandma!). These luscious bars are perfect for the holiday parties, for gift-giving, or for a Friday night at home.
Just try to stop eating them.
The recipe calls for milk chocolate chips and those would most closely align with a traditional Reeseâs Peanut Butter Cup. However, I have always preferred dark chocolate so I made my chocolate-covered peanut butter bars with semi-sweet chocolate chips. Delicious!
I have an informal poll going that men prefer milk chocolate and women prefer dark chocolate. Am I right? Please leave your chocolate preference in the comments below.
By the way, these bars have to chill for at least a few hours, preferably overnight. Make your next party less stressful by preparing these the day before! Or, freeze for up to 2 months in advance and thaw overnight in the refrigerator.
Save these No-Bake Peanut Butter Bars to your âDessertsâ Pinterest board!
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No Bake Peanut Butter Bars
No Bake Peanut Butter Bars take only 5 ingredients and 10 minutes (plus chilling time). My Grandma calls them "Almost Reese's" for good reason!
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 3 hours 10 minutes
Total Time 3 hours 15 minutes
- 1 ½ cups brown sugar
- 1 ¾ cups powdered sugar
- 10 tablespoons butter divided
- 1 ½ cups peanut butter
- 1 cup milk chocolate chips or semi-sweet chocolate chips
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Line an 8-inch or 9-inch square pan with aluminum foil (see notes).
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In a large microwave-safe dish, melt 5 Tablespoons butter. Stir in brown sugar, powdered sugar, and peanut butter. Mix well and press into prepared pan.
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Wipe out microwave-safe dish and heat chocolate chips and remaining 5 tablespoons butter for 1 minute. Stir carefully and continue to microwave in 30-second increments until smooth, stirring after each increment. Pour over peanut butter crust and spread evenly.
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Chill until completely firm, at least 3 hours or overnight. Let stand 10 minutes at room temperature before serving. Store leftovers in the refrigerator.
Lining the pan with aluminum foil is optional. In theory this should make it easier to extract the bars from the pan, but I didn't have any trouble when I made and photographed the bars above for this post. So, you can still get clean edges without the foil.
If for some reason you find you have no brown sugar on hand when you set out to make these, you can substitute 1 1/2 cups sugar + 1 1/2 T. molasses. In the pre-chilled state, the molasses flavor will be strong and noticeable (just in case you happen to taste the peanut butter mixture!). But, after they are chilled, the flavor is indistinguishable from store-bought brown sugar.
Based on these notes, you can confidently assume that I set out to make these bars WITHOUT aluminum foil on hand and WITHOUT brown sugar in my pantry. :)
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