These No Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars taste like Reece’s peanut butter cups! A soft peanut butter biscuit base topped with a peanut butter flavoured chocolate, all you need are 5 ingredients: biscuits, butter, chocolate, peanut butter and sugar.
This is the ultimate emergency sweet-treat!
NO BAKE Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars
When it comes to sweet treats, these No Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars are probably what I make the most often because it’s so quick to pull together, no bake, and WHO DOESN’T LOVE PEANUT BUTTER CUPS???
Plus, I almost always have everything I need to make these. Even though biscuits aren’t part of my weekly shop, usually if I dig deep into the giant baskets into which I toss everything that doesn’t have an obvious dedicated position in the pantry, then usually I’ll find some sort of biscuit suitable to use.
A month past the due by date, perhaps. Pffff! That’s fine. Everyone knows that the used by date for things like dried goods are conservative. Right? 😜
And actually, here’s proof of how frequently I make these: I just realised as I was pulling together the photos for this post how they don’t fit together like a set, and it’s because I shot them all on different days.
The photos you see in this post are from 3 different batches where I snapped a quick photo thinking hmm, I really should re-publish these Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars recipe with a video soon, and finally I got my butt into gear and actually did it.
Albeit I’ve ended up with a weird set of photos from three different days. Four actually – because the step photos were taken while making the recipe video! 🙈
This Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars recipe truly is pure gold. It was given to me by a reader, the lovely Dorothy from Tennessee, way back when I started this blog. It’s only 5 ingredients – crackers, peanut butter, chocolate, icing sugar (confectionary sugar) and butter. That’s it.
And it’s NO BAKE. Waiting for it to set is the hardest part of this recipe.
I usually approach “5 ingredient” recipes with caution. I find that many “5 Ingredient” recipes I see usually include a store bought sauce or similar. Like 5 ingredient BBQ chicken which includes a “bottle of your favourite barbecue sauce”.
When I see recipes like that, I instantly think that’s cheating!! 😂
Please don’t ask me why in my twisted mind, this counts as a 5 ingredient recipe “made from scratch” even though it is made using crackers. It just is.
#FemaleLogic
– Nagi x
For the Peanut Butter Obsessed
Peanut Butter Caramel Pie – dangerously easy, outrageously decadent
3 Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies – just 3 ingredients!
More irresistible bars and slices
Brownies!! AND Salted Caramel Stuffed Brownies – ooh la la!
Caramel Slice (aka Millionaire’s Bar!) – the great Aussie favourite!
Strawberry Bars – made with tons of fresh strawberries!
Easiest Ever Raspberries Jam Bars and Lemon Bars
And more emergency sweet treats – 3 Ingredient Desserts!!
1 ingredient Dulce de Leche – Slow Cooker Caramel
Classic Scones – and faster Lemonade Scones – both 3 ingredients!
WATCH HOW TO MAKE IT
Sometimes it helps to have a visual so watch me make these Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars!
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5 Ingredient Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars (NO BAKE!)
Ingredients
Base
- 115g / 1/2 cup / 1 US stick melted salted butter (or unsalted butter + 1/4 tsp salt)
- 1 cup crushed Arnott’s Marie crackers (11 crackers) or graham cracker crumbs (8 crackers) (Note 1)
- 1 cup icing sugar / powdered sugar
- 3/4 cup peanut butter (smooth)
Topping
- 1 cup dark chocolate chips – the melting kind (US: semi sweet) (Note 2)
- 2 tbsp peanut butter (smooth)
Instructions
- Butter and line a 8″ / 20cm square dish or pan with baking paper.
- Place the Base ingredients in a bowl and mix until combined. Press into the prepared pan.
- Melt the Topping ingredients (I do it in the microwave in 2 x 30 second bursts). Pour and spread over the Base – smooth the top or do swirls (see photos for examples of each).
- Refrigerate until set – about 1 1/2 hours. Remove from fridge, allow to come to room temp slightly (so top cuts neatly). Cut into 16 squares (or whatever shape you want!). Best served at room temperature.
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
This Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars recipe was originally published January 2018. Updated for some housekeeping matters in October 2018, no change to recipe!
LIFE OF DOZER
That time he snuck on mum’s couch and we wondered how many cushions we could pile on him. We ran out of cushions.
Hi Nagi! You are too kind! But I have to agree that it doesn’t get much easier or better than these “alternative” Reese’s! 🙂
Dorothy, I honestly cannot tell you the ridiculous number of times I have made this!! 🙂 Thank you again for this recipe. Game changer in my “sweets” repertoire which is quite small!! 🙂
These look fantastic – I’m marveling over their clean, precise lines! I’m totally okay with crackers being listed as an ingredient, but I’m totally with you about feeling cheated when one of a 5-ingredient recipe is something like enchilada sauce or cake mix. The difference, in my opinion, is that it’s not unreasonable to have to throw together some extra ingredients to make up an enchilada sauce, but no one wants bake homemade crackers just to crush them up into a crust.
That’s that’s so true…I didn’t think of it like that!! It totally doesn’t make sense to make biscuits simply to crush them. Thanks for validating my logic!! 🙂