Peanut Butter Bars

I haven't posted a recipe for a while, so I thought I'd throw one your way. I actually took the pictures for this MONTHS ago but never posted it. This week, though, we celebrated our student worker's birthday and I took this for the carry-in because I actually had all the ingredients on hand. I hoped to take home the leftovers for dinner, but there were about 2.1 servings plus some random crumbs left by the end of the day. It is THAT good.

One of the things I love most about this recipe is that I do almost always have everything I need to make it, and it can be made in ten minutes flat, start to finish (if you have the graham cracker crumbs and don't have to make your own). It's done totally in the microwave, so if you're making this in the summer, it doesn't heat up the house!

I think I first got this from a magazine, and I've taken it to committee meetings, parties with friends, work carry-ins, you name it. It's a great "little" dessert too, so when you don't want to mess with a huge pan of dessert that never ends...this is a great choice. Warning - it's awfully rich, especially if you use milk chocolate chips!

The Recipe:

1/2 cup melted butter
1 1/4 cup graham cracker crumbs
1 1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 package chocolate chips

Melt butter. Stir in graham cracker crumbs and powdered sugar. Once it is mixed well, stir in peanut butter. Pat into an 8X8 inch pan. Melt chocolate chips in microwave and pour over mixture. Refrigerate until hardened – about 15 minutes. Cut into bars.


I despise making crumbs out of cookies and crackers. So normally, if I find a recipe that calls for that - I move on to the next recipe. :) But since you can actually purchase graham cracker crumbs, I make an exception here. You can use milk chocolate or semi-sweet chips - whatever your preference.
I measure out the graham cracker crumbs over a paper towel so I don't have to clean up a huge mess when I'm done.

While the butter melts in the microwave, I stir together the powdered sugar and graham cracker crumbs. Then I'm ready to mix in the butter...

...which makes everything kind of crumbly.

Then it's time to add the peanut butter. I use creamy but if you're fond of crunchy, you could use that too.

I stir that for a while with a spoon, but I never feel like that really mixes it up properly.

So...I move to mixing with my hand. I never have plastic gloves on hand and I really don't want crumb goop under my nails, so I put my hand in a baggie to do this step. So cafeteria lady, I know.

Then I pat that part down in the bottom of the dish.

Sometimes I don't use the whole bag of chips because it makes the top part awfully thick and hard to cut.

I stir it every few seconds in the microwave just to make sure it's all melting evenly and not burning.

Then...spread it out and pop it in the fridge to harden! You do need at LEAST 15 minutes of cooling time - maybe more if you use milk chocolate chips. But don't leave it in there too long or the chocolate will crack when you try to cut it. Once it's done, cut into squares and serve. (Hint...if you start to cut it and the chocolate top is hard to cut through, put it back in the microwave for 20 seconds or so to soften it up enough to cut.) Tastes remarkably like a Reese cup!