These Reese’s peanut Butter Bars only take a few ingredients and you don’t even have to bake them. The best part? They taste just like Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. Seriously, they’ll make you swoon.
Ingredient Notes
- Graham Crackers – Do you seem to always have an opened package of graham crackers that are a little stale? Those will work just as well as fresh ones here!
- Peanut Butter – Smooth or creamy peanut butter both work here, but this recipe is written with standard peanut butter in mind, not natural peanut butter which has a different texture.
- Shortening – a small amount of vegetable shortening is melted into chocolate chips for the topping. The shortening prevents the chocolate from hardening completely. I love a tip from one of our readers- if you’d like to leave the shortening out, replace it with a spoon of peanut butter. The topping will stay soft this way and as a bonus you get some more peanut buttery goodness!
- Butter – Use real (salted) butter here!
How To Make Reese’s Peanut Butter Bars
- Start with some crushed graham crackers. If you’re like me and find half-eaten packs in the back of your pantry that are too stale for eating, they work great.
- Then in goes powdered sugar and some peanut butter. Chunky or smooth peanut butter will work, but I think smooth is better.
- And just in case something made out of powdered sugar, graham crackers and peanut butter isn’t good enough, let’s add a bunch of melted butter. To be on the safe side.
- Next, press it into a pan. Line it with something (parchment, foil, waxed paper) to make your life easier a couple hours from now.
- Set that aside and get out some chocolate chips. Melt them in the microwave with a bit of shortening to make it easier to work with. *Tip: Love this tip from one you readers! Instead of adding shortening to the chocolate topping, add a scoop of peanut butter. That will prevent the top from getting solid and it will taste yummy!
- Keep melting until it’s nice and smooth
- And then dump it on top of the peanut butter mixture.
Let’s do it in slow motion just for dramatic effect.
There it goes…
That’s the good stuff right there.
Now spread it out nice and smooth and pop that pan in the fridge.
The trick is to let the bars chill until the chocolate is just set so it’s still easy to cut. Otherwise you get a soft bottom and a really hard top, so you just smash everything. However, if you happen to let it chill all the way, it’s not the end of the world, I actually did that with this batch pictured. The trick then is to use a sharp serrated knife and score the cuts a few times until you cut all the way through. It works great!
Once the bars are cut, they can go back into the fridge to set all the way.
Or you can just eat them. You’ll probably want to just eat them.
Serving Suggestions
Are you craving peanut butter? You might like these other recipes!
- Peanut Butter and Jam Cookie Bars
- Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies
- Chocolate-Frosted Peanut butter Cookie Bars
- Giant Loaded Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies
- Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies
- Big Giant Peanut butter Cookie
Want to provide guests a peanut-free alternative to these for an event? Check out these other fantastic dessert bars from Our Best Bites:
- Oatmeal M&M Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
- Frosted Sugar Cookie Bars with Fluffy Buttercream Frosting
- Raspberry-Almond Cookie Bars
- Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
- Lime Bars with Coconut Shortbread Crust
- Caramel Apple Cheesecake Bars
FAQs
- Can I use dairy free substitutes/ natural peanut butter/ gluten free graham crackers? I get these questions a lot! This is one recipe that has not been tested with alternative ingredients. As noted above, traditional peanut butter probably works best texture-wise over natural peanut butter. Gluten free graham crackers will likely be ok if you want to give them a try. As for dairy substitutions, your best bet is to use a butter substitute that has a similar fat content and texture to butter. Coconut oil often works well, but you will need to add an extra pinch of salt and possibly a few drops of butter flavoring. If you try any substitutions, let me know how they work out so I can update this post for others!
- Can I use an alternative to peanut butter? Short answer: you could. Longer answer: In general, I have found that recipes that rely heavily on peanut butter are just not the same when other nut butters are used as a substitute. Your best bet would be to choose a recipe that was specifically written using a different nut butter, or to take a look at the Serving Suggestions section above for a list of other delicious peanut-free bars from Our Best Bites!
Did You Make This?
I’d love to hear from you! Snap a picture and tag me on Instagram, and then come back and give this recipe a rating!
Reese’s Peanut Butter Bars {No Bake!}
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cup graham cracker crumbs
- 1 pound 3 1/2 cups powdered sugar
- 1 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
- 1 cup 2 sticks real butter, melted
- 1 12- ounce bag chocolate chips milk, semi-sweet, or dark, you pick!
- 2 teaspoons shortening
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl, combine graham cracker crumbs, powdered sugar, peanut butter and butter and beat until combined. Press into a parchment (or waxed paper or foil) lined 9×13 pan.
- Place chocolate chips and shortening in a microwave safe bowl and heat in 30 second intervals, stirring after each one, until melted and smooth. Pour chocolate over peanut butter mixture and spread out evenly. Place pan in the fridge just until chocolate is set and then cut into bars.
Notes
- If the bars chill until the chocolate is too hard to easily cut, use a sharp knife and score the cuts first, then gently cut through. Can be stored in the fridge or at room temp. They will stay firmer if stored in the fridge.
- Love this tip from one of our readers: Instead of adding shortening to the chocolate topping, add a scoop of peanut butter. That will prevent the top from getting solid and it will taste yummy!
Questions & Reviews
I’ve made something similar to this before, but I’m definitely going to give these a go… I’m catering my daughter’s sweet 16 party (almost 100 guests) and I’m looking for little sweets for the dessert table…Thank you for posting this oh so sweet and easy dessert….
Great square but use milk chocolate instead of semi-sweet. Doesn’t even need the chocolate and this is from a die hard chocoholic. Great from the fridge chilled and at least a couple hours to marry the flavour. Easily cut and attractive plus little time to make. Great square but not quite Reese’s. Missing the salty aspect.
Tastes more like a crispy crunch bar
These are great. I’ve used this recipe before. But, I find it’s less sugary if you use natural unsweetened peanut butter. Having sweetened peanut butter AND powdered sugar is just too much. For me anyway. But I love this recipe it’s JUST like a reese cup.
These were way too sweet! I would knock the sugar back to about two cups if I were to make them again. Seriously, I like me some sweets but ugh these were too much, I couldn’t eat them.
I absolutely adore this recipe! My grandmother makes these every year for Christmas, and I’ve never been able to snake the recipe from her. So imagine how ecstatic I was to find it on your website! But the best part is I actually turned it into homemade Tag-alongs by putting your sugar cookies on the bottom and taking out the graham crackers, absolute perfection! Thank you so much!
Those were great, thanks! What a genius idea. I sprinkled sea salt on some of them to be fancy, and that turned out pretty good, too. Next time I’ll leave bigger graham chunks for more crispy goodness.
Nothing better than a Reeses…lol I found that using Reeses Peanut Butter in jars is the best and makes it more authentic. I found this place and they seem to be the cheapest http://www.peanutbutterreeses.com try not to buy all the other Reeses they have. My girlfriend nearly killed me after spending almost $200 there 🙂
I’ve been making these bars for quite some time, and agree to their absolute deliciousness. I have found that substituting creamy peanut butter for the shortening when melting the chocolate chips makes for even creamier choc topping, and adds to the flavor rather than just the fat content… Plus my lazy side loves getting out 1 less ingredient! Thanks for the great recipe, always a fave with my family!
These sound delicious! I would like to make these non-dairy. Do you think they will come out well if I substitute oil for the butter?
Since they’re not baked, I don’t think the flavor would taste very good with oil, but you could try it.
I tried substituting peanut oil for the butter. My husband and I thought they tasted great (maybe not as great as they would have been with butter, but still delicious), but the consistency was too mushy. I made a second batch recently with coconut oil, since coconut oil is solid at room temperature. The second batch came out perfectly! They are delicious, and cut into squares nicely. Thanks for the recipe, it’s now one of our favorite desserts!
I made this as soon as I seen it and it is amazing. This will definatly be a holiday dessert at my house!!!