Peanut Butter Crunch Bars start with a peanut butter brown sugar cookie layer then they’re topped with a delicious layer of chocolate, peanut butter, and peanuts. You can’t beat it!
Prep Time - 20 minutes
Cook Time - 27 minutes
Total Time - 47 minutes
Servings - 24 servings
Author - Jennifer
Ingredients
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cups dark brown sugar
1 cup butter
1/3 cup crunchy peanut butter
1 egg yolk
1 tsp vanilla
For the Topping
1/2 cup crunchy peanut butter
1/2 cup chopped roasted peanuts
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
Instructions
- In small bowl, stir together topping ingredients. Set aside.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- In large bowl, stir together flour and sugar. Using a hand mixer, mix in the softened butter, egg yolk, and vanilla. Press mixture into bottom of a 15x10x1-inch baking pan. Bake 25 minutes.
- Remove pan from oven and cool about 5 minutes.
- Drop topping by teaspoonfuls at even intervals over the warm crust. Return to oven for about 2 minutes to melt the chocolate.
- Remove from oven and use a spatula to spread the topping all over the crust. Cool. While still slightly warm, loosen edges with a spatula. Refrigerate until chocolate topping is firm enough to cut into bars.
KEY TO SUCCESS #1 – DON’T OVERMIX THE COOKIE BASE
Peanut Butter Crunch Bars have a peanut butter brown sugar cookie base that is full of flavor on its own. But then it’s topped with lots of chocolate, peanut butter, and roasted peanuts to make a sweet and salty chocolate layer.
For the cookie base layer, you’ll start with brown sugar and flour then mix in softened butter, peanut butter, an egg yolk, and vanilla. The mixture will be slightly crumbly. That’s what makes the cookie layer so flaky and tender.
Press the cookie crust mixture into the bottom of a 15x10x1-inch pan. This size pan is commonly known as a jelly roll pan. You could also use a half sheet pan for this recipe if you have that size pan. A 13×9-inch pan will not work for this recipe.
KEY TO SUCCESS #2 – DOT THE TOPPING ON
The topping for these Peanut Butter Crunch Bars is a mixture of peanut butter, chocolate chips, and roasted peanuts. You mix the ingredients together in a small bowl then set them aside until the crust comes out of the oven. It won’t look like much at this point, but just wait!
After the crust is baked, you’ll pull it out of the oven them immediately drop the topping by tiny spoonfuls all across the crust. Just scoop little drops of topping and lay them all over the crust. Then pop the pan back into the oven for just a couple of minutes until the topping melts.
After the topping comes back out of the oven, use a spatula or even the back of a spoon to spread the topping all the way to the edges of the crust. It should be melted enough that it spreads easily and doesn’t disrupt the cookie layer.
KEY TO SUCCESS #3 – LOOSEN EDGES WHILE STILL WARM
Before the Peanut Butter Crunch Bars have completely cooled, you’ll want to be sure to run a spatula around the edges of the pan to loosen the crust up a bit. The crust is fairly firm when completely cool so you may have trouble getting the bars out of the pan if you skip this step.
After you loosen the crust up, you can put the entire pan into the refrigerator for an hour or more until the chocolate has cooled and firmed up. Then it’s time to cut them into bars. I use a large, sharp knife to cleanly cut through both layers.
Be sure to store your Peanut Butter Crunch Bars in an air-tight container.
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