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These no-bake peanut butter bars have a thick layer of sweet oatmeal and a rich and fudgy chocolate peanut butter center. They’re very similar to your favorite no-bake cookie recipe, but they’re in bar form!
Well, how was it?
Did you enjoy your Mother’s Day with lots of extra pampering and breakfast in bed?
My kiddos snuck a humongous card into my room in the middle of the night so that I would see it first thing this morning. In the card they wrote, “Love you mom. You’re irreplaceable and so is our love for you.” Aaaaaand, then I cried, because how do I have such adorable children?
Later my daughter made me a second card and put a $20 bill in it as a gift. Ha. That girl cracks me up, but I didn’t keep her money. She’s normally a stingy little thing, so I was pretty honored that she’d offer her limited supply of cash up, though.
We hosted Mother’s Day dinner at our new house. We’ve only been here a week and we had 23 people over for dinner. Things went pretty smoothly and I’m calling our first round of entertaining in the dream home a major success!
I hope you guys all enjoyed your day too. I know it can be a tough day for a lot of you, but I hope it was the best it could be and you were surrounded by loved ones.
We had quite a bit of dessert yesterday, of course. Any excuse for extra dessert! One of the treats I made was these No Bake Bars! They’re super similar to your standard no bake cookies, but I mixed the recipe up a bit by turning them into bars. There is an oatmeal layer, topped with a fudgy chocolate peanut butter layer, and then another layer of oatmeal. I think these are best straight from the fridge, but they hold up well at room temperature too. I love how quick they are to whip up.
I originally shared this recipe on the blog back in 2009 and it was one of my most popular recipes for a long time. The photos aren’t that great, though, so I thought I’d bring them up from the archives and give them a little makeover.
No Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Oatmeal Bars
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup butter
- 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 cups quick cooking oats
- 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1/2 cup peanut butter
Instructions
- Melt butter in a large sauce pan over low heat. Stir in brown sugar, vanilla, and oats. Cook for 3 to 4 minutes. Press half of mixture in to the bottom of a buttered 8 x 8 dish.
- In a microwave safe bowl, microwave the chocolate and peanut butter, stirring every 30 seconds until melted and blended. Pour the chocolate peanut butter mixture over the crust.
- Sprinkle the remaining oat mixture over the chocolate and peanut butter, pressing gently to form a crust.
- Refrigerate for 3 hours before cutting and serving.
gwen says
would be awesome on a cookie tray thanks for sharing
Karly says
Thanks, Gwen!
Susan says
Have made these quite a few times and everyone LOVES them!!!!! Not only delicious, but easy and pretty. A couple questions I do have are “How long can you keep them in the fridge?” And “Can you freeze them?” Thx Karly!
Karly says
Hi Susan! I think these would last in the fridge for at least a week, maybe a bit longer. We tend to eat them pretty fast though. 😉 I’ve never frozen them before, but I think they’d freeze great!
Tex2flo says
This is now my go-to dish at my book club. I add grains of sea salt for a modern crunch twist. My friends say, “Don’t show up without that snack!”