Ooey gooey chocolate chip peanut butter bars…
The Ultimate Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Bars
These chocolate chip peanut butter bars are one of the top most popular recipes on my blog – and for very good reason!
When you need a recipe that both meat eaters and vegans love, these bars are an absolute must-try, because they will never let you down.
Of every dessert I’ve ever made, these peanut butter bars are still one of my go-to recipes for parties, because they’re easy to transport, get rave reviews even from guests who aren’t into healthy eating, and you’re pretty much guaranteed no leftovers by the end of the night.
People go crazy for the soft, gooey, peanut buttery texture and melty chocolate in each delicious bite, and they taste like the lovechild of a chocolate chip cookie and a Reeses peanut butter cup!
*There’s now also a chocolate brownie version, so be sure to try the Brownie Batter Bars!
Above – watch the video of making the peanut butter bars!
The peanut butter bars can be:
Vegan
Keto
Gluten Free
Dairy Free
Sugar Free
Egg Free
Grain Free
Soy Free
Paleo
And Oil Free
(For high-protein peanut butter bars, make these Protein Bars.)
Homemade Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Bars
With chocolate and peanut butter, is it any surprise how good these are?
If Nestlé and Hersheys were to collaborate on a dessert, I’m pretty sure they’d come up with something along the lines of these gooeylicious chocolate chip peanut butter bars.
The recipe was originally adapted from my Vegan Peanut Butter Cookies, and I’ve changed it over the years to make it even better (which I didn’t think was possible, because the original was so good!).
Below is the newest version, which now includes a keto friendly option for those who need it. Everyone should be able to enjoy these crazy delicious peanut butter bars!
(Above, bringing the bars to a party earlier this year. They did not last long!)
If you want a bigger batch, try the popular Ryan Reynolds Blondie Bars.
Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Bars
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup applesauce, or yogurt such as coconutmilk yogurt
- 1 cup peanut butter OR allergy-friendly alternative – nut-free recipe here
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 1/4 cup plus 2 tbsp flour – you can use spelt, white, sorghum, oat, almond, even or buckwheat (50g)
- 2/3 cup granulated sugar of choice or xylitol
- 1/4 cup chocolate chips, optional
- up to 2 tbsp milk of choice, only if needed
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease an 8-inch pan, or line with parchment. Gently heat nut butter if not already stir-able, then stir in the applesauce and vanilla extract. In a separate bowl, stir baking soda, salt, flour, sugar, and chocolate chips. Pour the dry ingredients into the wet and keep stirring—it will seem very dry at first, so you’ll need to break up the nut butter and stop occasionally to scrape it off your spoon. If needed, slowly add up to 2 tbsp milk of choice as you stir. Don’t add more milk; it will eventually get gooey like cookie dough. Transfer the batter to the prepared pan. Smooth down evenly. (I press a second sheet of parchment on top to smooth, then remove this sheet.) Press some chocolate chips into the top if desired. Bake 10 minutes. When you take the peanut butter bars out, the top will look set but they will still be very undercooked underneath. This is okay! Leave them to cool for at least 20 minutes, during which time they will firm up. (They also firm up even more overnight.)View Nutrition Facts
Video
Notes
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I made this today and subbed half the peanut butter for powdered peanut butter & came out great, thanks!
Are you sure only 10 minutes of baking on these? I baked them 10 minutes and they were like soup. I baked them 5 minutes more, waited 20 minutes to cut them and they are still really soupy. I’ve put them in the fridge. 30 minutes later, they are good with a spoon. Ideas?
Have you calibrated your oven? They should be underdone when they come out because they continue to firm up as they sit in the fridge. But mine are cut-able within hours.
Got rained in today, so had nothing better to do than to bake.
This is so yummy and extra dangerous — I might finish the whole pan!
If I use Stevia or Splenda, how much would you recommend, instead of the xylitol? Don’t want to overdo it. Thanks so much!
Love these Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Bars. In order to give the recipe the best chance to succeed with my taste buds, I made them the most traditional way: peanut butter, white flour, granulated white sugar. I have no experience eating or cooking the “exotic” flours and sugar substitutes but plan on buying Spelt Flour, Stevia and Xylitol and substituting them one at a time into recipe repeats until I get them as healthy as possible and still maintain the five star rating. Thank you, Katie for your fab blog.
Hmmm my 5?Rating didn’t show even though I made sure the “box” was checked; trying again.
Bummer, rating still didn’t post. Oh well, recipe is ????? for me!
This does not work with a 10 minute bake time!!! You might as well get a scoop of peanut butter and chocolate chips. I made two because I was taking one to a work potluck. Glad I did mine first and saw it was not firming up. . So I baked the second one longer and it was better. Got good reviews from people at work. The first one is still too gooey to eat with your hands. We’re just using spoons!!
I just made these and they turned out excellent. Next time I’ll experiment by increasing the spelt flour and reducing the PB by a bit.
These are amazing Katie! I subbed mashed banana for the Apple sauce. Thank you for this delicious recipe! One question: do I need to refrigerate them?
I’ve made this 3 times now with a slightly different variation each time. The first time I followed the directions including the optional 2 tbsp of milk and it was way too moist, the second time I did not use the milk and I used more spelt flour then it called for (I didn’t measure but I think it was about 3/4 cup) and it came out perfect. The third time I again didn’t use the milk and used about 1 cup coconut flour, the texture was good but it wasn’t sweet enough guess I should have added more sugar upping the flour like that. I also used different peanut butter each time, first time very generic jiffy, second time ‘peanut butter co.’ and third time ‘justin’s peanut butter.’
God bless you!!!! These are SO SO good. I had cancer and my digestion got all messed up through the whole ordeal. I’m on a gluten, dairy and egg free diet, plus off of anything very seasoned or acidic, and so my food has become very bland. These are so good. They do not taste like special diet food. SUCH a treat!!