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 these for my boss’ birthday at work today and everyone was raving! They couldn’t believe something vegan and GF tasted so good, lol! The GF folks were happy too 🙂
Hey, was wondering if the peanut butter aspect can be taken out? Or maybe replaced with golden syrup etc. Thanks!
Made using applesauce, unbleached all purpose flour, half sugar & half stevia (stevia in the raw brand) & dark chocolate chips. Such an easy recipe and my favorite so far from Chocolate Covered Katie! The only problem with these is not eating too many. They are unbelievably gooey, rich, & decadent. They get devoured at parties, & no one would guess they are far healthier than most baked goods!
Made these, they’re pretty good. Something about the flavor doesn’t jive. I used Fage 5% Greek Yogurt, Truvia granulated sweetener, almond flour and chunky natural peanut butter. Hope they firm up overnight!
Probably the truvia, because artificial sweeteners just don’t always get masked in recipes very well. Otherwise it’s just peanut butter and chocolate chips and flour, so there’s really not any other thing that could cause a strange flavor I don’t think. Jason
Peanut butter squares insanely good- hard not to eat all of dough before popping in oven. Thank you Katie!
Could i use coconut flour for these?
You probably could but would have to just use much less because it absorbs so much liquid and a little goes a long way. Be sure to report back if you try!
Vidéo link doesn’t seem to be working
Hi, sorry you caught it just at the bad time! To get the video to actually send out in emails, Katie posts it this way right before the email goes out, because otherwise it just shows up as a blank space in the email. It should be working now! Jason (media relations)
Any problem if I use a mixer?
We honestly haven’t ever tried, but be sure to report back if you experiment!
Very late to the party on this one but just got an email with this recipe yesterday. Thought it was a brand new one. LOL.
Made 2 batches- one for my hubby who is GF and doesn’t do ? along with one son and did another one for the rest of the family.
Still gooey after overnight but it fine. We Like rolling them into a ball. LOL
I actually prefer my hubby’s batch. They both turned out well. For his I used old Buckwheat flour that we have had for a few years. (Finally have a use for that flour) almond butter with a little cashew butter, needed 1 tbs of almond milk. Also use evaporated cane sugar, and real Mexican vanilla.
***My oven bakes cooler so I always have it at 375 when a recipe calls for 350 and I baked it for 13 minutes. I baked one batch at a time. Also we use the sugar-free dark mini chocolate chips.
With the family batch I ran out of regular creamy peanut butter so we use chunky peanut butter and one tablespoon of regular 2% milk along with the same kind of vanilla and evaporated cane sugar and white non-GMO flour.
so this one really has the peanut taste because of the chunks of peanuts in it. Maybe that’s why I’m not a fan of this batch and prefer my hubby’s.
In picture the darker ones on the left are the GF, peanut free ones and the ones on the right are the peanut, white flour ones.
I love your picture so much, and I laughed at the flour comment because I have a package of chickpea flour in my fridge that has the same thing – never any idea what to do with it!
Omg these look so delicious ?
Wanna make them now for me and my friends! So easy to make, so it’s just perfect ??
Lots of love,
Bianca ❤️