These bars are my heaven.
They’re everything I want in a bar. I had to hide them from myself.
There’s something about supremely chewy, thick, and dense cereal bars that I just go for. I always have.
They’re no-bake and come together in the microwave in less than 5 minutes. So fast and easy to make and no need to heat up the house with a hot oven.
They’re vegan and gluten-free. There’s no butter or flour, but you’d never guess it because they’re exceedingly buttery-tasting and rich.
There’s an abundance of peanut butter and chocolate. Always a win.
The chocolate layer stays softer, fudgier, and isn’t prone to cracking or setting up too hard, courtesy of a couple tablespoons of shortening.
It’s a little trick I’ve learned.
They remind me of my beloved Special K Bars, my grandma’s recipe, which I included it in my cookbook because I love them so much. That recipe makes a bigger pan and involves a bit of stovetop cooking, whereas just two minutes in the microwave is all you need here to melt together peanut butter and sugars.
The saucy mixture then drenches cereal in a sweet, brown sugary, caramel-vanilla heaven. I used tablespoon of homemade vanilla extract just to be sure it was noticeable.
The bars are loaded with chewy texture from the cereal and are soft, but they still hold their shape and don’t turn into a gooey mess.
They’re sort of a cousin to Rice Krispies Treats, replacing marshmallows with peanut butter. And you could likely use crushed Frosted Flakes or Corn Flakes. I have a Frosted Flakes Bar recipe in my cookbook because yes, I love cereal bars.
If you need a last minute dessert that takes just minutes to make, try these. Especially if you need them for an event where vegan or gluten-free options may be welcome.
Let’s pretend that because they’re vegan and gluten-free that they’re healthy and we can eat half the pan in a sitting.
I loved these. They’re one of my favorite bars I’ve made in 2013.
My husband also loved them. He’s sort of immune to all sweets and treats I make, but these were keepers for him, too.
The only person who didn’t go crazy with them was my 6 year old. She’s missing her two front teeth and chomping is difficult. She’s been enjoying No-Ice-Cream-Maker Funfetti Cake Batter Golden Oreo Ice Cream instead.
I proudly claim those chomp marks as my doing.
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Chewy Peanut Butter and Chocolate Cereal Bars
Ingredients
Bars
- 1 heaping cup creamy peanut butter, use Jif, Skippy, or similar; do not use natural or homemade peanut butter
- ½ cup light corn syrup, light colored, not lite
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- ¼ cup light brown sugar, packed
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 3 cups Rice Krispies cereal, or similar crispy rice cereal that’s vegan/GF
Chocolate Topping
- 1 ½ heaping cups semi-sweet chocolate chips, melted
- 2 tablespoons vegetable shortening, optional but highly recommended to keep chocolate smooth; see below
- ¼ cup creamy peanut butter, melted
Instructions
- For the Bars – Line an 8-inch square pan with aluminum foil leaving overhang, spray with cooking spray; set aside.
- In a large microwave-safe bowl, combine 1 heaping cup peanut butter, corn syrup, sugars, and heat on high power for 1 minute to melt.
- Stop to stir. Mixture will be on the granular side, this is okay.
- Return bowl to microwave and heat for 1 more minute on high power.
- Stir in the vanilla.
- Stir in the cereal.
- Turn mixture out into prepared pan, packing it down somewhat firmly with a spatula and smoothing the top; set pan aside.
- For the Chocolate Topping – In a medium microwave-safe bowl, combine chocolate chips, shortening, and heat on high power for 1 minute to melt. I highly recommend using shortening for many reasons. It helps the chocolate melt smoother and easier. It prevents the chocolate from setting up too quickly. It keeps the chocolate from cracking when you slice into the finished bars because the chocolate is fudgier and more forgiving than typical hardened chocolate.
- Stop to stir. Chips may not be completely melted. Return bowl to microwave and heat in 10 to 15-second bursts until chocolate can be stirred smooth.
- Pour chocolate over bars, smoothing the top lightly with a spatula or knife; set pan aside.
- Add 1/4 cup peanut butter to a small microwave-safe bowl and heat to melt, about 30 seconds. Stir peanut butter smooth.
- To create the marbled pattern, drizzle peanut butter over the chocolate in 5 wide, evenly spaced, parallel lines, each spanning the width of the pan. Like 5 rows of long train tracks.
- Rotate pan 90-degrees. With a toothpick, starting at the top of the pan, “draw” 5 evenly spaced lines through the peanut butter. In essence you’re dragging the toothpick perpendicularly through the first set of lines to create the marbling.
- Cover pan with a sheet of foil (to prevent fridge smells), and place pan in fridge to set up for at least 2 to 3 hours, or overnight, or until chocolate layer is completely set before lifting out with foil overhang, slicing, and serving.
- Bars will keep airtight at room temperature for up to 1 week, in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks, or in the freezer for up to 6 months.
- Take care all ingredients used are appropriate for your dietary needs, reading labels and selecting brands that are appropriate.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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Related Recipes:
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Browned Butter Rice Krispies Treats – The best RKTs I have ever had. Double the butter and it’s browned, for great flavor and soft, buttery, chewy bars
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What’s your favorite no-bake, cereal or cookie bar?
I’ve made these 3-4 times now and every time they’re delicious! I do cut down on the chocolate topping because otherwise the chocolate layer is too thick and these become too decadent. Keeping the topping thin makes it a lighter treat :)
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it came out great for you and that you’ve found a way to keep it a little lighter :)
Hi there, I always use natural peanutbutter for recipes like this it works fine. I just made these with natural peanutbutter, and used local raw honey instead of the sugars, and organic brown rice cereal. I didn’t use the corn syrup or sugar just the honey worked well as both. I used dark chocolate melted it with coconut oil instead of shortning that also works well. Then I dusted the top off with sea salt looks delish!
Glad natural works great for you as well as the raw local honey and the alternate cereal, too!
Averie, I made these cereal bars last weekend and they were awesome! I blogged about them today:
I’ve made several of your recipes and you never disappoint. Thank you so much for sharing. :)
Thanks for trying these and so glad you’re pleased with this one and others! That’s awesome to hear :)
Hi,
Just wanted to let you know I am sharing your wonderful recipe tomorrow in my Gluten-Free Recipe RoundUp with a link back to your original post!
Have a terrific weekend!
Cathy from APeekIntoMyParadise.com
Thanks for the linkback!
what happens if you use natural peanut butter?
It may or may not be enough to ‘glue’ the bars together. Natural PB can be oily, thin, and runny – so it’s a gamble.
I just want to thank you for this delicious recipe! The bars are currently chilling in the fridge but from the piece that I tried, they are yummy :) As someone who is going through the first holiday season without gluten/ dairy, I am very excited to find a delicious dessert to enjoy. I always use Enjoy Life chocolate chips (vegan) and they work wonderfully. Thanks again!
Glad you like them and that they work for your needs. It can be hard making big changes like that so glad you have something that will work for you :)
These look wonderful! But Rice Krispies are only GF if you buy the right one made from brown rice. It is very confusing to those who think they are fixing it correctly and then hurting their friends. :)
There are many other brands of GF crispy rice cereal, found in health food stores or in some mainstream groc stores, that are also GF. Anyone who is cooking for others or themself and needs to follow dietary restrictions always needs to read labels – it’s just a fact of life. People should read labels anyway to make sure they know what they’re ingesting!
These are gorgeous, Averie! The peanut butter and chocolate topping makes me want to lick the screen. They are everything I want in a bar too. Dangerous!!
FYI: Nestle and many other semisweet choc chips are not vegan. You have to read labels and the only ones I found were at a natural grocery store.
Could you use heavy cream instead of shortening…sort of like ganache?
Yes you could but it will set up ‘drippier’ and runnier and I didn’t want ganache-like, drippy bars because I wanted them to be portable and well, I just knew what texture I was going for :) But yes, it will work.
Thanks Avery good to know! I rarely bother to change the ingredients of a great recipe, but I was looking to get away from the trans fats if possible.
Your desserts are beautiful and they look delicious. I CANNOT wait to try one of these bar recipes this weekend.
Question for you or any bloggers out there: what are these little wax paper looking squares that I see in dessert food photography? Where can I get them? I tried improvising by manually cutting wax paper, but they don’t look as nice as these ones here. Thanks for your help!
It’s parchment paper that I cut into various shapes – it’s a bit of a pain, but for photos, it does make things look nice :)
Mouth watering!! Oh my, these look dangerous, I don’t know if I’d be able to stop myself ;)
OK, thank you Averie! I love them “as is”… just thought another variation w/o the peanut butter flavor would be fun sometimes too… depending on my mood ;-)
I would just go with a diff bar then for a diff mood. Don’t mess with these – so few ingredients and each and every one counts to make the recipe a success.
These are so good! I actually was in the mood for an “oats” bar, but these caught my attention so I made them using 1/2 oats (toasted b/c I don’t like raw oats) and 1/2 rice krispies. Swirled white chocolate on top instead of peanut butter… only b/c my son loves white chocolate. We just cut into them and they are YUMMY!
I love your creativity with the white choc (I love it too but sometimes my readers don’t love it as much as I do)! And oat bar that’s no bake and along the same lines that you may also like with oats, PB, & chocolate
https://www.averiecooks.com/2011/12/no-bake-chocolate-peanut-butter-oat-squares.html
And this one is a healthier twist on oats
https://www.averiecooks.com/2012/09/cinnamon-oatmeal-date-bars-with-chocolate-chunks.html
This is super gooey and decadent with oats
https://www.averiecooks.com/2012/02/caramel-and-chocolate-gooey-bars.html
I am a HUGE oat bar lover so when you said that, I wanted to throw some of those out there. I have tons more too :) Thanks for telling me you made these!
Averie – We took these with us on vacation & I even ate one for breakfast one morning… with coffee. Made me a happy girl! If I wanted to make this same bar without peanut butter (can you believe how much nerve I have asking you this?!), could I just leave it out or do you think I would need to replace the peanut butter with some butter or whole milk or something so they don’t get dry?
By the way, I appreciate how responsive you are on your blog. Thank you!
Yes you 100% would need to replace the PB with something else! They would be horribly dry, wouldn’t hold together, and will not taste anything like what they taste like now without the PB. And no, milk will not work. Nor will adding butter.
If it’s a PB allergy, you can try Sunflower Seed Butter or Biscoff/Cookie Butter spread. Although I havent tested either.
If it’s just b/c you don’t like the PB and want to make another type of bar, I would say look these over and select something else. https://www.averiecooks.com/category/dessert/bars
My suggestion is to just leave the recipe alone and enjoy it with the PB in it :)
This is the perfect for summer and you know how I love chocolate and peanut butter! Thanks for linking up with What’s Cookin’ Wednesday!!
Oh! those swirls!! They just look perfect P-E-R-F-E-C-T.