No-Bake Double Chocolate Peanut Butter Granola Bars — These homemade granola bars are ready in just 10 minutes! Packed with peanut butter chocolate flavor, they’re bound to be your new favorite snack in no time!
Chocolate Peanut Butter Granola Bars
Move over, Quaker Soft and Chewy Granola Bars. You can make these soft, chewy, vegan, gluten-free, and healthier DIY bars in 10 minutes. This homemade granola bars recipe is adapted from my Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Granola Bars and I included a very similar recipe in my first cookbook.
Readers have said they’re the best granola bars they’ve ever had, their kids love them, and they’re saving so much money making their granola bars at home.
It would have been too easy to just leave the recipe alone. That’s not what food bloggers do. It’s mandatory to keep tinkering.
So I made a chocolate version. Double chocolate. There’s both cocoa powder and mini chocolate chips, and while the chocolate flavor is present, it doesn’t overwhelm the peanut butter flavor. You get a pop of chocolate and peanut butter in every bite, and that’s a beautiful thing.
The no-bake granola bars are naturally vegan and gluten-free. Always read labels to select certified brands and the exact ingredients that are right for your dietary needs.
The special ingredient that gives the bars an extremely authentic mouthfeel and texture is crispy rice cereal. As you’re stirring it in, it magically seems to disappear into the very thick mixture, but does so much when you bite down for lightness and subtle crunch.
The batch makes 1 dozen bars, very similar in size to the Quaker version. I wrap them individually in plastic wrap, keep a gallon-sized Ziplock filled with them, and then just toss the bars into school lunches, my purse, or my car. They’re not too messy which is nice, too.
The chocolate peanut butter granola bars can be customized with the add-ins you prefer, from dried fruit to nuts, making them very versatile.
They taste like a candy bar, but much healthier than eating candy bars or chocolate peanut butter cookies when chocolate + PB cravings strike. They’re my new best friend.
What’s in Chocolate Peanut Butter Granola Bars?
To make these no-bake peanut butter chocolate granola bars, you’ll need:
- Light corn syrup
- Creamy peanut butter
- Light brown sugar
- Unsweetened cocoa powder
- Vanilla extract
- Salt
- Quick cook oats
- Crispy rice cereal (such as Rice Krispies)
- Mini semi-sweet chocolate chips
How to Make Chocolate Peanut Butter Granola Bars
In a large, microwave-safe bowl, combine the corn syrup, peanut butter, and brown sugar. Heat on high power for 1 minute, stir, then heat for another minute.
Add in the vanilla, oats, cocoa, and salt. Then, add 1 cup of the crispy rice cereal and gently stir to combine. If needed, add extra cereal until the right consistency is reached.
Lastly, mix in 3/4 of the chocolate chips. Turn the mixture into a foil-lined 8×8-inch baking dish, then sprinkle with remaining chocolate chips. Chill the chocolate peanut butter granola bars until set, then slice.
How to Store Homemade Granola Bars
Bars will keep wrapped in plastic wrap inside a large ziplock at room temperature for up to 1 month, in the fridge for up to 2 months, or in the freezer for up to 6 months.
Tips for Making Chocolate Peanut Butter Granola Bars
The bulk, heft, and bigtime chewy-factor comes from quick cook oats. Quick cook oats are just whole-rolled oats that have been cut smaller in the manufacturing process to cook quicker. If you typically buy whole-rolled oats, pulse them in your food processor or blender for about 5 seconds and you’ve got quick cook.
It’s important to use quick cook because they behave more like flour, binding together the wet ingredients. Whole-rolled oats are bigger, coarser, and won’t act as a proper binder and the bars won’t hold together.
If you’d rather not use corn syrup in these no-baked granola bars, you’re welcome to use brown rice syrup or honey instead.
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No-Bake Double Chocolate Peanut Butter Granola Bars
Ingredients
- ⅔ cup light corn syrup, brown rice syrup to keep vegan or honey may be substituted
- ½ cup creamy peanut butter
- ¼ cup light brown sugar, packed
- ¼ cup unsweetened natural cocoa powder
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon salt, optional and to taste
- 2 cups quick cook oats, Quaker, Bob’s, or similar; don’t use whole-rolled oats, pulse/grind briefly if that’s what you have
- 2 cups crispy rice cereal, Rice Krispies, Erewhon, or similar
- 1 cup mini semi-sweet or dark chocolate chips, divided
Instructions
- Line an 8×8-inch pan with aluminum foil leaving overhang, spray with cooking spray; set aside.
- In a large, microwave-safe bowl combine corn syrup, peanut butter, brown sugar, and heat on high power for 1 minute; stir to combine.
- Return bowl to microwave and heat for 1 more minute on high power, and stir to combine.
- Add vanilla, cocoa, optional salt, and whisk to combine.
- Add oats and stir to combine.
- Add 1 cup rice cereal and gently stir to combine so cereal doesn’t become too crushed.
- Slowly add the second cup of cereal, stirring while adding to incorporate. Mixture will be very thick, which is good so bars hold together after they’re set up. However, if your mixture seems extremely thick or dry, and doesn’t quite need the entire second cup or cereal, refrain from adding it all.
- Add 3/4 cup chocolate chips and stir to combine. The mixture is warm and chips will likely begin to melt, which is okay but the less stirring, the less melting. Reserve remaining 1/4 cup chips.
- Turn mixture out into prepared pan and pack it down firmly with a spatula or hands.
- Evenly sprinkle with the remaining 1/4 cup chocolate chips and very lightly tap them down with a spatula.
- Cover pan with a sheet of foil (to prevent fridge/freezer smells) and place pan in the fridge for at least 2-3 hours or in the freezer for at least 1 hour, or until bars have set up.
- Using foil overhang, remove bars from pan, place on cutting board, and slice. Mine are sliced 4-inches long by 1/2-inch wide, similar in size and shape to Quaker Chewy Granola Bars. Wrap bars individually in plastic warp.
Notes
- Bars will keep wrapped in plastic wrap inside a large ziplock at room temperature for up to 1 month, in the fridge for up to 2 months, or in the freezer for up to 6 months.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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I tried this for the first time yesterday and they taste amazing. Is it normal that the mixture is super thick already after adding in the first cup of oats? It got so thick and hard to combine after 2 cups of oats so I only managed to add 1 cup of rice krispies.
Sounds like the type of oats you used was probably finer/denser than mine. So no, not normal, but you did the right thing to only add 1 c RK’s. I use Quaker brand whole-rolled oats. In the future you may want to either try that brand or scale back on the brand you use by a little bit.
This recipe looks amazing!
However, it is very difficult to find light corn syrup where I live. Can I manage with glucose? Other substitutes?
I haven’t tried any other ingredients other than what I wrote so not sure if it will work or not.
I love peanut butter and chocolate combinations. This is a dangerous bar for me to have in the fridge – I keep going back for more. I cut them into small squares (about 3 cm) to try and get them to last longer but I may as well have cut them as you have because I tend to have at least two. My hubbie isn’t a peanut butter fan but he quite likes these. I’d prefer a stronger peanut butter flavour (peanut butter chips would help but we can’t get these in NZ and I haven’t yet attempted to make them myself). I also swapped out the light corn syrup for half brown rice syrup and half honey as I don’t have corn syrup. Very delicious. I’ll be making this again and again.
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it came out great for you! Glad you’ll make again and again!
Golden syrup is corn syrup in NZ – though it is dark in colour.
Do you have a nutrition facts for these?
No I don’t but there are online calculators use can use to plug in the data and obtain it. I have links here https://https://www.averiecooks.com/faq/
I made these yesterday and they are amazing! I’m not really a fan of peanut butter so I used double the amount of cocoa powder, which I actually switched for chocolate protein powder and then only half of the rice crispies. I also added raisins, SO GOOD!!
Thanks for trying the recipe and glad it came out great for you given the swaps and substitutions you made!
Came across this recipe and knew it would be amazing. I was drawn in and really impressed with the short length of time and no cooking involved aspects of the recipe. Made a couple customizations: I used honey instead of corn syrup (healthier option) and I used a combination of chocolate and peanut butter chips. Also, I do not own a microwave so I did this recipe in a saucepan on the stovetop.
My fiance LOVES them! He’s a huge fan of anything with peanut butter, and since he’s 6’5″, he requires food frequently. This is his new favourite snack!
Feedback for this recipe: it definitely took longer than 10 min… It took 10 minutes for me to get my ingredients out and measured, took about 10 minutes to combine the wet ingredients and oatmeal, plus another 5-10 min to add the crispy rice cereal and chocolate & pb chips. I put the bars in the freezer to set for 1 hour as the recipe indicated, but I think they probably only needed 20 minutes because I had to wait for them to thaw out before I sliced them. All in all, from start to finish, this recipe took me about 1.5-2 hours.
Nonetheless, the end results are amazing and the bar look just like the pictures.
I’m really looking forward to trying more of your recipes! All the pictures you post for your recipes look amazing. :D
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it came out great for you and that your fiance loves them! I guess after cooking for a living I’m pretty fast around the kitchen and things probably take me less time than for others :)
These are amazing!! Made them today & its hard to believe they’re granola bars. The perfect blend of candy bar & granola bar. Definitely a keeper recipe, thank you!!
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it came out great for you!
Hi I have some leftover CACAO powder…can I use that instead of the cocoa powder..Thank you
Probably but haven’t personally tried so can’t say for absolute sure.