Sunday 30 June 2013

"Reese's" peanut butter bars

This is probably one of my favourite recipes, as the bars taste so good and they’re so quick and easy to make. They taste almost identical to Reese’s peanut butter cups – if you’ve never tried them, just make this recipe and you’ll know what they taste like. Unless you don’t like peanut butter… in which case this recipe probably isn’t for you.

Makes enough to fill a 7in x 7in pan (or equivalent size, I’ve used 6 x 8.5 here)

Gather your equipment
Essential equipment:  Mixing bowl, 2 microwave safe bowls, Ziploc bag, mixing spoon as well as smaller spoons, and a lined baking tray (or cupcake cases)
Optional equipment: Spatula, rolling pin
  • A clean wine bottle works well as a rolling pin
  • With a small adjustment this recipe can be used to make peanut butter cups instead of bars, so feel free to use mini/regular cupcake cases to shape your cups. 
Gather your ingredients
For this recipe you'll need: 140g icing sugar, 100g digestives, 190g peanut butter, 130g butter/margarine, 150g chocolate
Optional: Switch 40g of the peanut butter for an extra 40g of chocolate if making peanut butter cups instead of bars – so you end up with 150g peanut butter and 190g chocolate
  • You can use crunchy peanut butter if that’s what you’ve got – I use smooth as that mimics the Reese’s version better than crunchy does
Prepare to bake
Line your baking tray if you haven’t already, and finely crush all your digestives using the Ziploc bag and your hands/rolling pin/wine bottle/whatever you can find
‘Combine’ digestives, icing sugar and peanut butter
Weigh your icing sugar into your mixing bowl, then add your crushed digestives and stir well. Add just 150g of your peanut butter but don’t stir yet as it will get very messy.
Melt butter, add to the bowl
Melt your butter in short bursts in the microwave, then add straight to your mixing bowl and stir well. The hot butter will melt the peanut butter and make it easier to stir than if you had stirred in the previous step, leaving you with less of a peanut-buttery mess.
Pour into baking tray, refrigerate
Once everything is smoothly combined, pour it into your baking tray and press it right into the corners. Use a spatula (if you have one) to get all of the mix out of the bowl and into your mouth the baking tray. Refrigerate for half an hour, or freeze for 5-10 minutes.
Top with the chocolate mixture
Melt together your remaining peanut butter and the chocolate in the microwave using short 20 second bursts and stirring each time. You can use a mix of dark and milk chocolate; it’s up to you. Remove the tray from the fridge/freezer and pour the chocolate on top, spreading right into the corners. Refrigerate again.
Cut into pieces!
Once the chocolate has cooled, cut into pieces. The chocolate layer should stay slightly soft because of the added peanut butter – this will also make them easier to cut. You will not be able to stop at just one of these, so you might like to cut them into small pieces to make you feel better about eating 7 in one sitting. But maybe that’s just me.
Peanut butter cups option
If you want to make peanut butter cups, just leave the peanut butter out of the chocolate when melting it – this means the chocolate can hold the cup shape a lot better. Drop a teaspoon of chocolate into your cupcake case and spread it around and up the sides. Refrigerate briefly, then fill with your peanut butter mixture and top with more chocolate to close the ‘cup’. This does take ages though, and works a lot better with mini cupcake cases. Alternatively you can just make ‘layered’ cups – see a few variations above.

And here is the obligatory close-up...

Reese’s peanut butter bars: - fills a 7in x 7in pan
130g butter/margarine
100g digestive biscuit crumbs
140g icing sugar
150g peanut butter
150g chocolate
40g peanut butter


  1. In a bowl, combine the icing sugar and digestive crumbs. Add the first measure of peanut butter
  2. Melt the butter/margarine, then add it to the other ingredients and stir
  3. Pour into a lined baking tray and refrigerate
  4. Melt the chocolate and remaining peanut butter together and spread onto the bottom layer
  5. Refrigerate again, then cut into bars

Recipe originally from: allrecipes.com









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