No Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars are a super easy treat. These bars are thick, rich, and delicious. Only 5 ingredients to the best peanut butter bar and chocolate combination.
These chocolate peanut butter squares are a wonderful flavor combination that takes no baking at all. You can make these all year long in just a little time.
These no-bake chocolate peanut butter bars turn into comfort food on cold days and, heck, warmer weather is the perfect excuse for a no-bake dessert! On hot days, the last thing I want to do is turn on the oven to heat up the kitchen and house even more.
The bars require no baking, too. Just mix them up, pop them in the fridge to chill, and have one any time you want.
Table of Contents
Simple ingredients
Vegan Peanut Butter Bars use only 5 simple ingredients! You may already have everything in your pantry. Here’s what you need to make them:
- Unsalted Dairy Free Butter
- Creamy Peanut Butter for both the bars and the chocolate frosting.
- Graham Cracker Crumbs - You can make your own crumbs by crushing up sheets of graham crackers. You can do this by putting the crackers in a zip top bag and crushing with a rolling pin or you can use a food processor.
- Organic Powdered Sugar
- Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips - You’ll melt the chocolate with some of the peanut butter for the easy frosting. You could also use a chopped chocolate bar instead of chocolate chips. Be sure to use dairy-free chocolate to keep the bars vegan.
How to make vegan bars
Making no-bake peanut bars couldn’t be any easier! The bar mixture takes just a few minutes to mix up and the two-ingredient frosting is also super quick. Here are the simple steps to make them:
- Prepare Baking Dish: Grease the bottom and sides of a glass casserole or pan with vegan butter. I like to use a 9x13 inch pan, but you can use a smaller 9x9 inch pan if you want thicker bars.
- Make the Peanut Butter Bars: Stir together the melted butter, creamy peanut butter, graham cracker crumbs, and powdered sugar. Stir until the mixture is smooth and creamy.
- Press mixture into the prepared glass dish or pan.
- Make the PB Chocolate Frosting: In a microwave safe bowl, microwave the peanut butter and chocolate chips for 30 seconds. Stir the mixture and continue microwaving in 10 second intervals until the chocolate chips are almost fully melted. Stir until smooth.
- Spread the frosting layer over the bottom layer in the pan or dish.
- Chill: Place bars in the fridge to chill until firm (at least 2 hours).
- Cut and Serve: Allow the bars to come to room temperature before cutting and store cut bars in the fridge until ready to serve.
Pro tips
- Grease the Pan. Greasing the dish is key to being able to easily remove the bars from the dish. For even easier removal, you can also line the dish with wax or parchment paper before greasing. You can then lift the bars out of the pan to cut into squares.
- For easier cutting allow the bars to warm up at room temperature for a bit. Store the cut bars in the fridge.
- Optional: Sprinkle with flaky sea salt. For a salty-sweet combination, you can lightly sprinkle flaky sea salt on top of the chocolate frosting before it sets.
FAQ’s
Yes, these no bake peanut butter bars can be made in advance. They keep well in the fridge for up to one week, so they are the perfect make ahead treat!
These vegan no-bake bars can be stored in the fridge for up to one week. Store in a covered airtight container for best results.
Yes, these bars can be frozen! You can freeze the whole pan or freeze the individual squares.
To freeze the whole pan, cover it tightly with plastic wrap. To freeze the individual bars, place each peanut butter bar in a freezer-friendly container between layers of wax or parchment paper.
Freeze for up to 3 months. Allow to thaw in the fridge overnight before serving.
📋 Recipe
No Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars
Ingredients
- 1 cup dairy free butter - melted
- 1 ½ cups creamy peanut butter
- 2 cups vegan graham cracker crumbs
- 2 cups organic powdered sugar
Frosting:
- ⅔ cups creamy peanut butter
- 1 cup vegan chocolate chips
Instructions
- Butter bottom and sides of a 13x9 pan (or square pan if you want the bars thicker)
- In a medium bowl, stir together butter, peanut butter, graham cracker crumbs and powdered sugar until smooth and creamy.
- Press mixture into prepared pan.
Frosting:
- In a microwave safe bowl combine peanut butter, and chocolate chips and heat for 30 seconds. Stir and continue heating 10 seconds at a time until the chips are almost melted. Stir until completely smooth.
- Spread evenly over the peanut butter bars layer.
Chill
- Chill in refrigerator at least 2 hours or until firm.
- Remove from the refrigerator and cut into bars.
- Serve chilled.
Betsy
These are fantastic! They taste so good. I'm not vegan myself, but I'm always on the lookout for good recipes to share with my vegan friends. I'm so pleased these taste so good, these will definitely make it to the next potluck with my vegan friends!
katerina @ diethood.com
These are definitely my kind of treat! I LOVE how easy and delicious they are!!