Best Loved! Peanut Butter Chocolate Bars

Today I wanted to share with you  an especially good dessert recipe!  These are the crazy-amazing peanut butter chocolate bars I made a couple of weeks ago on that perfect fall day I told you about here! 

First if you don't already know, let me just say I'm a big-time dessert person.  We are a big dessert family!  I love baking and we all love eating dessert so we really have to watch our sweet eating habits.  Sometimes I'll make a batch of cookies or pan of brownies and I'll simply give them away, but I get the pleasure of baking and giving out of it. 

I've made no telling how many different dessert recipes over the past 11 years of my married life...most of the best ones I've shared on here.  One kind of dessert treat that I especially love are bars.  They always tend to be chewy and gooey and are a one pan kind of dish that you basically just dump everything in and bake it!

These peanut butter chocolate bars are some of the very best bars I've ever made!!!  Ever!

They are very rich and gooey when warm, and they have the sweet and salty factor going on!  The crunchy peanut butter and coconut add great texture and that thick chocolate filling?!!  To die for.

Puleeease.  Do your favorite people in life a favor by making a pan of these.  They would be wonderful to take to a hayride or eat around a bonfire.  They would be fun for an indulgent dessert after a dinner party, or perfect for a weekend treat to eat as a family while playing your favorite games or watching a cozy movie!  Milk or rich dark coffee is required! 

Peanut Butter Chocolate Bars

Original Recipe from Aunt Peaches blog

1 pkg. yellow cake mix

1 c. crunchy peanut butter

8 Tbsp. (1 stick) butter, melted or room temp

2 eggs

2 c. chocolate chips (I recommend bittersweet ones from Ghiradelli)

1 can sweetened condensed milk

1 c. flaked coconut (You may omit, but I would replace with 1/2 c. chopped peanuts.)

2 tsp. pure vanilla extract

1/2 tsp. hot sauce (I left this out.)

I added about 1/4 tsp. salt

parchment paper

Preheat oven to 325 F. 

Line the bottom of 9x13 in. pan with parchment paper. (Easily found in stores near the foil)

In a bowl, mix the dry cake mix, butter, peanut butter, and eggs with a mixer.  It will come together looking like the consistency of play dough.) Set aside.

In a large saucepan on low heat, heat the sweetened condensed milk to a simmer, stirring constantly.  As soon as it starts bubbling in the middle, turn off the heat, and pour in the chocolate chips.  Stir again until the chocolate is melted in.  Once melted,  mix in the coconut, vanilla extract, hot sauce (if using) and salt.  The chocolate mixture will be warm and thick and gooey!

Divide out half of the yellow mixture you had sitting aside, and use your fingers or a spatula to smoosh it along the bottom of the pan.  If you need to borrow a bit from the other half of the mixture to cover the bottom, that's okay and probably expected! 

Then pour the chocolate sauce over the top and spread it all over.  Go back to the remaining yellow mixture and crumble it with your fingers, or just spread it over.  ( I sort of swirled it all around.)

Look at this!

Bake for 30 minutes.  They made seem underdone, but that's what they should look like.  Just lightly browned around the edges.

The original recipe calls for them to be thoroughly cooled before cutting, but I have to disagree here.  Wait at least 20 minutes, but then I say to dig in before they cool!  It may not cut into perfect squares but since when have we cared what something looks like if it doesn't taste as gooey and delicious that way?  I loooove a warm dessert fresh out of the oven!  Let me know what you think.

Eat, share and enjoy these amazing peanut butter chocolate bars!