Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Bars
CHOCOLATE CHIP PEANUT BUTTER BARS:
They can be gluten-free / dairy-free / sugar-free / egg-free / grain-free / soy-free / and oil-free
And they taste like the lovechild of a chocolate chip cookie and a Reeses peanut butter cup.
If Nestlé and Hersheys were to collaborate on a dessert, I’m pretty sure they’d come up with something along the lines of these gooeylicious chocolate chip peanut butter bars. Every bite is like a chocolate peanut butter fantasy.
Needing a dessert for a party last weekend, I first thought of my Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bars. But at the last second, I decided it would be much more exciting to try something new—even if that meant losing the green, which had been my reason for selecting the zucchini bars in the first place.
The ensuing chocolate chip peanut butter bars were a huge hit. With chocolate and peanut butter, is that any surprise? And, as you can see in the photo above, I found a different way to acknowledge St. Patrick’s Day. I’m not fond of being pinched!
Love.
So much love.
♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Bars
(Makes 12-16 bars)
- 1/4 cup applesauce
- 1 cup peanut butter OR allergy-friendly alternative (nut-free recipe here)
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 1/4 cup plus 2 tbsp flour – you can use spelt, white, sorghum, oat, almond, even or buckwheat (50g)
- 2/3 cup granulated sugar of choice or xylitol
- 1/4 cup chocolate chips (can be omitted)
- up to 2 tbsp milk of choice, only if needed
Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease an 8-inch baking pan and set aside. In a mixing bowl, gently heat your nut butter if it is not already stir-able, then stir in the applesauce and vanilla extract, and set aside. In a separate mixing bowl, stir together the baking soda, salt, flour, sugar, and chocolate chips. Pour the dry ingredients into the wet and keep stirring—it will seem very dry at first, so you’ll need to break up the nut butter and stop occasionally to scrape it off your spoon. Only if needed, slowly add up to 2 tbsp milk of choice as you stir. Don’t add more milk; it will eventually get gooey like cookie dough. Transfer the batter into the prepared pan, and smooth down evenly with a spatula or spoon. Press some chocolate chips into the top if desired. Bake 10 minutes. When you take the peanut butter bars out, the top will look set but they will still be very undercooked underneath. This is okay! Leave them to cool for at least 20 minutes, during which time they will firm up.
View Peanut Butter Bars Nutrition Facts
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