In these Fudgy Peanut Butter Bars, creamy chocolate ganache fills a fudgy peanut butter base for a deliciously decadent treat!
For my sister.
I’m baking you a treat.
Because you are so pretty,
And you always make me laugh.
Because we shared clothes in high school.
And you painted my toes when I was 13 months pregnant. 😉
Because I love you, sister that made you a yummy treat.
Happy Birthday my beautiful, wise yet-still-older-sister Julie!!!
I love you! 🙂
All right. Let me break it down for you on these bars. THESE. ARE. YUM.
First this recipe came to me as a peanut butter bar. The crust is like fudge with a few scattered peanuts for some texture and deliciousness.
Then I thought about ganache… who doesn’t dream of melted chocolate? So I poured over the top! {In my opinion} this dessert is not overly sweet and totally the perfect marriage of peanut butter and chocolate.
I love these bars. Speaking of marriage…
To Make These Fudy Peanut Butter Bars Base You will need:
for the bars:
- butter
- brown sugar
- granulated sugar
- baking soda
- powder
- kosher salt
- vanilla both
- creamy and crunchy peanut butter
- unbleached all-purpose flour
for the ganache:
- 4 ounces semi sweet chocolate
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
Next, grease and line an 8×8 pan with parchment paper.
Then, in the bowl of your stand mixer, measure and add in the butter, peanut butter, light brown sugar and granulated sugar in a large bowl of your mixer.
Next, add one teaspoon of pure vanilla extract.
Then mix until blended and the mixture is light and creamy.
Next, measure and add the salt, baking soda and powder, half of the flour. Mix and then add the rest of the flour.
Then, continue mixing until all the flour is incorporated, scraping down the sides as well.
Next, tip the fudgy peanut butter dough into the prepared pan.
Then, using a spatula, spread it evenly and press with fingers to flatten a little.
Next, bake the dough in a preheated 350° for 20-25 minutes or until the top is golden. Since this dough is egg free, if you insert a tester and it comes back with a little dough on it, it’s okay. Remember it’s suppose to be fudgy!
Lastly, allow the bars to cool completely in pan on a wire rack.
Once the bars are cooled it will be time to make the ganache. To make this, you need semi-sweet chocolate and heavy cream.
What is Ganache?
Ganache is a silky, sauce, icing, glaze or icing made of chocolate and heavy cream.
Chop the chocolate into small pieces.
And place it into a medium sized bowl.
Next pour the cream into a small sauce pan, bring just to a simmer and then quickly pull it off the heat and pour over chopped chocolate.
Let it sit so the chocolate has a chance to soften up.
Then stir. Slowly. You don’t want to get any air into it.
Let the ganache hang out until it’s thick but pourable.
Pour into the center of the bars.
Tilt the pan to coat evenly. Chill for about an hour.
Cut.
And enjoy! These bars are so delicious. My sister was so kind to let me take a couple of her birthday bars for my girlees and me to try. I don’t know if I could be so generous! 😉
Im in love with the texture and with their fudgy-ness. I can’t wait to make these for my husband… he will love love LOVE them and you will too!
Enjoy! And if you give this Fudgy Peanut Butter Bars recipe a try, let me know! Snap a photo and tag me on twitter or instagram!
Fudgy Peanut Butter Bars
Ingredients
FOR THE FUDGY PEANUT BARS:
- 1 cup room temperature unsalted butter
- 1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
- 1/2 cup crunchy peanut butter
- 1 cup light brown sugar
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1½ cups unbleached all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
FOR THE GANACHE:
- 4 ounces semi sweet chocolate
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350° and grease and line an 8x8 square baking pan.
- Mix together butter, peanut butters, sugars, vanilla until light and creamy.
- Add rest of ingredients in batches, and mix well until totally combined. Spread peanut butter batter evenly into pan. Place in preheated oven for 20-25 min.
- Let cool completely in pan on a wire rack.
- Roughly chop the chocolate into small pieces and place into a medium bowl. Bring Heavy cream to a simmer and immediately remove off from the heat and pour on top of chopped chocolate. Let this sit to soften chocolate. Whisk the hot cream and chocolate slowly until the chocolate is completely incorporated into the cream.
- To finish the bars: Let the ganache sit for 5 minutes until slightly thicker in consistency. Pour into cooled peanut butter bars. Tilt the pan to spread the ganache and then chill in the fridge until the ganache is set. Cut and serve.
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THANK YOU in advance for your support!
Peanut butter AND fudge?! Sounds like heaven to me! 🙂
Amazing! I love peanut butter and chocolate together. I can't wait to get home to bake something like this–I know everyone would love it. Great photos, as always.
🙂
These are most definitely YUM! Happy Sister Birthday!
holy smokes these look amazing!! I am totally drooling!
I found this link through Foodbuzz…delicious! I'm going to definitely be making these soon. 🙂 Beautiful pictures, btw.
omgoodness delicious! Your pictures made everything look absolutley delectable!
Oh my goodness I need these asap! They look so insanely good. I'm adding this to my must make recipes. Happy Birthday to your sister! 🙂
These. Look. Yum. 😀 Happy birthday to your sis!
Lucky sister! These look amazing!
I'd bookmarked this when you first posted for two reasons…1) they looked fantastic, and 2) I have a sister who is crazy for peanut butter and chocolate, too. I meant to wait until she came to visit, but I couldn't hold out. So glad I caved! Super easy and crazy good. Thank you!!! And thanks for your wonderful blog…
I'm making these right now! I was craving some type of peanut butter treat, but needed something that I had all the ingredients. These are great to make up quickly! Already had the ganache frozen.
I made these today and they are excellent. It's probably the best peanut butter thing I have ever had. Ever. I did use and 8×8 and it cooked over a bit, I might try a 9×9 tomorrow. I also cooked it for 35 minutes as it seemed to jiggle a bit after 25min. We ate most of it without the chocolate and it was wicked. The texture of this will impress everyone!
This recipe is sin. Damn it looks good. . .
My favorite combination ~ Peanut Butter and Chocolate/ can't get any better except Chocolate and Marshmallow Sauce 🙂
Made these for a party and they were a BIG hit.
I made these peanut butter bars this past week and they were fabulous! I wasn’t sure what to expect the texture to be, but they turned out to be soft and a bit crumbly, which was perfect with the fudgy chocolate ganache on top. I also used only smooth peanut butter and not the crunchy so that may have contributed to my texture difference as well. These were very quick and easy to make and if you have a peanut butter lover in the house then you must make these pronto! My husband LOVES peanut butter/chocolate and went nuts for these.
Thanks for a great recipe!
Hi there Ashley! Yes they are suppose to be on the soft/crumbly side. Since there isn’t eggs in the recipe, baking is just to set the dough and brown/crisp it up a tad. They are perfectly fine a little under-baked {which I prefer!}. The smooth peanut butter shouldn’t have been an issue. But I’m stoked to hear you like the bars! I know I do! In fact… I’m craving them now! 🙂
I forgot to mention in my previous post that I ended up baking these for about 30-35 minutes…..at 25 minutes I put a toothpick in and they were still not cooked all the way through.
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I can’t believe I’ve never posted a comment here. These have easily become one of my family and friends’ favorite desserts. I am an avid baker and to rank this in the top of our favorite desserts is an honor!! These bars are SO easy to make, and the taste and texture is amazing. Don’t be fooled – they are not just another PB and chocolate bar. I’ve made the gananche with both semi-sweet and dark chocolate, but we actually prefer the semi-sweet in this recipe. Be careful not to overbake. Also, I always 1.5x the recipe and bake in a 9×13 pan because a smaller pan just wouldn’t be enough of this heavenly deliciousness. Worth every calorie, I promise!
Best. Review. Ever! I’m so glad you love these bars as much as we do!! Thank you for your comment!
Would have been great if heavy cream and chocolate chips would have been in separate list of ingredient because you said to mix in rest of ingredients and I accidentally added the heavy cream to the peanut butter mixture
Hi Lauren! Sorry to hear this recipe didn’t work out the way you planned. I always recommend reading the written instructions first before attempting new recipes.