MSIH: Peanut Butter Dream Bars

Jen gave me the recipe for these peanut butter dream bars that she saw on FB - and yum, they looked and sounded great so I thought I'd surprise her with them. Here's her review, recipe follows:

It’s not my birthday but today I felt like It was.  Every year I request some variation of Peanut Butter Pie, Home-made Reese’s, Buckeye’s, etc. - to be clear, I love all things chocolate/peanut butter (including smearing peanut butter on my ice cream).  This is honestly though one of the best I’ve tasted.  It comes second to only my sister’s home-made Reese’s squares.  I’m sure that recipe is on this blog somewhere so if you haven’t tried that one go look it up.  It’s like a buckeye in a pan. (Jill here, I don't find that recipe on the blog, I'll try to remember to share it soon!) 

Anyway- back to this amazing dessert. The ratio of chocolate to peanut butter was perfect, the crust wasn’t overpowering the filling, the chips on the top tied it all together.  It was awesome.  Like a candy bar that I could eat with a fork/spoon.  So good. 

Looking at it seemed like it would be too sweet but for me it really wasn’t.  It also wasn’t too rich.  It really was just delicious.   As a side note – I feel like layered in a tiramisu bowl it would be beautiful with no crust at all and it could be ate like pudding, or piled together in a dip bowl it would be great with graham crackers dipped in it. This just seems very versatile to me and I would tend to vary it depending what I needed the dessert for (pie, pudding, dip).  She also told me I could freeze half but not sure if that will work out for me. hmmmm.. maybe good frozen?  That will be my next experiment. Yum.

 

Not sure how much work it was for her to make but I will for sure be reading this recipe to see if its easy enough to be in my skill set.

 

Now I need to go- I have more goodness to go eat- then I probably should go for a run. 😉

crust:

16 oz. package peanut butter sandwich cookies, crushed (reserve a couple Tablespoons for topping)

8 Tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted

pudding layer:

1 1/2 cups milk

1 small box instant chocolate pudding

peanut butter layer:

4 oz. cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup confectioners sugar

1/2 cup smooth peanut butter

topping:

8 oz. tub whipped topping

milk chocolate chips

peanut butter chips

reserved crushed peanut butter sandwich cookies

Directions:

 

Preheat oven to 350'. Spray an 8" square pan with non-stick spray. Mix the crushed sandwich cookies and melted butter together, press evenly into the bottom of the pan. Bake for 10 minutes, cool completely. 

Whisk the pudding and milk together for a couple minutes until smooth and thick. Spread it evenly over the cooled crust. Refrigerate while making the peanut butter mixture.

Beat the cream cheese until smooth. Add the confectioners sugar and peanut butter, mix until completely blended. Spread over the pudding layer. Top with whipped topping, then add chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, and reserved crushed cookies til you're happy with how it looks. 

Notes: you can freeze this, and Jen said later it tastes even better eating it frozen. I used Nutter Butter peanut butter sandwich cookies, light cool whip and cream cheese, and 2% milk. 

recipe found here

3.10.21: crock pot corned beef (my favorite way to make St. Patrick's Day meal)

3.10.20: TT: hidden bank by Brooke

3.10.19: 🔥week 10

3.10.18: pots of gold

3.10.17: makeup brush holder by Brooke

3.10.16: creative photo class - portraits

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