Caramel Peanut Butter Bars
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Caramel. Peanut butter. Nuts. Sugar cookies. Butter. Reese’s cups. Fudgy, chocolate frosting.
Yes. All of those things are in this dessert. You’ll probably want to head straight to the kitchen as soon as you print this recipe off. These things are delicious. How could they not be with that list of ingredients up there?
They’re very much like a candy bar and I don’t know about you, but candy bars are my thing. Especially Reese’s. And okay, 5th Avenue bars are pretty amazing, too. Oh, and Whatchamacallits. And, of course, Take Five bars. Don’t forget those.
Snickers bars are pretty darn good, too. About 3 minutes after giving birth to my daughter I instructed my husband to find the nearest vending machine and return with Snickers. He was on vending machine duty the rest of the hospital stay. He was pretty busy, too. I’m not sure how many Snickers bars I ate during the course of my daughter’s first few days of life, but I’m going to guess it was a lot.
Anyway, these aren’t Snickers or any of those other candy bars up there, but they’re amazing anyway.
Ingredients
- 1 pouch Betty Crocker Sugar Cookie mix
- 1/2 cup butter, softened
- 1 egg
- 15 mini Reese's cups, chopped
- 36 caramels, unwrapped
- 1 14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk
- 1/4 cup peanut butter
- 1 cup peanuts
- 1 container (1 lb) chocolate frosting
- 1/2 cup chopped peanuts (optional - I omitted this)
Instructions
- Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 13x9 baking dish with parchment paper.
- In the bowl of your stand mixer (or a large bowl if you're mixing by hand), beat together the sugar mix, butter, and egg. Stir in the Reese's cups. Press dough into the bottom of the pan. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes or until golden brown. Remove to a cooling rack.
- Meanwhile, in a 2 quart saucepan heat the condensed milk and caramels until the caramels have melted, stirring constantly. Stir in the peanut butter and bring mixture to a boil. Boil for 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and stir in the peanuts. Spread the warm filling on the top of the warm cookie base. Cool completely, about 2 hours.
- Spread frosting evenly over the caramel layer. Sprinkle with chopped peanuts if desired. Refrigerate for about 2 hours or until chilled. Cut into small bars, 9 rows by 4 rows. Store covered in the refrigerator. Allow to set at room temperature for 15 minutes before serving if you like the caramel layer to be soft.
adapted from Betty Crocker
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This is almost too easy… DEADLY is what I’m saying!
Reese’s are absolutely for sure my favorite. They are necessary for life. which is exactly why I shall have a tub of them sitting next to me while birthing my future child.
I might have a tray of these bars also. seems like the right thing to do.
I want, I want, I want! All of my favorites together!
These look amazing and what I love is that you combined some shortcuts like the cookie mix and premade caramels rather than making your own of each. Do-able, but not enjoyable…for me at least…when Im in a rush
The caramel mixture with the PB…and topped with choc…that’s heaven right there!
Take 5 were my pregnant thing. I would hide them all over the house to ensure the supply never went too low. These look so good and not too hard to pull together.
Yum! I agree with Averie above – don’t get me wrong, I love baking from scratch, but why not take a shortcut when you can? Especially when you’re REALLY about to dress a bar up! I used to make bars similar to these ALL the time – I called them Take 5 Bars because they included all the ingredients of a Take 5 candy bar. Mmm, now I need to make them. Or these!
Caramel, peanut butter, and chocolate are 3 of my most favorite things! This recipe sound GREAT!
I haven’t had a 5th Avenue in years! Thanks for reminding me! yum
These sound absolutely fabulous! I love peanut butter and caramel and chocolate! Good thing I don’t have all the ingredients on hand…or else I would probably be eating an entire pan myself this afternoon. Definitely putting it on my list of treats to make!! I just found your blog and I’m excited to look around more!
Um, these look way better than Snickers! I love homemade candy bars.
Take Five is the best candy bar ever invented. Just sayin.
YUM! how awesome do these look?! too bad they didn’t have these after your daughter’s birth lol
whatchamacallits–i love those! these bars look completely satisfying–salty, sweet, crunchy, gooey, and smooth, all at once. bravo!
Oh my gosh, I bet these are delicious. I like the chopped pb cups in the base. Yum!
I made a recipe very similar to this before and nearly ate the whole batch! haha