No Bake Reese’s Peanut Butter Bars

No Bake Reese’s Peanut Butter Bars

Today we are making an easy recipe for No Bake Reese’s Peanut Butter Bars! These no bake chocolate peanut butter bars use simple ingredients and have a no bake peanut base, coated with a chocolate drizzle to make all your Reese’s dreams come true!

I sure was a huge fan of Reese’s peanut butter cups growing up, and from there my love of chocolate and PB dessert only grew stronger. So making energy bars, energy balls, peanut butter hot fudge chocolate cheesecake, a decadent pie and other desserts with the amazing flavors of peanuts and chocolate has a special place in my heart!

Plus, did you know? The best thing about Reese’s Pieces is that being vegan, you don’t need to hold off on this delicious candy. Hersheys has now released vegan Reese’s cups, which is totally amazing!

Why You’ll Love These No Bake Reese’s Peanut Butter Bars

Reese’s Pieces Flavor: Any combination of peanut butter and chocolate makes for one of America’s favorite desserts (peanut butter lovers and chocolate lovers can unite on this one)! Reese’s Pieces may be to blame for the success of the chocolate peanut butter combo, because of the addictive creamy peanut butter filling surrounded by a chocolate shell. While this isn’t a recreation of Reese’s cups, it sure is another peanut butter and chocolate flavored recipe to make!

Easy to Make: You can’t go too wrong with these no bake peanut butter bars, which makes it a great option to make with kids or those without much kitchen experience. All you have to do is blend the base ingredients, pat them down into a pan, then melt the chocolate and pour it over top. It’s a little more involved than just a blender recipe, but the extra step of melting the chocolate chips is totally worth it! Alternatively, you can forego the saucepan all together and just pat down chocolate chips into the bars.

Substitutions: Nut-Based Ingredients

Peanuts: Use raw, unsalted peanuts for best results. Roasted peanuts will contribute extra salt. This may make the recipe very salty, especially if also using conventional peanut butter which has added salt.

Peanut Butter: Use natural peanut butter, as this type of peanut butter only has one ingredient on the label – peanuts! Since there are no added ingredients, you get maximum peanut butter flavor without the added sugars and oils. This is usually in the natural aisle of the grocery store, or sometimes even with the other conventional peanut butters. Don’t substitute with another nut butter – peanut butter is one of the key ingredients for flavor here!

You can use smooth or chunky peanut butter, but I prefer smooth for this recipe. However, if you want a little crunch, feel free to opt for chunky.

If using conventional peanut butter that does have added salt, oil and sugar, then omit any extra salt in this recipe.

Almond Flour: Almond flour provides a buttery and soft texture to the dough. I tried this recipe with oats and oat flour both, but neither worked as well. Although the dough will hold together, almond flour works the best. You can try to grind cashews in the spice grinder and use homemade cashew flour instead too. Or, use almond meal instead of almond flour.

Substitutions: Chocolate & Dates

Chocolate: Not all chocolate chips are vegan. Check the ingredient label for any animal products, such as milk powder. You can use a plain chocolate bar or chocolate chips. The chocolate will be melted either way (unless you opt out of the chocolate drizzle).

You can use vegan milk chocolate, semisweet or dark chocolate. I recommend semisweet for that perfect balance of chocolate flavor and sugar.

If you don’t want the chocolate drizzle on top, or don’t want to go to the trouble of melting the chocolate, you can also just pat down chocolate chips on top of the bars before refrigerating them, and get the chocolate flavor that way.

Dates: I always stick with Medjool dates for all energy bar or energy ball no bake recipes. This is because they have the best texture for blending, being so soft and gooey. They’re great to hold raw dough together! You can also use Deglet Noor dates. Just make sure the dates are super soft to blend.

I do not recommend to substitute with maple syrup or another liquid sweetener. The dough will be too wet and won’t hold its shape as well in terms of being able to cut it into bars.

No Bake Reese’s Peanut Butter Bars Recipe Notes

• Add a drop of vanilla extract into the base ingredients or when melting the chocolate. It’s optional, but we love some vanilla flavor in desserts!

More Delicious Recipes You’ll Love

Peanut Butter Energy Bites

Peanut Butter & Nutella Oat Cups

Homemade Peanut Butter Easter Eggs

Chocolate Peanut Butter Layer Cups: Double decker melt-in-your-mouth cups with one peanut butter layer made of powdered sugar and nut butter, topped with a second, thick chocolate layer!

No Bake Cookie Dough Cheesecake: This no bake dessert recipe uses coconut milk, dates and wholesome ingredients to make a cookie dough filling for the cheesecake, topped with a chocolate layer and cool whip!

Easy Sugar Cookies: Easy vegan sugar cookies make a great dessert! You can dress them up with frosting, sprinkles and other toppings of choice, making them themed for holiday parties, birthdays or other festivities!

If you make these No Bake Reese’s Peanut Butter Bars, then leave a comment and star rating! Don’t forget to tag your photos @peanut_palate on Instagram. Enjoy!