Peanut Butter Cup Rice Krispie Bars

It’s funny how sometimes the easier things in life are the ones you can more easily screw up on. For example, take math. I always seem to make these really dumb mistakes like forgetting how to add/multiply or reading an “s” as a 5. Seriously, my life is basically full of dumb mistakes that I make on the easier things. Anyways relating that to today’s post, over the weekend my friends and I have a potluck get together at my house before going to see MVSNL. The day started out great, first a bunch of us went shopping at VF and got free frozen yogurt from Red Mango, yummy I got green tea with mochi pieces. Then Constantine found her dream prom dress. Then we headed back to my place. So as you know the whole point of a potluck is for everyone to bring a dish so no one has to spend a lot of money and time planning the whole party. As usual I called dessert. I made the Apple Bavarian Tart and decided to try out a new recipe which I found on Baking Bites, one of my new favorite sites. Peanut butter is my new in ingredient and I love rice krispies bars and chocolate so this was a perfect recipe. Back to the dumb mistake thing, so some how I screwed up on making the rice krispie bars! I mean how hard is that? Just melt marshmallows and butter then combine with the rice krispie cereal. I think it was because my bag of marshmallows must have gotten too close to the microwave or something like that because all of the marshmallows were stuck together. Also I use generic brands for both the marshmallows and rice cereal and probably added way too much butter. The bars were not crunchy at all. 😦 Anyways, the peanut butter and chocolate was a nice combination and I ate like three bars everyday.

The rice krispie cereal.

Look at all those marshmallows stuck together! And way too much butter!

Melted marshmallow mixture.

Mixing the cereal and marshmallow mixture together.

Pressing it in the pan.

Creaming peanut butter and butter. Tip: since peanut butter is extremely sticky, before measuring it spray your measuring cup and spoon with non stick cooking spray, that way the peanut butter won’t stick as much.

Adding powdered sugar and milk.

Spreading the peanut butter mixture.

Melting chocolate and butter.

Spreading the chocolate mixture.

All done and cooled and ready to eat!

Ingredients

Peanut Butter Cup Rice Krispie Bars
2 tbsp butter
5-oz marshmallows (1/2 large bag)
3 cups rice krispies/puffed rice cereal

Peanut Butter Filling
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
3/4 cup crunchy peanut butter (natural or regular)
1 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
1 tbsp milk

Chocolate Topping
1/4 cup butter, room temperature
1 cup semisweet/dark chocolate chips

Directions

Lightly grease a 9×9-inch pan.
In a large, microwave safe bowl, combine butter and marshmallows. Heat until butter is melted and marshmallows are soft. Stir to combine. Fold in rice cereal with a spatula, then pour mixture into prepared pan and press into an even layer. Allow to cool and set at room temperature.
For the peanut butter layer, combine all filling ingredients in a medium bowl and beat with an electric mixer until smooth. The consistency should be like frosting. If it is too crumbly (consistency may vary slightly by type of peanut butter used), add an additional tablespoon or two of milk until filling is spreadable. Spread onto cereal layer.
For the chocolate topping, melt chocolate chips and butter in a small, microwave-safe bowl. Stir until smooth. Pour over peanut butter layer and, using an offset spatula or regular spatula, spread chocolate to cover entire surface. Let chocolate set up at room temperature before slicing. Makes 20 rectangular candy bars.

Grade: B+
Despite the fact that I screwed up on the rice krispie part the peanut butter and chocolate still turned out nicely. However, this was little bit too rich for my taste, maybe next time I should halve the peanut butter filling. It was still good nevertheless!