I have had a craving to somehow combine peanut butter cookies with a vanilla-infused, brown sugar-sweetened peanut butter sauce and create a no-bake dessert.
And then I wanted to top the whole thing with chocolate frosting.
After pondering how I was going to do this, it finally came to me…
This recipe combines the peanut butter, brown sugar, and vanilla “sauce” I use in my Special K Bars…
That’s the “sauce”: Peanut Butter + Brown Sugar + Karo Syrup + Vanilla= heaven
…And just takes it one step further: adding a pound of Nutter Butter peanut butter cookies.
Here’s what I came up with. I think you’ll like it.
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No-Bake Nutter Butter Special K Bars
1 pound of Nutter Butter cookies (or vanilla/peanut butter “sandwich” cookies of any sort)
4 c Special K cereal
1/2 c butter/margarine (1 stick)
1 c Karo Syrup (this is kept near maple syrup in the grocery store, it’s cheap and has been around forever)
1 c brown sugar
1/2 c peanut butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
Directions:
Grind the Nutter Butter cookies in Vita or food processor and put into a big bowl along with the Special K.
In a sauce pan on the stove, combine the butter, Karo syrup, brown sugar and bring to a boil and boil for 3 minutes. Turn off the heat and add the peanut butter and vanilla extract and stir until combined. Some lumps from the peanut butter is ok.
Take the peanut butter sauce mixture from the stovetop and pour over the ground Nutter Butter cookies and Special K. Stir to combine everything.
Pour and press mixture into a greased 9 x 13 pan. Chill in refrigerator or freezer until set up.
Optional: Chocolate Frosting. Use prepared chocolate frosting or make your own. Follow my recipe for Vegan Chocolate Frosting. Or simply pour 1.5 to 2c of melted chocolate chips over the top of the bars.
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A visual guide
Ignore the marshmallows. I thought I may use them in the recipe but realized I had enough sugar going on for one recipe.
Grind the Nutter Butters and place into a big bowl with the Special K
Make Peanut Butter + Brown Sugar + Karo Syrup + Vanilla Sauce on the stovetop
Take the Peanut Butter Sauce and pour over the ground Nutter Butters + Special K. Stir to combine.
Press into the pan.
Make the chocolate frosting or melt chocolate chips and pour over the top
Place in fridge or freezer for a few minutes until they are set up and then, slice, serve. And let the moaning begin.
These bars are every bit as amazing as I hoped they’d be.
They combine peanut butter sandwich cookies + peanut butter sauce
Plus adding chocolate on top of anything always helps the cause
They are dense, sweet, rich, peanut buttery, vanilla-ey, and chewy.
Sinking your teeth into these is a beautiful thing.
Pretty much everything I want in a dessert, these have it: No-Bake, Sweet, Dense, Peanut Butter, Peanut Butter Cookies, Vanilla, Very Rich
They are not vegan, they are not gluten free, they are not light or healthy. They are delicious.
Enjoy!
From my last post about it Being a Zoo Out There with running errands on the weekend, yes it is! But such is life.
I had fun reading about if you’ve ever tried a blogosphere recipe and it was a fail for whatever reason. Sometimes things just don’t turn out how I’d hoped, and glad to know I am not the only one who’s had that happen.
Questions
1. Best thing you’ve done or eaten this weekend?
Best thing I’ve eaten was, hands down, these bars.
Best thing I’ve done was spending time with Skylar and getting a great workout in.
2. Are you a Peanut Butter fan?
I know some of you are going to say you like almond butter or other nut butters more than peanut butter. Those don’t hold a candle to PB for me. The only nut butter that beats/ties with peanut butter for me is Sunflower Seed Butter (TJ’s house brand rocks). But I am truly a huge peanut butter fan.
If you need a post showcasing my Peanut Butter containing recipes in everything from desserts to peanut sauce to roasted vegetables to one-pot meals with peanut butter in them, that’s your post. Of course in all the recipes you could use another kind of nut butter, too. Because I know blog readers are nut butter fiends!
3. What kind of dessert should I make next?
No Bake or Baked, Cookies, Cake, Brownies, Balls/Bites, Pies, Bars…give me some suggestions. And also flavors you’d like to see incorporated. My wheels are turning and I aim to please.
P.S. If you’re just catching up on Weekend Posts, here are mine since Friday:
- A Zoo Out There & Recipe Fails
- What Caught My Eye This Week
- Big Produce & Being Flexible
- The Best Things In Life Are Free
- Photo Editing: Before & After, Truths & Trickery
I love this recipe because I love rice crispy treats–I’m always on the lookout for fun variations! Could you make some vegan (or just dairy-free) brownies? Maybe you already have a recipe!
raw vegan GF brownies :)
https://www.loveveggiesandyoga.com/2009/08/take-two-with-chia-seeds.html
Nutter Butter cookies were my absolute favorite growing up, so I’m sure I would love those bars. They look delicious!! I’m pretty sure a certain 2 yr old would love them, too. ;-)
Best thing I ate this weekend was probably the pancakes I made for breakfast yesterday. I love pancakes. Although I had a big, amazing salad for lunch today.
PB is by far and away my favorite nut butter. I eat others for variety, but if I had to pick one it would be PB for sure.
Your next dessert should be something quick and easy. I think you are the quick & easy recipe master! :-)
these are pretty quick and easy. taking a million blog pictures, editing them, posting the recipe took forever. But actually cooking them…maybe 20 minutes including dishes? Not bad at all.
PB is generally cheap and gets the job done always, but sometimes almost tooooo salty/ sweet for me. sunflowerseed butter is my current obsession and nothing in the world is wrong with it, but we all go through phases haha! almond butter is decadent but expensive so its a once in a while treat for me. and i’m scared to spend upwards of 10$ on any other kinds and find out i don’t like them! so those are the only ones I’ve had. Have you tried cashew/ macadamia/ pecan/ walnut or any other kinds that you really recommend, or are they not really worth an arm and a leg?
these bars are very creative and look so decadent. wish i could eat gluten grrrr! maybe I’ll try to adapt the recipe with some GF cookies! hope your weekend has been great :)
-kate
I love pb too…I’ve been eating it out of the jar over the last week, yikes!
I wish I could eat your desserts everyday!! I just work out enough to not feel guilty about it. ;)
Wow Averie. Great idea!! I love that you can splurge once in a while. These look great, too bad they will have to wait until I have healed from my wisdom teeth surgery. I wonder how a Nutter Butter Special K bar smoothie would taste?? :)
smoothie..yum! You could crumble chunks of this into the smoothie…the batter is wayyyyy too thick to really turn it into a smoothie, but the crumbles would work.
WOW!! Those look AMAZING!! I love Nutter Butters, especially the wafer ones. YUM!! :D
Make something with Nutella? It’s been on my mind lately. I might try my luck with it, like a pie of some sort.
oh Nutella. I have seen so many amazing recipes with it in the sphere on some of the baking blogs i read…i need to do something with it, for sure!
Wow, those look amazing! Peanut butter is definitely top notch. I have tried cashew butter, , walnut butter, almond butter, sunflower seed butter….I just keep coming back to peanut!
Peanut butter is my all time favorite too!
those bars look to die for.
Damn, that looks delicious!
I’ll have to take a look tomorrow, if I can find similar ingredients over here in Germany. Wish me luck.
These. look. FREAKING. GOOD. Thanks for sharing naughtiness. :)
I’m a huge peanut butter fan! Best thing I’ve eaten this weekend…Korean Sweet Potates, purple, white, and orange…OMG they were so buttery, creamy and sweet. The bars look beautiful.
I love PB and I love “bars” — a MN thing maybe? :)
These look delicious and Nutter Butter cookies are super good — I don’t think I’ve had them for a long time.
I absolutely love brownies, so any recipe involving them is a good one to me!
Goodness those bars look incredible! What a creative idea to add nutter butters. Peanut butter is my top nut butter too with sunflower seed butter in a close second place.
What a crazy recipe! It looks great and nice photos. My nieces would love this … not my nephew since he has a peanut allergy though! :-(
1. Probably my pesto pasta yesterday and seeing Sucker Punch.
2. Yes, but more of an almond butter fan now.
3. Something high-raw with a light, fruity flavor like mango tarts.
thanks for the photo compliments…no matter how many shots I took, I don’t “love” any of them. They are fine, just not like…in love with them, so thanks :)
I would have a hard time not eating the pb sauce before it got to the bars! yum!
yes I could just drink the sauce..it smells and tastes heavenly!
Oh yum! Nutter Butters were always my fav growing up. Love the no-bake revamp of this treat!