Salted Peanut Chews Candy — Salty-and-sweet with a little bit of crunchy and lots of chewy-and-gooey!! So easy and a crowd favorite!! Mmm!
Salty-and-sweet with a little bit of crunchy and a whole lot of chewy-and-gooey. That’s what I’m talking about.
I made these bars one night when I was on a pantry cleanout mission to reduce my half used boxes and bags of ingredients. Baking for a living produces some serious odd-and-ends.
It’s an easy, one-bowl, no-mixer recipe that’s faster than you’d imagine to whip together. I love it when minimal effort produces big-time oohs and ahhs.
There’s a buttery, flaky, peanut butter shortbread base, topped with marshmallows, followed by a melted peanut butter chip mixture with Rice Krispies and salted peanuts stirred in.
Biting down through all the layers is such a taste and texture treat. And quite a mouthful. These babies turned out pretty thick, courtesy of the large marshmallows.
My daughter loves marshmallows and said she’d like to take a nap on those big puffy ‘mallows.
There’s tons of peanut flavor from the peanut butter in the crust, the melted peanut butter chips, and the peanuts. Combined with texture from the cereal, I was in salty-and-sweet cereal bar heaven.
Ingredients in Peanut Chews
The peanut chews candy has three layers: the peanut butter shortbread crust, the marshmallow filling, and the chewy peanut topping. Here’s what you’ll need to make this recipe:
- All-purpose flour
- Confectioners’ sugar
- Creamy peanut butter
- Unsalted butter
- Marshmallows
- Peanut butter chips
- Corn syrup
- Vanilla extract
- Rice Krispies
- Salted peanuts
How to Make Peanut Chews
Don’t let the multiple layers fool you, this is a very easy peanut butter chews recipe! Here’s a look at how the candy gets made:
- Make the Crust: In a large bowl, add the flour, confectioners’ sugar, peanut butter, and cut in the butter with two forks.
- Turn mixture out into a foil-lined 8×8-inch pan, hard-packing it with your fingertips in an even, smooth, flat layer to form a crust.
- Bake just until set.
- Make the Middle: Remove pan from oven and evenly sprinkle with marshmallows.
- Return pan to oven for about 3 to 4 minutes. Remove pan from oven; set aside.
- Make the Topping: In a large microwave-safe bowl, add the peanut butter chips, corn syrup, butter, and heat on high power to melt.
- Add the vanilla and stir to combine.
- Add the cereal, peanuts, and stir to combine.
- Turn mixture out on top of marshmallows, smoothing the top with a spatula and lightly smooshing it down so the layers meld together.
- Cover pan with a sheet of foil and place in the fridge until set.
Recipe Variations to Try
- Marshmallows: I used large marshmallows because that’s what I had on hand. Use minis if that’s what you have.
- Peanuts: I used Trader Joe’s honey roasted peanuts, but use your favorite.
- Cereal: If you don’t have Rice Krispies on hand, feel free to turn these into peanut butter cornflake chews.
- Peanut butter chips: Could be swapped for butterscotch chips to make PB butterscotch chews.
Can the Recipe Be Doubled?
Yes, very easily! Simply double the ingredients and use a 9×13-inch pan. The bake time should remain the same.
Tips for Making Peanut Chews Candy
Crust: Don’t overbake since the pan is going back in to melt marshmallows, or the crust will be crumbly.
Marshmallows: Cook just until puffed, don’t brown them and watch them very closely so they don’t burn! Mini marshmallows will puff quicker and turn brown faster than large ones.
Storage: The bars will last up to 5 days at room temperature, but I recommend eating them quickly as the marshmallow filling will become slightly rubbery over time.
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Salted Peanut Chews
Ingredients
Crust
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup confectioners sugar
- ¼ cup creamy peanut butter
- ½ cup unsalted butter, softened
Middle
- about 2 heaping cups marshmallows, most of one 10-ounce bag; I used large marshmallows, use mini if you prefer bars not as thick
Topping
- one 10-ounce bag peanut butter chips
- ⅓ cup light-colored corn syrup, not ‘lite’
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 ½ cups Rice Krispies or similar crispy rice cereal
- 1 ½ cups salted peanuts or salted honey roasted peanuts
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F. Line an 8-by-8-inch baking pan with aluminum foil, spray with cooking spray; set aside.
- Crust – In a large bowl, add the flour, confectioners’ sugar, peanut butter, and cut in the butter with two forks. Keep working until mixture is combined and pea-sized crumbly bits are present.
- Turn mixture out into prepared pan, hard-packing it with your fingertips in an even, smooth, flat layer to form a crust. It’s sticky and a bit challenging to work with but just take your time. Bake for about 15 to 17 minutes, or just until set. Don’t overbake since pan is going back in to melt marshmallows, or crust will be crumbly.
- Middle – Remove pan from oven and evenly sprinkle with marshmallows. Return pan to oven for about 3 to 4 minutes (but start watching closely after 2 minutes) or until mallows are puffed; don’t brown them and watch them very closely so they don’t burn. Mini marshmallows will puff quicker and turn brown faster than large ones. Remove pan from oven; set aside.
- Topping – In a large microwave-safe bowl (same one used for crust is okay, just wipe with a paper towel), add the peanut butter chips, corn syrup, butter, and heat on high power to melt, about 2 minutes total but stop to check and stir every 30 seconds and heat in short burst until mixture can be stirred smooth.
- Add the vanilla and stir to combine.
- Add the cereal, peanuts, and stir to combine.
- Turn mixture out on top of marshmallows, smoothing the top with a spatula and lightly smooshing it down so the layers meld together.
- Cover pan with a sheet of foil and place in the fridge for at least 2 hours, or until set, before slicing and serving. Bars will keep airtight at room temp for up to 5 days, or in the freezer for up to 6 months.
- Adapted from Peanut Chewy Payday Bars
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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More Peanut Dessert Recipes:
Peanut Butter Butterscotch Fudge — This is an easy, no-bake recipe that’s as easy as melting together butter, peanut butter, and butterscotch chips before stirring in marshmallows and refrigerating.
Peanut Chewy Payday Bars — Like the classic candy bar and with a layer of marshmallow, too! Soft and chewy, salty-and-sweet all in one easy bar!
No-Bake Peanut Butter Marshmallow Cereal Bars (GF) — Chewy, gooey, and tons of peanut butter flavor!
Chocolate Peanut Butter Kit Kat Crunch Bars (no-bake) — Love KitKats and peanut butter together!
Peanut Butter Butterscotch Bars — Soft, chewy bars loaded with butterscotch! The satiny smooth peanut butter frosting is amazing!
Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge Bars — Can’t decide if you want PB or chocolate? Make these easy, no-bake bars! Chocolate + PB is sooo irresistible!!
Droooooooling. These look so good! I love the sweet and salty combo.
I love payday bars, Averie! These definitely remind me of them. I love all of the peanut goodness and how chewy they are!
I need some of these right now! I’ll take a batch to go please. :-)
These bars look so good! I wish I had a few right now! Way to make something delicious from cleaning out your pantry! Pinned of course!
I’m sure you have those days where you’re like okay, I have GOT to thin this stash down :)
The top layer looks especially good (when I didn’t have an oven that topping could have worked on its own for me). But layers are so much more interesting and some PB in the shortbread crust sounds amazing. I would have a hard time choosing between this recipe and your first version!!
I think I like this version better, just because it’s like the 2nd trip to the rodeo and I know more what to expect, what I wanted out of the recipe, etc but I mean you can’t go wrong! And yes that top layer alone, it’s like the non-chocolate version of this top layer, and with peanuts instead. And I looooove that vibe, that one, this one, you’re right – good enough to eat on it’s own! https://www.averiecooks.com/chocolate-peanut-butter-fudge-bars/
I love fluffernutter sandwiches and this is all the flavors of that with the addition of salt…sounds so good can’t wait to try.
This is kind of like a fluffernutter, you’re right! :)
I want to marry these bars. They are heaven. The layers are incredible!
And Trader Joe’s has the best peanut selection. I love that store way more than I should!
I love it wayyyy more than I should, too! Totally :)
Wow! They are everything I could want from a bar: peanutbutter, rice krispies, and marshmallows. Sweet and salty at the same time! This recipe gets high on my to bake list.
Would these hold together without marshmallows? I’ve a vegetarian and most marshmallows have gelatin, but I could probably find some vegan marshmallows somewhere. Then again, those might behave differently, too.
Would these hold together without marshmallows? = Unlikely. The top and bottom wouldn’t really have much to glue them together. You’d be fine with vegan ‘mallows I think, but you do need some sort of marshmallow.
These look AWESOME! What an amazing way to use up your pantry leftovers. That’s what I love about baking, making something wonderful, out of basically nothing!
And you make room in your cupboards in the process!
I would eat the crap out that top layer! The rest looks good too, but rice krispies with peanut butter has my name ALL over it!
The top layer was SO GOOD! It’s reminiscent of a recipe I put in my first cookbook, but that one was more like this https://www.averiecooks.com/2014/10/chocolate-peanut-butter-fudge-bars.html, a chocolate/pb version rather than a pb/peanuts version!
I want to be in salty & sweet cereal heaven! Oh my, these look so dang good!
You make the best bar cookies! These look incredible, I love all the peanut butter. That sweet and salty combo is the best!
You seriously make magic in the kitchen! These Salted Peanut Chews look amazing. I loveee anything peanut flavoured so these are right up my alley! Great recipe.
https://www.skinnybelle.com/
These look incredible! They remind me of those salted nut rolls only 10x better because of the rice krispies and peanut butter! Pinned!
everything about these looks PERFECT!
Agreed! and I read that peanuts are the unsung hero of the nut world. For a nutty guy like me……that does seem perfect.