Peanut Butter Crunch Bars

A few months back I was given the book '101 Things To Do With Chocolate' by Stephanie Ashcraft. Needing a sweet for church on Sunday, I decided on Peanut Butter Crunch Bars. Like most of the goodies I make, I try to use ingredients I already have in the pantry.

Peanut Butter Crunch Bars
1 box chocolate cake mix
2 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup creamy or crunchy peanut butter (I used crunchy for texture)

topping:
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips (can also use milk chocolate for a sweeter taste)
1/2 cup creamy or crunchy peanut butter
1 1/2 cups crispy rice cereal

I laugh a little when I look at this pic because it seems I'm promoting all these big name companies. It's just what I had on hand.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a bowl, mix together cake mix, eggs, and oil until dough forms. (It is a dense dough.) Stir in peanut butter. Spread dough evenly into a lightly greased 9 x 13-inch pan. Bake 18-20 minutes. Cool 20-25 minutes.

I used 2 8x8-inch pans and baked for 12-13 minutes.

For the topping, melt chocolate chips and peanut butter together in a saucepan over low heat. Remove from heat. (I put the chocolate chips into a microwave safe bowl and heated for 40 seconds. I added the peanut butter, mixed together and microwaved for an additional 30 seconds.) Fold cereal into melted chocolate sauce. (You want to fold cereal in order to prevent breaking it into tiny pieces.) Spread mixture evenly over bars. Cool completely and cut into bars. Makes 24 bars.


As I was measuring out the rice krispies, I poured 1 cup into the chocolate/peanut butter mixture and then measured the last half cup. After measuring and trying to be efficient, I closed up the box and forgot about the half cup of cereal. Not wanting to put it back into the box, I decided to sprinkle it on top of the bars and drizzled some chocolate syrup over the top to make it look nice. :-) Can't ever have too much chocolate.