These Peanut Butter Chocolate Bars are the result of what would happen if a Mars bar and a Twix had a baby, and tbh, I think it’s a match made in heaven! These bars have a crunchy shortbread layer, topped with caramelised crunchy peanut butter and then drowned in bitter dark chocolate. Every bite is sweet, crunchy, salty, nutty and so so tasty! They are super easy to make and the perfect alternative to shop bought snacks.

See, the problem I have with Mars bars is that I don’t like the soft base layer they have, but I absolutely love the peanut butter part, on the other hand, I tend to find Twix a bit too sweet, so I thought that by combining both, I’d have my favourite snack.

I’ve been thinking about making these bars for quite a while and a few weeks ago Maní Life gifted me some lovely peanut butters, so I thought it was the perfect time to try them out. I used their roasted peanut butter jar and I absolutely loved the fact that they have actual pieces of peanuts in it, so if you’re looking for a new peanut butter brand, I’d recommend giving them a go!

So what’s in them?

These are made with very little ingredients that most likely are sitting around your kitchen.

• Peanut butter – I’m starting with the obvious. We’ll caramelised it with some honey to give it a lovely caramel like flavour. I used crunchy, but smooth will work just as well.
• Honey – cooked with the peanut butter over medium heat for a few minutes will give these bar a lovely caramel taste.
• Flour, butter and caster sugar – we’ll use them to make the shortbread base, simply mix them using your hands, it’ll make a delicious shortbread.

I showed these bars on Instagram and to my surprise a lot of people were interested, what was even more surprising was the amount of people who asked me for the recipe as they are gluten free and want to make these at home. Apparently they don’t sell many gluten free bars like these, which is shocking; so if you want to make them gluten free, simply swap the flour for gluten free flour and you are ready to go!

Peanut Butter Chocolate Bars

Ingredients:

• For the shortbread:
  • 225 gr of plain flour 
  • 150 gr of cold butter 
  • 75 gr of caster sugar
• For the peanut butter middle: 
  • 330 gr of peanut butter 
  • 170gr of honey 
  • 114 gr of butter 
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract
• For the chocolate coating:
  • 300 gr of dark chocolate
  • 1 tbsp and 1/2 of butter

Method:

1. Preheat the oven at 170 degrees celsius. Line an 8×8 inch square baking tray with parchment paper. 
2. In a bowl, mix the flour, cold butter and caster sugar until fully combined, the best way to do this is either with your hands or in a food processor. Once they are mix, it should have a grainy texture that sticks together when pressed. Press the mixture into the prepared baking tray and bake for 20 minutes until slightly golden. Once ready, take it out of the oven and allow to cool down for a few minutes.
3. While the shortbread is cooling, mix in a pot the honey, peanut butter, vanilla extract and butter. Bring to a very gentle bowl over medium to low heat and cook for 2 minutes allowing the butter to melt completely.
4. Pour the peanut butter mix over the shortbread and place it in the freezer for 2 hours or until set, you can also keep it in the freezer overnight.
5. When you are ready to assemble it, place the dark chocolate and butter in a shallow bowl and melt them in the microwave stirring regularly or over a double boiler and leave aside to slightly cool down.
6. In the meantime, take your bars out of the freezer. To cut them, place a sharp knife in a jug of boiling water to heat it. Wipe the knife dry and gently cut, allowing the heat from the knife to melt through cut the caramel shortbread into bars. If your bars are starting to go too soft, place them in the freezer for a couple of minutes to firm up.
7. Cover/dip each bar in chocolate, you can use a fork or a spoon to help you with this, and sprinkle with salt.