Repost: No Bake Nutter Butter Chocolate Bars

Here's the deal, I'm going to be pretty busy for the next two weeks and not able to post. But instead of just not posting anything I'm going to do a bunch of reposts of old stuff that would be good to make for a barbecue or whatever. Aren't I thoughtful? Heh.

So here's the first one, the No Bake Nutter Butter Chocolate Bars I made last summer. They don't take long at all to make, so it's perfect for those times when you're supposed to bring a dessert and completely flaked about it. Not that that ever happens to me of course...

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1 cup crushed Nutter Butters (about 10)
3/4 cup oats (regular, not quick oats)
3/4 cup melted chocolate (good eating chocolate)
2/3 cup powdered sugar
1 cup chunky peanut butter
4 tbls salted butter

Spray an 8x8 pan with cooking spray. Line with a strip of parchment paper that hangs a couple inches over two sides, forming a sling kind of... thing. Crush the cookies fairly fine and mix them together with the sugar and oats. Melt the butter over low heat in a small sauce pan, once it's melted add the peanut butter. Stir till melted and combined. Add to the sugar/oat mixture and mix to combine. Spread in an even layer in the pan. Refrigerate, covered, for 20 minutes. Melt the chocolate, pour it over the chilled peanut butter mixture and spread it evenly over the top. Return to the fridge and chill, covered, for at least a half hour. To cut it run a large chef's knife under hot water for a minute, dry it off and then cut the bars into squares, wiping the knife clean after each slice.

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First, a warning. Kids, these babies are rich. Like the Monopoly guy dipped in cheesecake rich. At first I was worried that I would eat the whole pan in an evening, but that isn't even a concern. And I'm known for my ability to eat way more sweets than is necessary. So, invite some friends over to share them with and have a glass of milk handy, but do make these. They are wicked good.

The other day it was 90 degrees here. In April. Way too hot to bake without a/c. But, I wanted to make something sweet. It's not a big shock that I picked peanuts and chocolate for the flavors, I think my proclivity for that combination is well known. So I scoured the 'nets, squished a bunch of no bake bar recipes together and came up with this. It takes a little bit of stove time, but it's nothing like having the oven on 350 for a half hour. Here's what I did.

First, cookies. I used Nutter Butters. Because they are awesome. These are the half box size kind that you can get in a certain kind of convenient store. It's the whole package of them. Well, most of a package, anyway. Heh. You could use any kind of cookie you wanted, I can't imagine any would be bad. Oreos, chocolate chip, even some kind of fruit jelly ones. It's not hard to find a match for peanut butter. Then I crushed them up and added the powdered sugar and oats. Mixed that together and set it aside. Then I melted butter. Sweet, sweet butter. Well, salty butter. I used regular salted butter so I wouldn't have to add salt. Pretty clever, eh? Once it was melted I added the peanut butter and stirred them around till they were combined in a peanuty buttery goo. Then I poured that into the dry ingredients. Mixed it together and spread it into the prepared pan. With lots of differences in lighting. Apparently. The pan had been prepared by spraying it with cooking spray and then lining it with a strip of parchment paper that hung over two sides a couple inches forming a kind of sling. And after that big run-on sentence I don't have any pics to show you what I meant. Hopefully you understood.

I also couldn't spread the mixture with anything but my hands, it was just too thick. But it's also not rocket science so I spread it kind of evenly and tossed it in the fridge. After fifteen or so minutes I melted the chocolate. Now here's the thing about the chocolate for this, I'm not going to tell you what kind to use other than good eating chocolate.

Want dark? Dark chocolate goes well with peanut butter. Milk? Sure, it's always tasty. White chocolate? If that's what you're into then go for it. All chocolate goes well with peanut butter. I'm pretty sure that's written somewhere. Anyway, I'm melting some milk chocolate since that's what the girlfriend likes. The stove isn't on yet and that chocolate was in air conditioning not too long before this. I hate the heat. Give me winter any day. But that's neither here nor there, I melted the chocolate and spread it onto the chilled peanut butter mixture then tossed it back into the fridge. Left it in for about a half hour then pulled it out. You could just hack at it with a carving knife or break it up like bark, if you are going for the rustic look. I wanted to be fancy so I ran my chef knife under hot water for a minute then wiped it dry. Then when I cut into it I got fairly neat lines and weird little melty chocolate edges at the top. And that's that. No bake peanut butter chocolate bars. Good times folks, good times.