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Peanut butter cereal bars are an easy recipe made with crunchy cereal, peanut butter, chocolate and a few other ingredients! Try this cereal bar recipe for these tasty no bake peanut butter bars made in 30 minutes!
Do you love peanut butter? Are you looking for a crunchy treat? Peanut Butter Cereal Bars are the perfect crunchy treat loaded with peanut flavor. This easy recipe comes together in 30 minutes and requires no baking. Cereal bars are the perfect after school treat or snack loaded with peanut butter flavor. If you love peanut butter snacks, try our peanut butter pancakes, peanut butter smoothie or three ingredient peanut butter cookies.
You probably have most of the ingredients for these cereal bars already in your pantry. The recipes comes together quickly and easily to create a snack that you can enjoy for days. These bars are by no means healthy, but they are a sweet treat loaded with crunchy peanut flavor. They are the perfect morning or afternoon snack. The chocolate drizzle adds another dimension of sweetness, but doesn’t overpower the peanut butter flavor.
How to make cereal bars
To make these cereal bars, combine cereal and peanuts in a large bowl. In a medium saucepan set over medium heat, stir together the sugar and corn syrup. Bring the mixture to a boil for one minute. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the peanut butter, vanilla and salt. Stir until the mixture is smooth.
Pour the sugar mixture over the cereal mixture and toss with a rubber spatula until the cereal is completely coated with the sugar mixture. Line a 13 x 9 inch pan with parchment paper so that the paper hangs over the sides. Butter or grease the parchment paper. Pour the mixture into the prepared pan. Spread evenly over the bottom of the pan. Be careful not to crush the cereal.
Place the pan in the refrigerator for 20 minutes to chill.
While the mixture is chilling, melt chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a pot of simmering water. Use a spoon or piping bag to drizzle the chocolate over the bars. Allow the chocolate to set before cutting into small bars.
Full instructions and recipe ingredients are below.
If you love this cereal bar recipe, try a few other delicious cereal bar recipes below.
Cereal bar recipes
- Peanut butter honey cereal bars
- Chocolate peanut butter rice krispie treats
- S’mores marshmallow treats
Peanut Butter Cereal Bars
Ingredients
- 6 cups crunchy plain cereal, (I used Rice Chex)
- 1 1/4 cups salted peanuts, chopped
- 1 cup dark brown sugar
- 1 cup light corn syrup
- 1 cup creamy peanut butter
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 6 ounces milk chocolate, chopped
Instructions
- Line a 13 x 9 inch pan with parchment so that the paper hangs over the sides. Butter the parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, combine the cereal and peanuts and toss with a spoon to mix well.
- In a medium saucepan over medium heat, stir together the sugar and corn syrup. Bring the mixture to a boil for one minute. Remove from the heat and stir in the peanut butter, vanilla and salt. Stir until the mixture is smooth.
- Pour the sugar mixture over the cereal mixture and toss with a rubber spatula until the cereal is completely coated with the sugar mixture.
- Pour the mixture into the prepared pan. Using the rubber spatula, spread the mixture over the bottom of the pan, being careful not to crush the cereal. Place the pan in the fridge for 20 minutes to allow the mixture to cool.
- While the mixture is cooling, melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a pot of simmering water. Use a spoon or piping bag to drizzle chocolate over top of the mixture. Allow the chocolate to set.
- Lift the mixture out of the pan and cut into small bars.
Notes
- Store at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 3 days.
- Drizzle melted peanut butter over the tops for extra peanut butter flavor.
- Use a rubber spatula to stir and prevent sticking.
- We use Rice Chex but you can use any crunchy cereal.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
These would make such a great after school snack!! My favorite flavor combo 🙂
My kids jump for joy when I make these peanut butter cereal bars!!
My girls love this recipe for an easy breakfast!
I love everything peanut butter + chocolate. These would be my perfect meal, haha!
I’m going to have to check out that book. It looks awesome.
I love how gooey and peanut-buttery these look! And with the pretty drizzle of chocolate, what could be better? I used to eat Chex almost every morning as a kid, but haven’t had it in years. These are bringing back fond memories : )
What a great snack Ashley! I love crunchy cereal bars and this sounds fabulous with the salted peanuts and peanut butter! Yum, the melted chocolate glaze looks delicious 🙂
I ate this for breakfast and it was amazing! ok… I ate it for snack too!