Peanut Butter Freaks Unite.
If someone would have told me ten years ago that I would spend the majority of my time in a kitchen stirring peanut butter and butter together over a hot stove, I think I would have punched them in the face.
Mostly just out of disbelief.
Partly because I want to punch someone in the face just to see what happens. Not because I want to harm someone’s pretty face, but because… I want to like… see what it feels like. I think it’d really hurt my hand.
But this is totally how I found myself earlier this week.. standing over a hot stove stirring waaaaay too much peanut butter in a very large pot. AÂ gigantic part of me just wanted to sit on the seat of a pretty bay window (which I don’t have) and spoon this directly down my throat while staring out at the deep blue yonder.
I don’t know what that means but it’s what I wanted to do.
It was nearly impossible to resist.
So this normally isn’t my type of recipe – if I’m going to melt anything in a large pot with marshmallows it’s only going to be brown butter and crisped rice cereal – but the minute it popped into my inbox from a reader (thanks Jenn!), I could not stop thinking about it. So simple! So easy! So few ingredients! I tend to be more of a chocolate-in-your-face dessert person, but these were calling my name. Loudly.
Jenn told me how she was in charge of making desserts last year in the cafe where she worked and how quickly these were gobbled up. What Jenn also should have told me was that these make the ideal comfort food when you want to eat your emotions over the end of Desperate Housewives, a show you haven’t watched since 2005 but are still somewhat affected by, nonetheless.
Now here’s the thing: you really have to be a peanut butter freak. I mean, we’re talking SERIOUS freakery here. I almost swapped out the butterscotch chips for chocolate, but I didn’t even go there. Oh no I didn’t.
Holy mother of peanut butter.
Can a peanut butter dessert be rich? Because these are super, super rich and that’s the only way I can describe it. And super, super peanut buttery. Shocking, I know. But they are light too. Have I thoroughly confused your brain?
You certainly have to loooooove peanut butter in order to celebrate the deliciousness of these bars. That dude I live with isn’t a peanut-butter-in-dessert fan (yeah, what?), so after taking a bite he deemed this all mine.
Not a problem. Not a problem at all.
No Bake Peanut Butter Marshmallow Squares
makes one 9×13 pan
2 cups creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 11-ounce bag butterscotch morsels
2 10.5-ounce bags mini marshmallows
Heat a large pot over low heat and add peanut butter, butter and butterscotch chips. Constantly stir until totally melted – this will take about 10 minutes, but eventually everything will melt. Remove from heat and set aside to cool for about 10 more minutes.
Fold in marshmallows until evenly coated and distributed – some may melt, and that’s fine. Spray a 9×13 pan with nonstick spray, then spread mixture in the pan. Let sit at room temperature for a few hours to firm up, or place in the fridge. I loved these refrigerated!
Ugh. So good.
183 Comments on “Peanut Butter Freaks Unite.”
I am soooo going to make these this weekend! My husband loves peanut butter. So much, that when I’m having a non baking mood because I feel like I should be on that subway commercial where peoples buttons fly off their pants, he goes to the pantry & gets peanut butter and a spoon. Seriously.
I’m so happy not to be the only one who just wants to know how it FEELS to punch someone in the face! (I kinda want to get shot for the same reason…and survive, of course).
Also, these look too easy not to try, even though I will be swapping the butterscotch (yerkch) for chocolate!
Kids are sooo gonna love this!
“Happy Cooking”
Those look ridiculous!! I want one.
Mmm! I wanted a little crunch with these, so I added some Reese’s Puffs cereal. Because, y’know, there just wasn’t enough peanut butter already…SO good!
You, Liz, are my hero!
Holy cow those look good!!! I like easy. These could me by new go to kid treat!
Umm….
My favorite peanut butter extravagance is bacon, lettuce and tomatoe with peanut butter on both sides of a darkly toasted english muffin! DELISH,!!!
If you love peanut butter, try my Peanut Butter Fudge recipe:
Grease a large dish ir small platter with butter.
In a medium sized pan combine
2 cups sugar, 1 cup whole milk, 3 Tbsp butter
Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly. When mixture thickens and reaches soft ball stage (either use a candy thermometer or have a small glass of water and put a tsp of mixture in the water. If you can make a small soft ball with your fingers while in the water, it is ready) Remove from heat and add 1 cup creamy peanut butter and 1 tsp vanilla. Beat until thickened and pour onto the dish. Let cool then cut into squares.
nobody cares
holy cow! i am SOOO upset that my favorite show on earth is over!!!!!!!! i really don’t know how in the world i will survive w/o my one hr of extreme drama every sun at 9. :(
these look amazing girl!
ohhhhh i’m sooooo gonna’ make these . and plop them down beside some made with NUTELLA in place of the peanut butter too!!!
Oh god please, i need these. I love peanut butter. Which made me sad when my mother-in-law relentlessly tried to convince me of it’s negative health impact which isn’t necessarily true seeing that she fed her kids nutella for breakfast and nutella is the equivalent of a chocolate bar. But anyways, I want these.
LOVE! Without even trying, you posted a naturally gluten-free dessert that I can make without having to change anything! I am so making these. I’m also going to try with chocolate chips…. :-D
UPDATE: I made these yesterday – only I substituted one of the bags of marshmallows with two cups of gluten-free rice krispies. I also spread them out into a larger jelly roll pan (12×15 I think?) so I got more bars. These are TO DIE FOR. I’m getting rave reviews from the folks at work. Plus they were SO EASY. These are definitely going in my arsenal… Thanks, Jessica!
This sounds like peanut butter fudge but 10 times better! Can’t wait to try!
All I can think about is making half the recipe with butterscotch chips and half with chocolate and then layering them in the pan. OR making half with Nutella and half with peanut butter. OR making half like the recipe and then half with crunchy peanut butter and something crunchy instead of the marshmallows (like the peanut butter crunch cereal that someone suggested). Basically, I want to make layers. LAYERS!
Now YOU are my hero Kelley!
Wow! Peanut Butter freaks indeed. These look decadent in a peanut buttery way. I’m afraid I would eat all of these by myself and not because anyone turned them down, but because I didn’t share… Awesome!
This recipe will go into the “make on Sunday night so my husband can take a good portion of it to work with him the next day IF they last that long” category.
We make these every Christmas, but with mini rainbow marshmallows. It wouldn’t be the holidays without these.
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Did the butterscotch chips give it a butter scotch taste? Did you end up trying it with chocolate chips. I enjoyed reading your blog.
One of my favourite things to eat in the world. Full stop. I make a version with coconut and coloured marshmallows (for maximum ridiculousness): http://casualbaker.blogspot.fr/2010/09/why-twitter-is-bad-influence.html.
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Holy of all that is HOLLLLLYYYYYYY!
Just made them and waiting for them to cool. One question – How do you NOT weigh 300 lbs??
You make so many delicious treats. We also finish all of them in my household within 2 days so I am afraid to make more of your desserts for fear of gaining weight! That’s a compliment. I am prego with my second and watching my weight so I’ll be giving at least 1/2 of these away to my friends and letting hubby and toddler finish the majority.
My Hubby is OBsessed with these, and something deep in my soul refuses to acknowledge them as a legitimate food. Even as a dessert. This may partly be because he insists they need to have the coloured marshmallows, which all on their own make me want to hurl – why would anyone want a “fruit” flavoured marshmallow?! *shudder*
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These sound fantastic!
I might add peanuts and those crispy chow mein noodles too just for texture… Yum! :)
My hubby makes these for my birthday for me in a gluten free style, instead of the marshmallows he uses corn flakes and calls them butterscotch bars. so yum and make me happy since I skip cake.
Love it. May offer him this idea twist.
Enjoy!
Chris
These are a staple in our house! The trick is to let your peanut butter mixture sit in the pan (off heat) until you can hold your hand on the bottom of the pot. Coloured marshmallows make them that much more festive! I’ve also made them with natural crunchy peanut butter, and they were my all-time favourite! Not overly sweet and the crunch was an amazing addition. I grew up on these.
I made these last night for a game night with some friends and they loved all the peanut buttery goodness. I did add some drizzles of melted dark chocolate on top for some extra pazazz. And as a bonus it was gluten free, so my celiac afflicted friend could indulge as well. Thanks!
That looks amazing! I’ve been eagerly following your blog and I must tell you it’s a great inspiration for me. So thanks so much for all your wonderful recipes, and especially your absolutely amazing food photography! It’s truly pleasant to read your blog.
Talking about peanut butter, I recently baked myself a birthday cake with layers of chocolate and peanut butter. Yum! You can find it here aboutsouffle. tumblr. com/.
Keep posting :-)
Noora
We love sunflower seed butter in our house. Do you think that could work at well?
Totally trying these. Possibly tonight.
Yum! These are also excellent with the fruit flavored marshmallows. I know, it sounds strange, but it is true. I make multiple batches of these with fruity marshmallows every year for our school’s Gingerbread Adventure competition, bake sale, tea, and silent auction. They sell out in the first couple of hours. (Along with the caramel corn ~ recipe on the bag of popcorn twists. YUM!)
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MY.FAVE.EVER.
howsweeteats.com is one of the best website . We love it. Please keep continue this service for us .
Heaven is now on earth
That looks awesome! I love peanut butter, marshmallow, and butterscotch. I’ve been known to do some strange things with peanut butter – just check out http://feedyourfussyeater.wordpress.com/2012/04/21/a-strange-concoction/ to see what I did. That’s the work of a real peanut butter freak!
These are a staple in my house at Christmas time – only we make them with coloured marshmallows. We call them “Church Windows” and they are always the first thing to go off the plate of goodies :) So GOOD!
These were sooo good… I substituted one cup of the creamy peanut butter for crunchy to add a little texture.. Yum!
I made these this weekend and they got annihilated!
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I made a half batch this weekend. :) Now that we have just finished the pan… The verdict is the sauce -butter/peanut butter/butterscotch chips – is amazing, and needs to be poured over every dessert. The marshmallows, well, we 5 liked them for the first bite or two, but where missing something that had some toothieness to it. I think we are going to mix it up a bit next time, use half the marshmallows and replace the volume with Golden Graham Cereal, or maybe Chex.
P.S. – I melted everything in the microwave in about a minute and a half – all together in one bowl. Stirred to combine. Then sprayed a bigger bowl with some non stick spray, dumped the marshmallows in (a whole 16oz bag minus 4 kids handfuls – figured it would be close.) and then poured the golden goo on top and gently mixed it all. Then put it in a 9×9. Then 5 of us preceded to argue, lick and clean the bowls like our dog. *grin*
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These look DELICIOUS. I’m going to try adding gluten-free Rice Krispies to give them some crunch and to keep them gluten-free!
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i will definitely do this one with the grandchildren……as if there isn’t enough gooooo in our lives……THANK YOU!!! and i think its a great idea to have all the links printed out, so i can come back and try something else!
These. Were. Amazing! I messed up a brownie recipe for a gathering I had tonight, and had to find something quick, easy, ingredients I had, and no requirement of an oven in this summer heat. Bingo! This is one of the tastiest dessert recipes I’ve made, and it called for nearly no effort. Everyone raved over them and requested to take any leftovers home. The only thing I did differently was to use semi sweet chocolate chips in lieu of the butterscotch – only because it’s what I had on hand. I think it’d also be wonderful as written, with butterscotch chips! But it was also wonderful with chocolate. You can never go wrong with a peanut butter and chocolate combination, right? :) Oh, I also added chopped peanuts and sprinkled them over the top before placing in the fridge. A great addition! The texture of slight crunch plus smoothness of the squares was fantastic! This recipe is going into my binder, permanently. Thank you so much for sharing your recipe with us. :)