No-Bake Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Granola Bars

No-Bake Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Granola Bars

I made these last night for our family night snack and I love them.  They have turned in to my favorite granola bar and I am planning on making them again.  My batch made 12 bars and I used Brown Rice Crispies instead of regular ones but I am sure either would work since they taste about the same.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup butter

1/4 cup honey

2 T. peanut butter (I used smooth)
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 cups quick cooking oats (not rolled)
1 cup crispy rice cereal
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup mini chocolate chips (I used what I had which were chips that were actually a little bigger than normal, I just tried to chop them up a bit, but did a pretty lousy job of it so I have big chocolate chunks)

Instructions:

In a large bowl, stir oats and rice cereal together. Set aside. In a small pot, melt butter, honey, peanut butter and brown sugar together over medium high heat until it comes to a bubble. Reduce the heat and cook 2 minutes.  Take off the heat and pour in vanilla and stir. Pour over dry ingredients and mix well to moisten all ingredients. Pour into lightly greased small jelly roll pan or cookie sheet and press out to be about 3/4 inch in thickness.  If you want to fill the entire pan, I would double the recipe.  I used a glass cake dish that was 14X9 and I filled it about half way.  Make sure you firmly press it together so that it is compact and looks like a large granola bar.  

Sprinkle with mini chocolate chips and press down lightly. Cool on a counter top to room temperature for two hours or until the chocolate chips are set before cutting into bars. Wrap in parchment or plastic wrap and store at room temperature.

Makes about 12 bars.