It’s National Peanut Butter Day and I think we should celebrate with Peanut Butter Cheesecake Bars!
And give recognition to the important role that peanut butter plays in our lives.
Now, back to peanut butter cheesecake bars! When it comes to my dessert recipes, they are kind of like my kids. I love them all. But every now and then one takes a few moments in the favorite spot. If you are a kid, it usually involves things like being cooperative, not fighting with your sibling over who sits where on the the couch and not screaming like a banshee. If you are a dessert, it usually involves a lot of different flavors and textures, all coming together beautifully. And for today, these peanut butter cheesecake bars are my favorite kid. Or dessert. Or whatever.
If you like cheesecake and you like peanut butter, you just need to change your plans for the day, gather up the ingredients for these peanut butter cheesecake bars. You will not regret it, trust me.
The only thing you might regret is total lack of self control and consuming an embarrassingly large serving of these once you get a taste. They are THAT good. Buttery crust. Cheesecake. Peanut Butter Cups. Peanut Butter Chips. Chocolate Chips. GOOD STUFF.
I seriously can’t wait for you to try these. In general I’m not a huge cheesecake person. It’s fine, it’s just never what I’d pick off a dessert menu. My husband loves it, so I try and indulge him now and then. These bars might change all that, these might be one of my favorites. Now, like which kid might be in the favorite spot one day, that can change, but I’m pretty certain that just like my kids, I’ll love them like crazy cakes. Or crazy bars.
If you love these bars, make sure to also check out my Ooey Gooey Butter Cake bars, I think you will love them!
For this recipe I love to use my 8×8 pan with the removable bottom.
PEANUT BUTTER CHEESECAKE BARS
Peanut Butter Cheesecake Bars
Ingredients
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 2 eggs
- 5 tbsp butter melted
- 5 oz cream cheese softened
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 8 standard size Reese's Peanut Butter each chopped into four pieces
- 1 cup chocolate chips
- 1 cup peanut butter chips
Instructions
- 1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- 2. In a large bowl mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar to prepare the cake mixture. Add in melted butter and stir to combine. Add in one of the eggs and stir to combine well. Press mixture into an 8x8 sized baking pan and set aside.
- 3. Place the chopped peanut butter cups into the pan on top of the cake mixture. Sprinkle with 1/2 cup chocolate chips and 1/2 cups peanut butter chips.
- 4. In a separate bowl mix together softened cream cheese, egg, vanilla and powdered sugar. Stir until well combined then pour mixture over the top of your cake mixture and chocolates. Spread gently with a spatula to cover. Sprinkle top of cream cheese layer with remaining chocolate and peanut butter chips.
- 5. Bake for approximately 30-35 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from oven and let cool. Store in fridge (though take out of fridge about 10 minute prior to eating). Enjoy!
Disclaimer
Nutrition information is estimated as a courtesy. If using for medical purposes, please verify information using your own nutritional calculator. Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.
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Want MORE chocolate and peanut butter? I hear you. And I’ve got you covered. Check out these posts that are packed FULL of peanut butter and chocolate!
Or these recipes that all use peanut butter cups…
Terry says
I bought the recommended removable bottom square pan but the brownie mix was dripping out of the bottom creating a burning mess in the oven. What did I do or didn’t do to cause this mess? I’m still waiting for the brownies to cool but I hope the batter didn’t absorb the burning smoke!
Christi Johnstone says
I’m a bit confused as this isn’t a brownie recipe, so the bottom layer should be a crust. Maybe you could clarify? I do think brownies would not be the best in this type of pan though.
Jessica H. says
I love this recipe!! My family loves it as well. I’ve been using it as my go-to dessert for Thanksgiving for years now.
Mine always seem fluffier than the ones in the picture though. Am I doing something wrong? (I love them so much, my OCD just hates they don’t look like yours! LOL!!!)
Caitlin says
My husband loves these!
Elaine Stevens says
I bought Peanut Butter Cups that said full size. However, I wondered about them because the calories were only 210 for 2 of them. I interpreted “full size” meant the same as “standard size” in the recipe. So there is no peanut butter taste. All you taste is the chips.
I would recommend changing the recipe to indicate actual ounces. That way there would be no confusion.
I had perhaps planned to use as a dessert for Easter. Bake to recipe hunting.
Christi says
Elaine, I’m a bit confused, did you buy the mini-peanut butter cups? The two pack of large cups is referred to as “Standard Size” by Reese’s, I’m using their terminology (link to their site). While eight peanut butter cups, 1 cup of chocolate chips and one cup of peanut butter chips are plenty for us, you can absolutely add more of any of the mix-in items, it won’t change the structure of the recipe. If however you are looking for an actual peanut butter cheesecake (versus this peanut butter cup cheesecake) this is not that, as there is no actual peanut butter in the recipe. Those peanut butter cups are darn good, but they can’t turn vanilla cheesecake into peanut butter if that’s what you are looking for. 😉 This is a vanilla based cheesecake with peanut butter cups. Happy baking!
Elaine Stevens says
No, I bought packages that said “full size” and had 2 pb cups in each package, but the total weight was only 1.5 oz. I didn’t find any others that said standard size.
I haven’t purchased pb cups in a long time because I like them so much I would probably over indulge. I remember only one per package, but I don’t know how many ounces they were then. I followed the link to their site that you included, and discovered that the ones I bought match the ones on their site. So, I guess I had the right ones after all. Well, I guess it is down to expectations. I really expected more pb taste.
Anyway, I actually tasted it before it was completely cool which is not the same as it tastes now which is better. Thank you for your reply.
Christi says
Thanks for the follow up, Elaine. I don’t recall ever seeing a single size peanut butter cup package. The ones in this recipe are the size I’ve seen all my life, they actually seem to be one of the few products that seem to have maintained their product size in a time when most products are slowly getting smaller per package. I’m glad you liked it, it is absolutely a dessert to be eaten cool for sure! 🙂