Your favorite childhood candy, but taken up a notch! These Peanut Butter Pecan Crunch Bars are everything you love about the classic candy, but with peanut butter and some extra crunch from pecans!
This Halloween I found, disturbingly, nonexistent crunch bars in my kids' trick-or-treating candy. They were one of my favorites as a kid, which made me realize it was time to make them again but taken up a level. These Peanut Butter Pecan Crunch Bars are everything you love about the classic candy, but with that undeniably perfect PB and chocolate combination, crunchy pecans, and are an insanely easy no-bake recipe!
Ingredients Needed
- Cocoa Powder - We use unsweetened dutch cocoa powder and also sometimes add in a little cacao powder, too.
- Pecans - These are totally optional as you will still have delicious homemade crunch bars without them, but we just love the added crunch they bring to the party. Hazelnuts are also a delicious choice.
- Puffed Rice Cereal - Rice Krispies or any of your other favorites. Use a gluten-free version to make these a vegan and gluten-free snack!
- Coconut Oil - You can also use butter, but to keep them on the healthier (and vegan) side, coconut oil is the best. Unrefined vs. refined? For this recipe, that's up to you and your taste, either will work. Unrefined has a stronger coconut flavor while refined has a much more neutral flavor.
- Peanut Butter - Because doesn't peanut butter make all chocolate snacks better?
- Maple Syrup - This is our favorite natural sweetener, but you can also use your favorite like honey or agave.
- Confectioner's Sugar - Also optional to add a touch more sweetness to some PB for a drizzle to finish it with.
No Bake and Easy to Make
Combine Chocolate and Peanut Butter
Add your oil, cocoa, PB, and syrup to a small saucepan and heat, and whisk it just enough to combine it all until it's nice and smooth.
Mix It All Together
Add that chocolate peanut butter goodness to the cereal and pecans and give a good (gentle) mix! So easy that even my 4 year old can do it.
Freeze to Set
Add that chocolately peanut butter crunch bar mixture to a parchment paper-lined loaf pan and pop it in the freezer to set.
Cut and Drizzle
After at least 30 minutes, pull that parchment paper out and cut your little homemade crunch bars and give them a little drizzle of some extra peanut butter, oil, and confectioner's sugar.
Peanut Butter Pecan Crunch Bars for the win! These have become an absolute favorite sweet treat in the lunchbox, and I'm always happy to provide a snack that we know exactly what's in it and that's (mostly) naturally sweetened.
Are you more of a crunch bar purist? Then give our classic Chocolate Crunch Bars a try!
They're a snack loved by both kids and adults!
Other Chocolately Snacks
- Peanut Butter Chocolate Energy Balls
- Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Granola Bars
- Vegan Cashew Coconut Bliss Balls
- Nutella From Scratch
- Copycat Butterfinger Candy Bites
- Healthy Edible Cookie Dough Bites
- Homemade Peppermint Patties
- Homemade Mini Almond Joys
Enjoy! As always, if you make this recipe or any of my others, I love to hear what you think! Leave a comment below, email me, or you can find me on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest!
If you want to see more, be sure to sign up for my 5 Easy Ways to Start Cooking From Scratch!
Peanut Butter Pecan Crunch Bars
Equipment
- parchment paper
Ingredients
Crunch Bars
- 1/4 cup coconut oil
- 1/4 cup creamy peanut butter 2.5 oz
- 1/4 cup cocoa powder
- 1/3 cup pure maple syrup
- 1 cup puffed rice cereal
- 1/4 cup pecans
Peanut Butter Drizzle
- 2 tablespoons creamy peanut butter
- 1/2 teaspoon coconut oil
- 1 teaspoon confectioner's sugar
Instructions
- Line a loaf pan with parchment paper and set aside.
- Add puffed rice cereal and chopped pecans to a medium-sized bowl, mix well and set aside.
- In a small saucepan, add coconut oil, 1/4 cup of peanut butter, maple syrup, and cocoa powder and heat over medium. Whisk continuously to incorporate all of the cocoa powder and melt peanut butter, approximately 2 minutes.
- Pour the chocolate mixture over the rice cereal and pecans and gently mix to coat all of the cereal.
- Pour coated cereal into the loaf pan and spread to an even layer.
- Add loaf pan to freezer to set for 30 minutes.
- Meanwhile, create the peanut butter drizzle by adding the peanut butter, oil, and confectioner's sugar to a small bowl and whisking until creamy.
- After at least 30 minutes, remove the loaf pan from the freezer and pull out parchment paper, and place set crunch bars on a cutting board. Use a knife to cut into 9 bars.
- With a spoon, drizzle the peanut butter mixture over the top of the crunch bars.
- Store in the fridge and enjoy!
Such an easy and delicious treat to make this weekend for my kids.
I am sure they will love this!
Yum!
These bars sound delicious! These would be great for teacher gifts for the holidays! Thanks for the recipe share!
Wow! This peanut butter pecan crunch bar looks incredibly yummy! The texture makes it enticing and tempting! Such a perfect treat for this Holiday season!