Okay I’ve been healthified the last two weeks, but now it’s time to dive straight into downright indulgent peanut butter craziness. Ryan is a total peanut butter addict – he goes through massive amounts in a week, and we’ve always got extra stocked up for baking or related emergencies. I like to say he eats peanut butter every morning with a side of banana. Well, let’s just say that I used up all the peanut butter in the house to make these rise krispie treats last weekend. That’s a lot of peanut butter! These aren’t for the faint of heart but OMG they’re amazing. And thankfully this is one case when pictures actually come close to doing them justice…
When I saw these on Your Cup of Cake‘s blog, I immediately added them to my recipe queue. Believe it or not I’ve never made rice krispie treats, and I thought that was something I should probably do if I wanted to go around calling myself a baker of sorts. I’ve never really been drawn to the normal variety – I’m not a huge fan of marshmallows and whenever there were brownies also lined up at bake sales, I always bee-lined for those. But this is not your average rice krispie treat. Yes, it starts with the basics of rice krispie cereal and marshmallows, but there’s also a boatload of peanut butter, a layer of peanut butter fudge mixed with mini Reese’s peanut butter cups, and a topping of creamy chocolate peanut butter ganache. They’re the mother of all rice krispie treats in my opinioin, and they disappeared off the tray at my brother’s pool party last weekend quicker than anything else on the dessert table!
The only downside of these treats is the execution for this particular recipe is a bit more labor intensive than your average rice krispie treat. I think one of the reasons rice krispie treats are so popular is because they’re so easy to put together – it’s just mixing together some rice krispies and melted mashmallows, and you don’t even need to turn the oven on. But these particular krispies involve 3 layers – one layer of peanut butter fudge with mini peanut butter cups mixed in sandwiched between two layers of regular peanut butter rice krispie treats. And then of course you have to top the whole thing with the chocolate peanut butter ganache. So it’s a few more steps than you might be used to, but SOO worth it! The final result is almost unrecognizable as a rice krispie treat, but you still get that wonderful slight crunch from the cereal that will bring back all your memories of rice krispie treats growing up. (Unless of course you were like me and never really ate them…) Either way I think I’ve given you more than enough reasons to make these, especially if you have a peanut butter fanatic in your family like I do!
Peanut Butter Cup Rice Krispie Treats
Recipe adapted from Your Cup of Cake
Ingredients:
for the 1st layer rice krispie treat:
3 cups Rice Krispie cereal
5oz marshmallows
2 tbsp butter
1/3 cup peanut butter
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
for the 2nd layer peanut butter fudge:
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1-1/2 cup powdered sugar
1-1/4 cup mini peanut butter cups
for the 3rd layer rice krispie treat:
3 cups Rice Krispie cereal
5oz marshmallows
2 tbsp butter
1/3 cup peanut butter
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
for the 4th layer chocolate PB ganache:
1 cup peanut butter
2 cups chocolate chips
Directions:
for the 1st layer rice krispie treat:
- Grease the bottom and sides of a 9x13 pan.
- Measure out the 3 cups of rice krispies and set aside.
- Put the marshmallows, butter, peanut butter, and vanilla in a large microwave safe bowl. Melt in the microwave for about 45 seconds, and stir until smooth.
- Stir in rice cereal and spread evenly into pan.
for the 2nd layer peanut butter fudge:
- In a microwave safe bowl, melt the butter and peanut butter until smooth.
- Add powdered sugar and vanilla and stir until smooth. Spread evenly over first layer of rice krispies.
- Sprinkle your mini peanut butter cups on top of the fudge and press them gently into the fudge.
- Transfer pan to the fridge to let the fudge set as you prepare the next layer.
for the 3rd layer rice krispie treat:
- Prepare rice krispie mixture like the first layer, then spread evenly over the peanut butter cup layer. Set aside.
for the 4th layer chocolate PB ganache:
- Place the chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl and heat in 30 second intervals until melted and smooth, stirring in between each round. Mix in peanut butter.
- Pour ganache over rice krispies and use an offset spatula to evenly spread the chocolate.
- Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ganache is firm. Cut into bars (I made mine small because they are super rich!)
Oh god if only I wasn’t trying to lose weight… these look SOOOOO good!!!!
2 bad can’t make it since my son is allergic to peanuts. what would be the substitute? sunflower butter, maybe. but what would be for the mini peanut butter cups?
yum! These look so amazing, my husband loves reese’s anything, I need to make these for him soon.
Mal @ The Chic Geek
Wow, please can I get me some of these???!!! SOOO good!
Oh my. Those seem to be the only words I can muster at this point. Divine!
I have made these before, they are amazing!!!
I don’t generally go for Rice Krispie treats, but these look incredible!
I just made these — they’re absolutely phenomenal. So rich but so worth it!
Printing this now!
Made a pan of these to bring in to work today, but I used chocolate rice crispies. They taste exactly as amazing as they look. Your blog is the best!
i just died & went to peanut butter heaven…
xo
http://allykayler.blogspot.ca/
Whoa! I have a recipe for scotcharoos, but these put those over the top! Would love of these with my morning coffee! ;)
Major morning drool over these!
I made these last night – a huge hit! They were absolutely delicious – and decadent – and definitely worth the extra steps!
Ummm definitely pinning this! Thank you!
I’ve had these pinned for a while and will finally be making them this weekend, but I’m thinking about using mini rolo candies and pressing crushed pretzels into the ganache on top for a Take 5 kind of combination. In any case, yum!
Erica — May 27th, 2014 @ 1:49 am
That sounds amazing – let me know how they turn out!!
We’re moving in 48 hours, and I wanted to use up our half-boxes of cereal and make some snacks for eating on the go. I used your recipe from the Rice Krispie layer, and finished the last of our Cap’n Crunch Peanut Butter Crunch cereal, roughly crushing the cereal with a rolling pin. This stuff was an instant hit! Everybody’s new favorite. Move over, Rice Krispies.