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No-Bake Peanut Butter Pretzel Bars

These bars might be your new favorite snack.

peanut butter pretzel bars

Peanut butter snack bars!

Salty and sweet, these no-bake bars taste even better than peanut butter pretzel Luna Bars. But they confuse me: How can a recipe with absolutely no chocolate taste so good?

It just doesn’t make sense.

pb lunas

You know what else confuses me?

Moles. And protons and neutrons and electrons. But mostly, moles. I sat through an entire year of AP Chemistry and still don’t understand moles. Not in the slightest.

Until I learned to cook, I thought I disliked science. Only recently did I realize the reason for my animosity towards the subject: I just couldn’t figure out how our school science experiments applied to real life. (Even the more exciting experiments, such as growing plants in 7-up or red food dye… how on earth was I ever going to use the information gleaned from that study?)

But it turns out I do like some branches of natural science, such as the science of nutrition, and the science of cooking. (Edible experiments are the best!) My advice to science teachers: Ditch the moles.

Focus on pretzels and peanut butter!

peanut butter pretzel bars

Peanut Butter Pretzel Bars

(No-bake!)

Category: Healthy Peanut Butter Recipes.

  • 1 cup rice crispies (30g) (either brown or white)
  • packed 1/2 cup oat flour (70g) (see instructions for substitution)
  • 1/4 tsp salt (my pb also has salt)
  • 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
  • 5 tablespoons agave (Pure maple syrup will probably work)
  • 3 tablespoons pb (or other nut butter) (Or you can switch the proportions of peanut butter to agave.)
  • optional: handful of broken-up pretzels (I didn’t measure)
  • optional: double batch PB Magic Shell

Combine all dry ingredients. In a separate (large) bowl, combine wet and stir to form a thin paste. (If you store your pb in the fridge, you should warm it a little for easier mixing.) Pour dry into wet (not the other way around), and stir until evenly coated. Line a baking dish or tupperware container with a large piece of wax paper and pour the mixture into the dish. Fold the extra paper over the mixture and squish down as hard as you possibly can! Use a heavy object to really press it down. (The mixture will fill a 7×5, or about 2/3 an 8×8.) Stick the mixture in the fridge or freezer to harden before cutting into bars. Makes 6 bars. (If you can’t find oat flour, you can make your own by blending oats in the food processor. Just be sure to measure after blending.)

View Nutrition Information

peanut butter luna bars

For authentic Luna Bars, top with: Peanut Butter Magic Shell.

As stated earlier, you should make a double batch to coat the bars. Spread it on evenly. When the bars cool in the fridge/freezer, the tops will magically harden.

Question of the Day:

Did you have a least favorite subject in school?

Growing up, I dreaded science class, whether it was chemistry or biology or physics. People always told me how lucky I was to get good grades on Spanish and English tests without studying… Little did they know I once studied for an AP Chem test and still got a 25 (my worst-ever test grade). But you know what? I’m more proud of the C I earned in Chem than the As in subjects that came more easily. I worked hard for that C; it could have so easily been an F! Link of the Day:

oat-bars_thumb_3

Oatmeal-Raisin Cookie Bars

Published on April 9, 2012

Meet Katie

Chocolate Covered Katie is one of the top 25 food websites in America, and Katie has been featured on The Today Show, CNN, Fox, The Huffington Post, and ABC's 5 O'clock News. Her favorite food is chocolate, and she believes in eating dessert every single day.

Learn more about Katie

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187 Comments

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  1. Malea says

    Hi Katie,
    I think you should try and make this cake and put it on you website.
    It’s sugar free!!!!!

    What you need:

    1 egg
    2tbs cocoa powder
    Tbs water
    Dash of vanilla
    1/2 tsp baking powder
    4 tsp stevia or other sweetener

    Mix ingredients in a mug and cook for 2 minutes in microwave.
    I top is with peanut butter,but with or without the peanut butter it tast like real cake.

    Note: if you let it sit in the refrigerator it tast a lot richer! Hope you enjoy:)

  2. Jen says

    I love these bars following your recipe to a T. I’ve made them a bunch of times. Can I just say the pretzels are a must! BUT I was in the mood for some Biscoff…I know not a healthy treat but hear me out…so I used Biscoff in place of the peanut butter in this recipe and in the magic shell recipe and OMG it’s so a.m.a.z.i.n.g.

  3. Sundas says

    I followed everything exactly but mine looked nothing like yours! They turned out to be more like granola bars but a bit on the dry side. Don’t know what went wrong.

  4. Deb says

    made these tonight and I really like them however, for whatever reason, my family has an aversion to coconut…is the magic shell supposed to be coconutty or was I supposed to use “refined” coconut oil instead?? Personally I like the coconut flavor but if I introduce the recipe to the family they may not like that much coconut.

  5. Elinor Predota says

    Hi Katie

    I just made these and they are yummy! I subbed soya flour / gluten free plain white flour (half of each) for the oat flour. I think they would make a great filling for chocolates. They would also be great with a yoghurt coating. Om nom nom!

  6. Michelle says

    Ooooh Im a scientist! LOVE me my Biology and Chemistry! Albeit, chems hard! My sister is a biology GENIUS and could never do chemistry – she hated it so much. Each to their own! I always dreaded Irish….yes that funny language we (used to) speak in Ireland about fifty million years ago! God i was awfully bad at it…i enjoyed sleeping in those classes!!

    Quick update – i made your pumpkin pie muffins into cake form and YUM! i cut it in half, flipped one half on top of the other, used the pumpkin pie “filling” as a frosting in between the two layers and frosted the top with some tofu frosting with a pinch of cinnamon and a bit of pumpkin (and xanthan gum to froth it a bit!) Im in LOVE with pumpkin….

  7. Robert Bondaruk says

    Made these as a hiking treat for climbing Mt. St. Helens last week. I got a lot of kudos from the climb team. These are super easy to make and a delicious salty hiking treat. Thanks for sharing!

  8. Becky says

    If you cook then moles should be easy to understand.
    It’s a unit of measure, just like 1 dozen, or 1 case, or 1 batch. It’s just a unit that means there are X number of things present.

    The mole is just a really large number (6.02X10^22) of really small things (molecules). But it’s still just a simple unit of measure, like those you use every day.

    Sorry the science teacher in me couldn’t let you continue not understanding moles.

  9. James says

    This is good! It is very tasty, Be warned though! It doesn’t look anything like the picture.
    It was quick and really easy to make, Going to enjoy these on my hike!

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