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Peanut Butter Rocky Road Bars

Rocky road meets peanut butter in these fantastic Peanut Butter Rocky Road Bars!

a Peanut Butter Rocky Road Bar on a green plate

Peanut Butter Rocky Road Bars

The inspiration for these Peanut Butter Rocky Road Bars came from some ice cream that Quinn picked up for us recently. We are fortunate to have a really stellar ice cream shop in our neighborhood. They always have lots of interesting flavors, like our recent sampling of Peanut Butter Rocky Road. As soon as I tried it, I knew that I had to use that flavor combination to bake something tasty.

overhead view of Peanut Butter Rocky Road Bars in a square metal baking pan

These Peanut Butter Rocky Road Bars start with my go-to peanut butter cookie recipe spread out in a baking pan to make a simple peanut butter bar. When the bars are almost done baking, they get topped off with a mixture of chocolate chips, mini marshmallows, and nuts. With a few more minutes of baking time, you’ve got a sweet, gooey, nutty bar with big, big flavor.

Tips for Success

  • Measure accurately. Use a kitchen scale to measure by weight if you can. Otherwise, spoon and sweep the dry ingredients and sugar to make sure you’re measuring as accurately as possible.
  • Don’t over-bake the bars. For the initial oven time, be sure not to bake the bars thoroughly before adding the topping. You want the top to be not quite set so that the topping will stick better. If you’d like, you can carefully press the topping into the bars to help a bit more. Marshmallows, of course, tend to be a bit sticky, so you might want to spray a bit of cooking spray on whatever you use to press down the topping.
  • Try using crunchy peanut butter. That’s an easy way to add a little more crunch to these bars.
  • Try different nuts in the topping. I usually just grab whatever I happen to have on hand. Pecans, almonds, hazelnuts, macadamias… whatever you like! I recommend chopping them roughly so that you’ll get some large pieces to mix with the chocolate chips and marshmallows.
overhead view of slices of Peanut Butter Rocky Road Bars and a pan of remaining bars

We really enjoy these Peanut Butter Rocky Road Bars. I love those big, thick peanut butter bars! Adding all that deliciousness to the top of them just makes them irresistible. If you’re a fan of rocky road desserts, I think you’ll love this peanut butter twist!

Find more bar recipes in the Recipe Index.

More Peanut Butter Bar Recipes

Peanut Butter Rocky Road Bars

Yield 16 2-inch bars
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Total Time 50 minutes

Rocky road takes a peanut butter detour in these sweet, nutty, fantastic Peanut Butter Rocky Road Bars!

Rocky road takes a peanut butter detour in these sweet, nutty, fantastic Peanut Butter Rocky Road Bars! - Bake or Break

Ingredients

For the bars:

  • 1 & 1/4 cups (150g) all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup (113g) unsalted butter, softened
  • 1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar
  • 1/2 cup (100g) firmly packed light brown sugar
  • 1 cup (255g) creamy or crunchy peanut butter
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the topping:

  • 1 cup (170g) semisweet chocolate chips
  • 1 cup (43g) mini marshmallows
  • 1 cup (120g) roughly chopped nuts

Instructions

To make the bars:

  1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease an 8-inch square baking pan.
  2. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
  3. Using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat the butter, sugar, and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Add the peanut butter, and mix until thoroughly combined. Add the egg and vanilla, and mix well.
  4. Reduce mixer speed to low. Gradually add the flour mixture, mixing just until combined.
  5. Spread evenly in the prepared pan. Bake 20 to 25 minutes. The bars won't be quite baked all the way through. A pick inserted into them should come out with a few moist crumbs.

To make the topping:

  1. Combine the chocolate chips, marshmallows, and nuts. Sprinkle over the partially baked bars.
  2. Return the pan to the oven. Bake 5 minutes.
  3. Cool in the pan on a wire rack before cutting into bars.

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    7 Comments on “Peanut Butter Rocky Road Bars”

  1. Did you use chocolate chips or chocolate chunks?  The pictures looks like chunks of chocolate. Either way, they look wonderful.  

  2. Peanut butter transcends rocky road from good to OMGYUMYUMYUM. These bars look PHEN.OM.EN.AL!

  3. Oh wow! These are great and so easy. I’ve also made them with almond butter and chopped almonds. The almond butter people in my family LOVED them. The peanut butter people love them too. The last time I made them I included a half cup of butterscotch chips in the topping and my daughter said it was the best batch ever! Thanks so much for all your recipes–they are awesome!

  4. Hi, Jeff W.’s friend Debbie here. I made these the other day but subbed 1/2 cup of peanut butter chips for the marshmallows because it turned out my mini-marshmallows were way expired and totally stuck together. I don’t think I’d do it any other way as the p.b. chips really amped up the peanut butter flavor and most likely toned down the sweetness. 

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