A few weeks ago I visited some friends in D.C., and of course the weekend was filled with lots of food adventures. #thankful for having friends who like to eat as much as I do. My friend, Jordan, and I made a killer breakfast of eggs, bacon and toast one morning, and we hit up some adorable coffee shops during my trip. My favorite thing to do!
We also visited Union Market in between music sets at the All Things Go Festival we went to. Union Market was awesome! It was like a combination of Philly’s Reading Terminal Market and the Ferry Building in San Fran. Aka… two places I could legitimately live in.
One of the stalls in Union Market had this delicious looking chocolate bar that was solid as a brick. I knew we had to have it so I picked up for Jordan and I to split. The ingredients list was short and I could pronounce everything on it- chocolate, agave, peanut butter, pumpkin seeds, dried cherries, and oats. Done.
To the kitchen I went! I modified the ingredients to fit what I had on hand. I skipped the agave since the chocolate chips were sweet enough, and swapped puffed rice cereal for the oats. I love the crispy texture the puffed rice gave the bars! These bars rival any rice krispy treat and are like a healthier chocolate peanut butter fudge.
These bars are:
Fudgy
Chocolatety
Sweet
Salty
Crispy
I don’t know what else I can say to convince you to get in the kitchen immediately and make these bars. I stuck half the batch in the freezer to keep them out of site, out of mind. Who am I kidding, though? I know they are in there…
Jordan, if you’re out there reading, these bars are for you. And all the rest of you too!
- 1 cup natural unsweetened peanut butter
- 1 cup dark chocolate chips, melted (use vegan chocolate to make recipe vegan)
- 1/3 cup raw pepitas
- 1/3 heaping cup dried cherries
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 and ½ cups puffed rice cereal (rice krispies)
- Line a 6x6 pan with parchment paper.
- Add all ingredients except puffed rice cereal to a large bowl and mix to combine. Once combined, add in puffed rice 1/2 cup at a time and fold to combine.
- Pour mixture into the pan and press down with the back of a spoon to smooth.
- Place in fridge for 30 min-1 hour to set and store in the fridge or freezer.
They looks great. Can’t wait to make some….Thanks for sharing the recipe.
Thank YOU, Joyce, for visiting!
I need these right this second. I just pinned to make soon… maybe today!!!
Yay! I hope you’re chowing down on these right now.
im drooling over these babies! yum!
I don’t know how I missed these last week, but they look FANTASTIC! Me and chocolate are close friends.
Thanks, Lisa! I’m pretty tight with chocolate too haha
These look effing incredible. Sorry for the bad language. But seriously.
Just a little note, Rice Krispies are not gluten free. There are many people starting their Celiac disease journey, as I did, not knowing that Rice Krispies are not gluten free, unless they are specifically the Gluten Free Rice Krispies. Barley malt in the regular Rice Krispies has gluten. Post Cocoa Pebbles are gluten free, so it might add some extra cocoa, but I think that is the route I will take because I haven’t been able to find Gluten Free Rice Krispies since I started my journey with Celiac disease last year. Thank you for this amazing looking recipe!
Hi Angela- Thank you SO much for pointing this out and letting me know. I don’t have celiac or any serious allergy to gluten so I’m just experimenting with it a bit and I’m not an expert yet on all the ingredients to avoid (obviously). I will update all the tags, etc and I hope you get a chance to make this with gluten free rice krispies or Cocoa Pebbles (yum!).
Yum! These look and sound delicious! Pinned!:)
You mention agave in the early photo section of the recipe, but not in the actual recipe. Should it be included?
Ah yes. Sorry about the confusion, Maeve. The bar I tried in D.C. had agave but I decided to keep it out since the bar was sweet enough with just the chocolate chips. Enjoy!
Wow, I don’t think I would have ever thought of putting dried cherries in a bar like this, but it sounds like the perfect way to balance the sweetness. <3 These are going in the Peanut Butter Lover's Dessert Round-Up from #Bloggersgonnablog! 🙂
Yay, thank you Emily! I am a huge fan of dried tart cherries and I’ve put them in cornbread stuffing, overnight oats, and these bars. The best!
made these tonite and they are incredible!! super dense flavor of dark chocolate sweetgoodness… just the tiniest bite will do 🙂 next time i am adding in shredded coconut 😉 thanks for this little gem!!
Yay! I’m so glad you liked them. Adding coconut is genius!