Peanut Butter Cookie Bars (5 Ingredients!)
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Irresistible peanut butter cookie bars with only 5 ingredients! Kid-friendly, easy to make and so delicious, this bar recipe is dangerous!
Recipe Overview
Why you’ll love it: This super easy bar recipe is addictively good!
How long it takes: 10 minutes to whip up, 40 minutes in the oven
Equipment you’ll need: mixing bowl, measuring utensils, 8-inch square baking pan, oven
Servings: 16 small bars
- 1 Recipe Overview
- 2 Easy to make Peanut Butter Bars
- 3 Kid-Friendly Beginner Recipe
- 4 Ingredient List
- 5 How To Make Peanut Butter Cookie Bars
- 6 FAQs
- 7 Make These Bars Your Own
- 8 Storage Tips
- 9 For Peanut Lovers
- 10 More Bars & Cookies
- 11 Get the Recipe: 5 Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookie Bars with M&Ms
Easy to make Peanut Butter Bars
Only 5 ingredients! I’m not even kidding. There are FIVE ingredients in these M&M peanut butter bars! Here’s an easy math lesson:
1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + oven = Delicious!
Peanut Butter + M&Ms = Happy!
(5 x 1) + Hungry Kids = Zero!
Soft, chewy, and sweet!These M&M peanut butter bars are not only insanely easy to make but they are so delicious. I recommend a big glass of milk or a cup of coffee. And small bites that savor each morsel.
Lots of possible variations. You’ll love that you can make easy changes to this recipe, too. M&Ms aren’t the only candies that taste great in bars.
Kid-Friendly Beginner Recipe
Since there are only five ingredients, this recipe is perfect for beginners. Let your kids help you make peanut butter cookie bars. They’ll love measuring the baking mix and brown sugar. Teach them how to crack eggs into a small bowl before they add them to the peanut butter. They’ll get good practice stirring and blending and they’ll love using their hands to mix the dough and press the M&Ms in.
I’ll give you a quick preview of the recipe here but as always, look for the printable recipe card near the end of the post. It has complete instructions and nutrition information.
Ingredient List
What are the five magic ingredients? I bet you’ve already figured it out!
- Peanut Butter: Creamy or chunky, doesn’t matter. Avoid the natural peanut butters that have to be stirred; choose a brand like Jif or Skippy.
- Eggs: A couple of eggs hold this business all together.
- Brown Sugar: The molasses flavor adds to the profile of these cookies. Dark brown sugar works as well as light brown sugar.
- All-Purpose Baking Mix: An example of this is Jiffy or Bisquick. The mix comes in a large box and is a shortcut product used to make pancakes, waffles, or biscuits. If you’d like, you can use homemade Bisquick.
- M&Ms: Who doesn’t love these chocolate candies? Use the regular assorted colors or buy a color that’s coordinated with an occasion.
How To Make Peanut Butter Cookie Bars
Turn your oven on, wash your hands, and let’s get started! You’ll need an 8 x 8 inch baking pan, or an equivalent of that. Spray it lightly with cooking spray.
In a mixing bowl, blend together the peanut butter and eggs until the two ingredients are nice and smooth.
Add the brown sugar and stir again. The mixture should be well-blended.
Measure out the baking mix and add that to the bowl. Mix it in as well as possible. The dough is very thick. You may have to use your hands to combine it. I usually do.
Add the M&Ms and stir some more. Again, hands are totally permissible. If all of the M&Ms don’t stay in the dough, don’t worry.
Turn the dough out into the prepared pan and press it into an even layer. Press any stray or remaining M&Ms right into the dough.
Pop those babies right into the oven and bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until they turn golden brown. Be sure to notice the sweet aroma emanating from your kitchen.
Cool the bars before cutting into 16 squares or whatever size you like. Maybe 4 big squares!
FAQs
Bisquick is an all-purpose baking mix used for a variety of products such as pancakes, waffles, cake, biscuits, shortcakes, etc. Bisquick is a brand name that’s been around since 1931. I guess you could almost call it old-fashioned. Jiffy is another popular brand. Look for the words “baking mix” on the box.
Bisquick is a mixture that contains flour, oil, leavening, salt, sugar and other ingredients. It’s meant to be a shortcut, eliminating the need for several different ingredients. If you’re interested in making your own, try Homemade Bisquick Mix.
Make These Bars Your Own
- Different mix-ins. Try mini M&Ms, peanut butter M&Ms, or Reese’s Pieces. Chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, or mini chocolate chips are great too.
- Gluten-free. Use a gluten-free baking mix, such as King Arthur Gluten-Free All-Purpose Baking Mix.
- Turn the bars into dessert. Top each square with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, a drizzle of homemade hot fudge or homemade caramel sauce, and sprinkle on a few more M&Ms for garnish. This is really, really good when the bars are still slightly warm.
- Love M&Ms? Try my modestly named perfect M&M cookies — they really are pretty perfect!
- No-bake bars: If you don’t want to turn your oven on, try no-bake peanut butter bars. They taste just like Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.
Storage Tips
Refrigerate/Freeze: Peanut butter cookie bars will keep in an airtight container for up to 3 days on the counter. If you need to store them longer than that, refrigerate or freeze them.
For Peanut Lovers
- Peanut Butter Popcorn
- Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie (no bake!)
- Buckeyes
- No Bake Peanut Butter Bars
- Peanut Butter Trail Mix Recipe
- Oh Henry Bars
Did you make this? Be sure to leave a review below and tag me @rachelcooksblog on Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest!
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup peanut butter (creamy or chunky)
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup packed brown sugar
- 2 cups all-purpose baking mix (such as Bisquick or Jiffy)
- 1 bag (12 oz.) M&Ms, about 1 ⅔ cups (use regular, mini, peanut butter, Reese's Pieces, or even chocolate chips)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325F°. Spray an 8-inch square pan with cooking spray.
- In a large bowl, combine peanut butter and eggs until well mixed and smooth.
- Add brown sugar and stir until well-combined.
- Stir in baking mix until moistened (I use my hands – it is a very thick batter).
- Fold in M&Ms. Again, using your hands works best for this step. Don't worry if some of the M&Ms don't stick in the dough.
- Spread mixture evenly in greased pan, pressing any remaining M&Ms into the dough.
- Bake for 35-40 minutes or until golden brown. Cool and cut into 16 squares.
Notes
- Bars will keep in a covered container on the counter for up to three days. If you want to store them longer, store in the refrigerator or freezer.
- Possible substitutions for plain M&Ms: Reese’s Pieces, peanut butter M&Ms, dark chocolate M&Ms, etc. Chocolate chips or mini chocolate chips are good, too.
- Turn the bars into dessert. Top a bar with vanilla ice cream, hot fudge or caramel sauce, and a sprinkle of M&Ms. Especially good when the bars are still warm!
Nutrition Information
This website provides approximate nutrition information for convenience and as a courtesy only. Nutrition data is gathered primarily from the USDA Food Composition Database, whenever available, or otherwise other online calculators.
Donna Mlady says
buy the way I did make them with peanut m&ms and crunchy peanut butter.
Rachel Gurk says
Yum!
Donna Mlady says
My spouse is a happy camper. I made these to take on our 14 hr trip to Daytona Beach and Georgia.
My spouse has to have his daily fix and buys himself a bag of peanut m&ms every day.
I can’t buy the big bag or he gets mad since he’ll eat them in a day. same with Chocolate chip cookies which I also made or the long haul.
Rachel Gurk says
So glad to hear you liked these! Thank you for taking the time to leave a comment!
Juana Pallares Hernandez says
I just super love this recipe!!! I used the peanut M&M’s and the taste was just phenomenal!!!
Rachel Gurk says
So glad you like it! Thanks for taking the time to come back and leave a comment!
Sydney says
Hi Rachel!
Probably a silly question, but I’m not the world’s best baker… do you know how I could add to the amounts to adapt it to a 9×13 pan and maintain the thickness of the bar?
Thank you!
Rachel Gurk says
I would just double it to make your life easy!
Megan says
I always have a container of these! My children and husband insist. And I also throw some of the mini Reeses cups on top and they’re even better!
Rachel Gurk says
So happy you like them!
Megan says
Fabulous!
April says
The picture here looks amazing. But I made these and they are just okay. Not bad. But not great. Just meh.
I added a bit less flour because I was worried they would be stiff and dry with all that flour and I took them out 10 minutes early, but they were still a bit stiff and dry so if I had added all of that flour and cooked it for the directed time then it would have been worse.
Overall it’s an okay recipe, but I wouldn’t make them again.
Rachel Gurk says
Sorry you didn’t love these! Did you use flour or bisquick?
Lacey says
I have made this recipe 5 times i just love it. This is my new go to recipe. I have been asked for the recipe and already have a birthday request in for this to be made. I make it with either mini m&ms or mini choc. chips. And i also under bake it a few minutes. Thanks for the recipe.
Rachel Gurk says
I’m so happy to hear it’s a favorite! Thank you for taking the time to come back and leave a comment! (Also, we’re nut-free now, so enjoy one for me!)
Ann says
Can I use regular flour instead of Bisquick?
Rachel Gurk says
No, that will not work in this recipe. Bisquick has other ingredients in it, including leavening, that make this recipe work (and keeps it 5 ingredients!).
Alli G says
I just made these exactly as the recipe says – it was horribly dry. I only baked it 35 minutes. It was basically inedible. I dont know what went so wrong but it was awful.
Rachel Gurk says
I’m sorry to hear that! We’ve had great success with this recipe!
Alexia Holder says
These tasted good right out of the oven. A little dry, but good.
I covered them, and came back the next morning.
The already dry recipe had hardened into something like cement. They are impossible to cut, and we can’t get them out of the pan. And something happened to the taste and they are like sawdust. I followed the recipe exactly, so I honestly don’t know what went wrong here after reading all these great reviews, but… It was bad. All around disappointing, which is sad because I was really craving some peanut buttery goodness.
Rachel Gurk says
I’ve never had that experience with this recipe! Did you cover them with an airtight barrier? If the air could get in, they would quickly dry out.
mandy says
Has anyone tried using a brownie pan like pamper chef’s brownie pan with this recipe?
Rachel Gurk says
I have not, personally, but let me know if it works out for you!
Heidi Davison says
I just tried this and it was super simple! I loved that it only had 5 ingredients and the kids could help make it. They were a little sweet for my liking but the kids and my husband’s coworkers gobbled them up. Next time I will try them with peanut butter M&Ms. What would you think of me sharing this on my blog?
Rachel Gurk says
So glad you liked them! If you share, please link back to my site for the full recipe instead of sharing it the whole thing on your site. Thanks! :)
marie says
If I use a 9×13 pan, how long do you think I should bake them for?
Rachel Gurk says
I’ve never baked them in a 9×13 but I’d decrease baking time by probably 10 minutes and check on them to see if they are golden brown. You want don’t want to overbake them.
lisa g. says
Does the dough come together cohesively or is it crumbly? I want to know if the baked cookie bar is moist? Thx they look yummy.
Rachel Gurk says
A little crumbly but as long as you don’t over-bake they’ll be nice and moist. Enjoy!