Favorite Recipes: Chocolate Peanut Butter Dream Bars

Monday, October 13, 2014

Chocolate Peanut Butter Dream Bars

I think Nicole or Dana posted this on their timeline on Facebook and tagged everyone else for this recipe. These bars were soooo good! Really rich and full of flavor. Nicole was babysitting her niece Ariana and I guess Ariana was being very vocal and basically being feisty. When I got there with Dana, Nicole said she was ready for something sweet! She had just gotten Ariana to sleep when we got home and of course she woke up for us :). So she got to help us make this yummy dessert. This was my last dessert I made with these ladies before I moved :( so of course I had to add the extra pictures. I'd definitely make this recipe again.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Dream Bars:

1 (16 oz) pkg peanut butter sandwich cookies, divided
4 tbsp butter, melted
4 oz cream cheese, room temp
1/2 c powdered sugar
1/3 c creamy peanut butter
1 (8 oz) container Cool Whip, divided
1 (3.9 oz) pkg instant chocolate Jello Pudding Mix
1 1/2 c milk
1/2 c milk chocolate and peanut butter chips (we used more to completely cover the bars)

Preheat oven to 350. Finely crush 24 of the cookies. In a medium bowl, mix together the melted butter and finely crushed cookies until well moistened. Press into an ungreased 8x8-inch or 13x9-inch baking dish. Bake for 10 min. Allow crust to cool before continuing.

Meanwhile, mix the pkg of pudding with the 1 1/2 c milk in a small bowl. In a separate bowl, beat the cream cheese, powdered sugar and peanut butter together. Fold in 1 c of the Cool Whip and mix until well blended.

Spread the chocolate pudding over the cooled crust. Place dollops of the cream cheese mixture over the pudding layer and with a spatula or large spoon, gently spread to completely cover. Spread the remaining Cool Whip over the cream cheese mixture. Refrigerate 2 hours. (We ignored this part of the step since we wanted to eat it right away!)

In a plastic bag, break up the 8 remaining cookies. Sprinkle the cookies and the chocolate/peanut butter chips over the top just before serving. Slice into squares and enjoy!

Ariana holding dearly to our bag of chocolate/peanut butter chips!...