5 Ingredient Chocolate-Covered Peanut Butter Cereal Bars

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My 3 Ingredient Peanut Butter & Honey Cereal Bars are by far my most popular recipe on Pinterest. I’ve been wanting to make a different version for a while now, and adding chocolate was a no-brainer.

I went back and read through a bunch of the comments on Pinterest, and although the overwhelming majority of them were positive, every once in a while I saw one that said the bars were too sweet and/or too gooey/sticky. For this version, I increased the amount of cereal and decreased the amount of honey. The chocolate layer helps to hold the bars together, but be forewarned: if not chilled, the bars WILL fall apart easily, so they are best eaten straight from the fridge or freezer.

When chilled, the cereal base stays crunchy with a lightly sweetened peanut butter flavor, and there’s just enough chocolate blanketing the top to deem the bars dessert-worthy.

Check out the subtle marble-like swirled effect of the coconut oil running throughout the chocolate!

Ingredients (16 bars)

• 1/2 cup natural unsweetened peanut butter (the only ingredients should be peanuts and salt), preferably organic, well-stirred
• 1/4 cup honey
• 4 cups toasted whole grain oats cereal (I used Cheerios)
• 2/3 cup dark chocolate chips
• 2 tsp unrefined virgin coconut oil

Instructions

Line an 8 x 8 inch square baking pan with parchment.

Combine peanut butter & honey in a large saucepan and set over medium heat. Heat until the ingredients melt, then remove from heat and stir until mixture is well combined. You may also melt the ingredients together in the microwave for 20-30 seconds.

Stir in cereal until evenly coated. The peanut butter & honey mixture will clump up, so make sure you thoroughly stir until the cereal is evenly coated. I found a metal spoon to be helpful.

Pour mixture into prepared pan, cover with parchment, and press firmly. A pastry roller will help to firmly and evenly pack down the mixture so the bars hold their shape. Make sure to really press down to ensure the mixture sticks together.

In a small microwave safe bowl, combine the chocolate chips and coconut oil. Heat for 30 second, stir, then heat for another 30 seconds. If still not melted, heat for an additional 15 seconds. Stir until fully melted and smooth. Evenly spread over the cereal mixture. The chocolate will form a thin layer.

Chill in the refrigerator for 1 hour or in the freezer for 30 minutes. Carefully cut into bars. Store individually wrapped in the refrigerator or freezer. If left at room temperature, the bars will not stick together as well as if they’re kept chilled.