For this week’s Blogger Secret Ingredient Challenge (hosted by Kim of Ordinary Recipes Made Gourmet), the ingredient chosen was peanut butter. Ohhhhhh peanut butter, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways:
Peanut Butter cups
PB ice cream pie
PB cookies
PB cheesecake
Thai peanut sauce
PB sandwiches
PB smoothies
Shall I go on?
It was a tough decision, but looking around the house for accompanying ingredients, it was made much easier. I didn’t have much to work with and the deadline was coming up fast. I looked online for interesting ideas, but I didn’t really come across anything spectacular. I almost made Peanut Butter balls from a recipe out of an old Gourmet magazine, but they didn’t look that easy…too much chilling time. When I make dessert, it needs to be ready…and fast. Too much anticipation and I lose my love for it. I mean, I want to enjoy my dessert without too much sweat, blood and tears.
As I’ve mentioned before, experiments in baking or confectionery don’t always turn out so well for me, but these are fantastic. These are definitely going to be my new go to dish. My signature dessert, if you will. So give ’em a try, you will not be disappointed.
What’s with the name “Idle Hand Bars” you ask? Well, idle hands are the Devil’s playground and the Devil definitely made me make these, because they are sinful. Eat your boring, chocolate heart out, Devil’s Food Cake!
Idle Hand Bars
Base Layer
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/4 cup sugar
5 Tbsp. Cocoa
1 egg, beaten
1 1/4 cups graham cracker crumbs
3/4 cup coarsely crushed pretzels
1. In double boiler (or a bowl resting over a pot of lightly simmering water), melt the first three ingredients.
2. While still over water, add egg and beat to combine (will thicken quite a bit here). Remove from heat and add crumbs and pretzels.
3. Press into an 8 x 8 cake pan. Set aside.
Middle Layer
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly.
2/3 cup powdered sugar
1 cup smooth, natural peanut butter (no salt added, reduce salt accordingly if using salted)
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1. Add peanut butter and butter together in small bowl.
2. Mix in sugar, salt and vanilla to form a thick paste.
3. Dump onto base layer and smooth over, patting down to make a flat, even layer.
Top (final) Layer
5 oz. Semi Sweet Choclate chips (or other fine chocolate)
1 Tbsp unsalted butter
Pink Himalayan salt (or other fine sea salt)
1. In double boiler (or microwave), melt butter and chocolate chips together. Stir until complete dissolved and smooth.
2. Pour over peanut butter layer and spread out evenly.
3. Cool in fridge for about 5 minutes (should still be slightly soft on top but not warm).
4. Sprinkle, lightly, with Himalayan salt. Return to fridge (or freezer, if you’re in a hurry like I was), and let cool completely to become hard.
5. Cut into small squares and don’t say I didn’t warn you….these things are addictive.
I think these would be fantastic if they were left to mellow in the freezer for an hour or so. I love frozen desserts, and they last much longer when stored in the deep freeze. Happy snacking!
If you can’t find pink Himalayan salt, try using Fleur De Sel or another flaked salt. Table salt would do in a pinch, but it would probably make these too salty. Branch out, try new things! Go find some cool, new and interesting salts!
You made them look so delicious ! Thank you for sharing. Cheers !
What a great recipe. I am going to print it up now and hopepfully make it later. I admit, I am glad that peanut butter was the secret ingredient.
Me too! I do love peanut butter, such a versatile ingredient.
These don’t bake at all? PERFECT for hot summer days! I love the addition of the salt to the chocolate layer. And the cocoa and graham crackers! I’m curious about the egg–does it get cooked in that step? I wonder what would happen if it were left out and melted butter added to bind it instead? These look fabulous. Thanks for posting them!
Hi Kate. Yes, the egg gets cooked when you add it to the cocoa and butter, it quickly thickens and firms up a bit. There is melted butter in that layer already, so without the egg, I’m guessing it would be mighty crumbly.
This combination sounds really perfect to me… and the himalaya salt. great. Delicious looking pictures.
Ohhhhhh, yeeeeaaaaaahhhhhh.
That’s exactly how I feel Irina…..
These look AMAZING! Yum. I definitely need to give them a try!
Holy smokes these look incredible!! You are making it very difficult for my diet, haha
omg… i have to make these now! all the ingredients are so available and it looks so sophisticated! thanks.
I WAS planning on starting my weekly diet tomorrow…but now that will have to wait until Tuesday, at least, so I can make and eat these on Monday! I thank you and my thighs thank you! xo, Nan
I like to think of them as my little way of helping the world out…so, you’re welcome!
These look amazing!! I love pb and chocolate.
oh my gosh! simply to die for!
Oooo! These make me think of Nanaimo Bars, only pumped on on PB and yum!!!
You’ll forget all about those pesky Nanaimo bars after you try these…
Swoon, those look yummy.
Stunning pics!! We’ve developed a peanut allergy in a certain little offspring, so peanuts have vamoosed for now till I adjust to cooking for someone who has a food limitation – blasphemous indeed! But I’m just happy looking at that last photo:-) The addition of the Himilayan salt is fantastic! Just picked up some on a whim and wasn’t sure where to start using it!
That’s unfortunate Nadia! You could try almond butter in this recipe, and omit the nuts in the base, I’m sure they would still be fantastic!
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I think I died and went to heaven. Theses look fabulous!
YUM!!! I just got some Himalayan sea salt from Sustainable Sourcing https://secure.sustainablesourcing.com/ and I think I’m going to have to try it out first in this recipe. Thanks for sharing!
Oh wow, these bars look delicious!I love salty and sweet combos. Good luck with BSI, I won last week but don’t think I will have time to make anything PB for this week!
Oh, wow, these are evil. I could so try to omit the graham crackers and make these gluten-free…i wonder if the bottom layer would bind with the nuts alone? Even if they crumbled a bit, I bet they’d still taste delicious!
You might need to add something else to bind, like almond meal maybe? Otherwise, I’m sure you could make it work..
I’m making these tonight, but a few comments have left me confused. There’s not supposed to be any nuts in the base, right? There were just a few comments made here about omitting the nuts, so I just wanted to clarify before I attempt to make these. Thanks!
The original recipe called for nuts in the base but I changed it soon after publishing because I much preferred the pretzels.
Congrats on the BSI win! So glad I decided to resurrect it – I found so many new blogs to read! 😀
And thanks for doing so! So much fun to do this every week.
That’s tempting. It would be great for Christmas or any occasion.
These might be a good-to for me too! You did one helluva job 😀
Wow, those look INCREDIBLE and almost too perfect to eat!
oh.my.gah. these look fantastic and I so making them. Actually I think my son will make these and enter them in the fair tomorrow…if there are any left to enter. I totally think you deserve a better prize than you got for this great bsi entry. Hmmph.
Well, thank you very much Laura. I hope he wins…let me know!
Oh my gosh !!! These look sinful and soooo good.
Beautiful and I bet they taste so great too.
Hi! I kept thinking and thinking about these bars – they sounded very familiar to me…plus I was thinking of a reason NOT to make them! I dug around in my recipes and found a recipe from my sister which is very similar to yours, with a few changes. So I combined the two recipes and made that – they were heavenly or should I say devilish? Either way, they were dang good. I posted them today on my blog and posted links to your blog, giving you credit. Thanks so much – I think – I’m not going to have to walk longer and faster but I think it was worth it!
Thanks for linking back to me. I have to say, I completely made this recipe up in my head (well, my recipe book), but considering how similar they are to Nanaimo bars (plus and minus a few ingredients), I’m not surprised that they would have been created (almost) by someone else at some other time. Honestly, there is nothing that hasn’t been made before, unless you’re a chefing genius! And even then, many flavours have been combined before you ever tried them. Aaaannnnyway. Glad you liked them!
Those look fantastic. I think the special touches you used with the wrapping really make it.
Oh. My. Goodness. These look killer good! Wow, I wish I had waited to look at your posts until after dinner! How do you get your slices to be so clean? I can never get my edges to look like that!
Hi Fuji Mama! Thank you! They ARE delicious, sinfully so. To get clean edges, run your knife under hot water and then dry off before you start slicing. Repeat everytime you go to make a cut. Voila! Clean edges.
what a lovely presentation! there is nothing better than PB, especially with chocolate! amazing!
Wow. I have made a mint version of Nanaimo bars but never had I thought to use peanut butter. Brilliant! The pictures just make me want to reach through the screen and grab one.
“WOW” These look Amazing! cant wait to dive into this recipe!
Alright, I thought I would have one made by Liz, while the soup was cooking, to try them out. Looks like I had a main meal of the bar with a side of soup! They were delicious and I am going to try them now!
I’m glad you liked them Nancy! They are the favourite of my developed recipes for sure!
Hey Liz – here we are in the Okanagan at Jay’s family Christmas with 42 plus people. The night after we got here there was a women’s baking night with us all in one kitchen with one oven. So I suggested to one niece that we do the Idle Hands bar as it requires no oven time. We got the head start and finished first to sit and enjoy a glass of wine while the others juggled for space in the kitchen.And a success they were – thanks!!!
Alright Nancy! So glad they were a hit and good for you for getting the upper hand! I hope you guys are having an amazing time in the Okanagan, I’m jealous!
These are so beautiful – I love how you’ve made something which is essentially a slice, look so outstanding, just by your presentation. Brilliant!
.-= denise @ quickies on the dinner table´s last blog ..just pointing in the general direction =-.
Okay, I looked at this post a couple of weeks ago, and then I just could not stop thinking about them. I finally broke down and made them the other day- soooooo delicious!!! Now there they are, staring at me seductively everytime I open my refrigerator. I think I’m in trouble! Thanks for the great recipe = )
I cannot make these anymore, well, not without knowing full well that I will not share them with anyone save for my husband. I hoarde them…they are so good, and so rich. I look forward to every evening after dinner so I can eat MORE! They are dangerous I’m telling you!
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These are sort of like Peanut Butter Nanaimo bars. MY, do they look good. And I’m sure they’re addicting, too… *LOVE*
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These look amazing. Just printed this off, can’t wait to try it! I’m hoping sea salt will be a good substitute? I saw this on Delishhh. 🙂
Yes for sure. Pink Himalayan salt is just sea salt of another variety. Any fine sea salt or flaked salt will do!
Wow, these look like they’d be great for a sweet table at a wedding! Easy to make but with that special something! Am going to mention them in my blog and link back to you for the recipe. Yum!!!!!!
Thank you Nancy! And yes I do agree. I think they would be a fabulous addition to a wedding sweet table. Let me know how it all goes!
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5 oz. of chocolate and 1 TB of butter wasn’t quite the right ratio to get the top layer chocolate easy-to-spread, nor was it quite enough chocolate for our tastes. We increased it to 7 oz. of chocolate chips and 2 1/2 TB butter over the double boiler to get it just right,
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I just made the peanut butter layer of this recipie, and turned it into a banana peanut butter pie! It was AMAZING! Thank you so much for the inspiration!
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yum and how long does this all take to make?
About 30 minutes?
OH HOT DANG.
this is forreal the most heavenly and favorite flavor combination of my life. chocolate and peanut butter.
swoon.
Our neat little bakery has these, but they’re getting ready to close their doors. Our office decided that we needed to find the recipe so we can keep up with our once a week habit. Boy, do these look easy! I’m hoping we can freeze them and pull one out whenever needed. Thank you!
These are to DIE for!!!! Thank you so much for sharing them on your beautiful blog.
Absolutely beautiful! How did you cut them and keep them so clean looking? What did you use?
A hot knife. Get a tall glass of boiling hot water and dip your knife in, make sure to wipe away the water before each cut and you must do this for EVERY cut.
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