Peanut Butter Bars/Cups

I ran two miles this morning and by the afternoon started to have my usual sugar cravings. I used all my granulated sugar and have not replaced it in hopes it would help me kick my sugar habit long enough to lose 5 pounds. But no. Instead I had to find a recipe that would satisfy the craving and use brown or powdered sugar. I settled on what is probably the most fattening dessert on earth- yet sooo yummy. Once you taste these you won't spend your money on waxy peanut butter cups again (if you're going to eat something fattening- make it count)! Of course I like my peanut butter pie even better- but that's for another day...

Peanut Butter Bars

1 cup butter (2 cubes)
2 cups graham cracker crumbs
2 cups powdered sugar
1 cup peanut butter
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips, melted

Melt butter. Mix in graham cracker crumbs, powdered sugar and peanut butter. Press into greased baking pan (you can also make these in muffin cups- but spreading chocolate in the cups can be a bit messy). Melt chocolate in microwave, stirring every 30 seconds. Spread over peanut butter mixture and refrigerate (or freeze) until hardened. Slice into bars.

I like to freeze some so I don't eat them all at once and sometimes it's nice when you're cleaning out your freezer to find a yummy suprise ;)  You can see from the photo that I made some of them into cups- it's certainly easier to make cups with pb on the bottom rather than in-between chocolate layers, the chocolate chips harden really quickly and it's difficult to spread in the tiny cups. I recommend either bars or really large pb cups (use ramekins or tupperware). And don't say I didn't warn you- these are sooo rich!

*Note: I actually find the peanut butter mixture too rich, (hard to believe, I know) you can reduce the powdered sugar by 1/2 a cup and reduce the butter to a stick and a half.