Peanut Butter Rocky Road Bars
These rocky road bars are the EASIEST to make but are full of so many delicious flavors and textures. A fudgy peanut butter chocolate is filled with marshmallows, salted pretzels, candy coated chocolates, and a layer of peanut butter cups. This recipe is also VERY easy to customize so feel free to load these up with your favorite mix-ins!
How to Make Rocky Road Bars
These bars start with a chocolate base that’s incredibly rich, creamy, and fudgy.
Chocolate, coconut oil, and peanut butter are all melted down and mixed together to create a glue that holds together all of the essential mix-ins:
- Marshmallows
- Pretzels
- M&M’s
Marshmallows are traditional to rocky road, but the addition of crunchy salted pretzels adds the perfect layer of salty-sweet goodness. I also love the light snap of the M&M candy coated shell as well as the sweet milk chocolate flavor.
But to take these over-the-top, a layer of peanut butter cups is nestled in the very center of these bars. Each bite is met with a big chunk of peanut butter along with fluffy marshmallows, crunchy pretzels, and snappy M&M’s – all blanketed in smooth and fudgy chocolate.
These bars may be incredibly easy to make, but they are most definitely not lacking in flavor!
Peanut Butter Rocky Road Mix-Ins
The best part about this recipe is that it can be easily customized to whatever you have in your pantry. Especially after the holidays, there’s always a ton of leftover bits and pieces from cookie baking and decorating so this is the perfect place to use those up.
To stay true to the rocky road flavor, I suggest sticking with the marshmallows. The pretzels also help balance out the sweetness so keep those in as well.
As far as everything else, the amounts of the marshmallows and pretzels can be adjusted to accommodate anything else you’d like to add. As long as they all add up to a total of 3 heaping cups plus 1/2 cup.
Mix-ins I think would work great in this recipe include:
- Roasted nuts
- Broken up crispy cookies
- Dried cranberries
- Toffee Bits
- Crackers
Rocky Road Bars FAQ
Yes! Just use all gluten free ingredients including the chocolate chips, pretzels, and peanut butter cups.
Yes! Just sub in the vegan equivalent to any of the non-vegan ingredients.
For a nut-free option, substitute the peanut butter with creamy SunButter and the peanut butter cups with sunflower seed cups.
Nope! Just pour everything in to the pan at once and set as instructed.
Double all ingredients and place into a 9×13 pan.
Store the bars in an air tight container in the refrigerator and they will keep fresh for about 5 days.
For more no bake holiday desserts, check out my:
- Gingerbread Marshmallow Treats
- Gingerbread Tiramisu
- Pumpkin Cookie Pie
- Chocolate Peanut Butter Marshmallow Treats
- Sweet Almond Coconut Chex Mix
- Peanut Butter Christmas Trees
Make sure to tag me @butternutbakery on Instagram and leave a review below if you make these rocky road bars. To pin this recipe and save it for later, you can use the button on the recipe card, the buttons above or below this post, or on any of the photos above. Happy baking!
Watch how to make these peanut butter rocky road bars:
Peanut Butter Rocky Road Bars
- Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
- Yield: 15 bars
Description
These rocky road bars are so fudgy and loaded will all the best mix-ins! Fluffy marshmallows, crunchy salted pretzels, sweet candy coated chocolates, and a layer of peanut butter cups make up this incredibly delicious but easy recipe.
Ingredients
Peanut Butter Rocky Road Bars
- 12 oz bag dark chocolate chips
- 3 tbsp (40g) refined coconut oil or unsalted butter
- 3/4 cup (200g) creamy peanut butter
- 2 heaping cups mini marshmallows
- 1 heaping cup pretzels, roughly broken up (regular or gluten free)
- 1/2 cup M&M’s (plus more for decoration)
- 12 mini Reese’s Christmas trees (or your preferred peanut butter cup)
- Sprinkles, for decoration
Instructions
Peanut Butter Rocky Road Bars
- Fill a medium pot with a couple inches of water and place over medium heat.
- In a heat-safe bowl, add the dark chocolate chips, coconut oil, and peanut butter.
- Place the bowl over the pot of simmering water (ensuring the bowl doesn’t touch the water) and stir to slowly melt.
- Once smooth, remove from heat and set aside to cool for about 10 minutes.
- In the meantime, grease the inside of an 8×8 pan. Line the bottom and two sides with a sheet of parchment paper and allow the paper to hang over the sides for easy removal.
- To the melted chocolate, add the marshmallows, pretzels, and M&M’s and stir to coat.
- Pour half of the mixture into the pan. Spread and pat down the mixture and then tap the pan against the counter a couple times to help condense everything.
- Nestle in a layer of the peanut butter cups. This doesn’t have to be perfect, just place them equal distances apart from each other.
- Pour the remaining mixture on top and spread even. Tap the pan again to make sure the mixture is really packed down in there.
- Top with some extra M&M’s and sprinkles and pop the pan into the refrigerator. The bars should take about an hour to 90 minutes to fully set.
- Once firm, lift the slab out of the pan and slice into 15 bars. Enjoy!
Equipment
Buy Now → Notes
GLUTEN FREE – To make these gluten free, just make sure all ingredients are gluten free safe. use allergy-friendly chocolate chips, gluten free pretzels, and gluten free peanut butter cups.
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Chill Time: 1 hour
- Category: Dessert
- Method: No Bake
- Cuisine: American
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Meet Jenna
I’m the creator, baker, and photographer behind Butternut Bakery. Here I share desserts for every diet because I believe everyone should have a chance to indulge!
