Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars - Vegan Style

A few weeks ago I made these delicious Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Bars from Amber's Delectable Delights and they were a HUGE hit at work. I also agreed with Amber that they are pretty sinful if you are a Resse's lover. This is a great recipe to make in the summer when it is too hot to turn on the oven!

Because these were such a big hit at work I was trepidatious to change the recipe at all but one of our interns is a Vegan and I wanted to make something she could eat at our training session today. I have to say I am pretty impressed with the results and if you need a good vegan recipe this is an easy one to do. Below is the original recipe and listed next to the ingredients are the vegan substitutes.



Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Bars
(Amber's Original Source was: RecipeZaar.com)

Ingredients:

1 cup butter (Vegan Margarine)
2 cups graham cracker crumbs (about 1 cellophane package and 3 extra grahams)(I buy the boxed Graham Cracker Crumbs; however, see below for the Vegan note)
2 cups powdered sugar
1 cup smooth peanut butter
2 cups chocolate chips (Vegan Chocolate Chips - I bought them at Whole Foods)

Directions:

- Mix butter, graham cracker crumbs, powdered sugar, and peanut butter. (An easy way to measure the peanut butter is to put 1 cup of water into a measuring cup, and then add enough peanut butter to it that the water reaches 2 cups).
- Press mixture into a 9x13" pan.
- Melt chocolate chips in microwave and stir until smooth (try a minute first, and then check).
- Spread chocolate carefully over peanut butter layer with a spatula. (Having one person to pour the chocolate and one to spread works well!).
- Let the chocolate cool for a while, and then cut into bars before the chocolate is completely hardened (or else the chocolate layer will just crack).

Notes:

- I was very worried about making sure I made this recipe vegan; I have to note that the intern does eat honey which I realize does not follow the vegan lifestyle. I checked to make sure all the ingredients were vegan, which included the graham crackers. When I normally make this recipe I buy the box of Graham Cracker Crumbs; however, those seemed to have milk in them. I jumped to the conclusion that all graham crackers did so I went and bought Mi-Del Graham Crackers, which are Whole Wheat All Natural; however, the ones I bought had honey in them. When I went to the regular supermarket and looked at the Honey Maid Graham Crackers I realized that I stressed for no reason and could have bought those.

- I personally did not find the Mi-Del Graham Crackers to be tasty on their own; however, they tasted just fine in the recipe.