The fruits of my first pinterest challenge - Reese's Peanut Butter Bars.

Ever have one of those days when ya just need something sweet?  Don’t want to put in too much effort, but just something. Well that is where I found myself today. So I opened up my trusty “In the Kitchen” board on Pinterest and started browsing.  I knew that I had pinned a few easy deserts so this should be simple.

That’s when it hit me.  I’m making this a Pinterest Challenge!  Now, I had given myself a Pinterest hairdo challenge a few weeks back, and it ended miserably.  Pro-Tip: Hair that looks like Bjork when you go to sleep will not turn in to Cindy Crawford in the morning.  My lovely coworkers can attest.  It was not pretty.

This time around, I hoped for a better outcome, so I decided on one of the simplest pins I could find and headed to the kitchen.

Six Sisters’ Stuff: Easy No Bake Peanut Butter Bars were perfect – only 5 ingredients and the microwave.

Here’s the recipe:

Ingredients
1 cup butter melted
2 cups graham cracker crumbs
2 cups confectioners’ sugar
1 cup + 4 tablespoons peanut butter
1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Directions
In a medium bowl, mix together the melted butter, graham cracker crumbs, confectioners’ sugar, and 1 cup peanut butter until well blended. Press evenly into the bottom of an ungreased 9×13 inch pan (I used wax paper to aid in removal). In the microwave, melt the chocolate chips with the peanut butter, stirring every 30 seconds until melted until smooth. Spread over the peanut butter layer. Refrigerate for at least one hour before cutting into squares.

My Result
This recipe was so easy to put together.  Thankfully, I had all of the ingredients in my pantry – even the graham cracker crumbs. I threw it all together in less than 10 minutes without much problem.  But I did run into a slight snafu with the chocolate topping.  I guess I just don’t watch it close enough in the microwave, but chocolate seizes every time I try to microwave it.  I know it shocks me too – it’s supposed to be fool proof.  For some reason, every time.  (Confession? I also burn rice – every. time. Go figure.) I next time I’ll just melt them together over a double boiler.

I also found the peanut graham cracker layer a little too greasy – a cup is a lot of butter in my book.  I think next time I would cut it back to 1 stick.  I also found the bottom layer a little one note.  I think a 1/4 teaspoon of salt would have really brought out that peanutty flavor.

The verdict?  Good recipe to have in my back pocket.  This was definitely not a unmentionable failure like the aforementioned hairdo challenge.

Have you tried a Pinterest Challenge?  How did it turn out?