Peanut Butter Cup Gooey Cookie Bars

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Peanut Butter Cup Gooey Cookie Bars are chocolate chip cookie bars filled with peanut butter cups and gooey peanut butter filling! 

These are a peanut butter explosion in one of the best cookie bar recipes EVER.


You guys: Peanut Butter Cup Gooey Bars. These are going to be your BFF, promise.

Y’all know how much I like my gooey bar recipes. I’m constantly dreaming up new versions because…Can’t stop won’t stop.

Today I married my Chocolate Chip Cookie Gooey Bars and my love of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.

I didn’t even know what to call these: they’re cookie bars filled with gooey peanut butter and peanut butter cups.


These are INSANE – and insanely easy:

My best ever Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

Filled with peanut butter sweetened condensed milk

And peanut butter cups

My version of gooey bar is a cookie (or cake) bar. Half the dough is pressed into the pan, then it’s filled with sweetened condensed milk and topped with the rest of the dough. 

The base of the cookie bars starts with a double recipe of my favorite chocolate chip cookie dough. That recipe is my old standby and it produces the best chocolate chip cookies ever.

Since my cookie dough is made with melted butter you can easily stir it together in one bowl with a spoon or spatula. Simply stir the butter and sugars, then add in the eggs, baking soda, salt and vanilla, and then the flour.

My normal gooey bar filling is plain sweetened condensed milk, but for these bars I wanted a gooey peanut butter filling, so I mixed peanut butter with the SCM. This adds peanut butter flavor to every bite of these cookie bars.

Peanut Butter Cup Gooey Bars are simple to assemble: just press half the dough in the bottom of the pan. It’s pretty easy to do this, since it’s a pretty liquidy dough right after mixing.


Ingredients

  • 1 cup unsalted butter, melted
  • 3/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 cup light brown sugar packed
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 3/4 cup chocolate chips
  • 30 Miniature Peanut Butter Cups see note
  • 1 14 ounce can fat-free sweetened condensed milk
  • 1/4 cup creamy peanut butter

 

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a 9×13” baking pan with foil and spray with cooking spray for easy removal.
  2. Stir together melted butter with both sugars. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing completely.  Mix in vanilla extract, salt, and baking soda. Mix flour in slowly. Stir in chocolate chips.
  3. Pour the sweetened condensed milk into a small bowl and add the peanut butter. Stir until smooth.
  4. Press half the cookie dough in the prepared pan. (Spray your hands with nonstick cooking spray so it won’t stick to you.) Top the dough with peanut butter cups.
  5. Pour sweetened condensed milk mixture over the top of the bottom layer (be careful to leave about 1/4” edge around the pan so the milk doesn’t touch the foil), then break up the remaining cookie dough and place on top of milk. Press with your hands to flatten. It will mostly cover but not completely cover the bottom layer.
  6. Bake for about 30-35 minutes until the tops of the bars just start to get golden brown. Cool completely before slicing into bars.
  7. Store in an airtight container for up to 3 days or freeze for up to one month. These are best served room temperature.