Holy peanut butter millionaire bars! These are amazing,
Listen, I rarely come across a chocolate peanut butter combo that I don’t immediately love. Chocolate + peanut butter is a match made forever in my heart.
Today, we’re adding some buttery soft shortbread as a base layer and topping it all with my favorite sweet combo.
If you’re familiar with TastyKakes, these peanut butter millionaire bars are like an elevated Peanut Butter Kandy Kake.
What are millionaire bars?
Some say they’re called millionaire bars because they are so rich and decadent. It’s a flashy, tri-tier cookie bar typically consisting of a shortbread bottom, caramel middle, and chocolate top. Think fancy shamncy Twix bar.
They’re also called caramel squares, caramel shortcake, or caramel squares.
Me? As much as I love caramel, I love peanut butter more. So, I’m making mine Peanut Butter Millionaire Bars with a bottom shortbread layer made from almond flour, a sweet peanut butter middle, and a chocolate topping.
Ingredients and substitutions for Millionaire Bars:
Shortbread ingredients:
- butter: ghee or refined coconut oil Check out my favorite trick for How to Soften Butter!
- agave nectar: honey or maple syrup also works as a sub
- vanilla extract
- blanched almond flour
- salt
Ingredients for the peanut butter and chocolate topping:
- natural peanut butter: I love the peanutbuttery goodness, but any nut or seed butter works here.
- agave nectar: honey or maple syrup also works
- refined coconut oil: refined is great because it doesn’t have a strong coconut flavor.
- chocolate chips
- heavy cream: you can use coconut cream here if you’re trying to make it dairy free 🙂
- flakey salt (optional but fun)
How to make Millionaire Bars:
Make the shortbread layer:
Whisk or fold together the melted butter, agave, vanilla, almond flour, and salt. Once combined, transfer the dough to a 9×9 square pan lined with parchment paper.
Use a rubber spatula or your hands to press the shortbread into a flat layer.
Bake for 12 minutes until the edges are golden brown. Remove from the oven and set aside.
Make the peanut butter layer:
All you need to do is whisk, whisk, whisk! Whisk together the natural peanut butter, agave nectar, and melted coconut oil. Once smooth, pour it on top of the baked shortbread layer and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.
I found it easiest to use a butter knife to spread the peanut butter layer out onto the shortbread. The spatula was a bit too aggressive and messed up some of the top of the shortbread.
Chill this in the fridge for 15 minutes, then make the chocolate topping.
Make the chocolate topping:
After the peanut butter layer is done chilling, melt the chocolate in a small bowl (Check out my post How to Melt Chocolate Chips) and whisk in the cream. Once combined, pour it on top of the peanut butter layer and spread it out.
Chill in the fridge for at least an hour for the chocolate to harden. Then, cut into 16 bars.
More peanut butter recipes you’ll love:
- Oatmeal Peanut Butter Cookie Bars (gluten free + dairy free)
- Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies
- Peanut Butter Swirl Brownies (gluten free)
- No Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Oatmeal Bars
- Peanut Butter Chickpea Blondies
Recipe
Peanut Butter Millionaire Shortbread Bars (gluten free)
Gluten Free Peanut Butter Millionaire Bars have a buttery layer of shortbread, a sweet peanut butter middle, and a soft chocolate topping.
Ingredients
Shortbread Layer:
- 2 1/2 cup blanched almond flour (How to Make Almond Flour)
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted (ghee or refined coconut oil also works)
- 1/4 cup agave nectar (honey or maple syrup also works)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
Peanut Butter Layer:
- 1 1/2 cup natural peanut butter
- 1/2 cup agave nectar (honey or maple syrup also works)
- 1/4 cup refined coconut oil, melted
Chocolate Layer:
- 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1/4 cup heavy cream (coconut cream also works)
Instructions
Make the shortbread layer:
- Preheat the oven to 350F.
- Whisk or fold together the melted butter, agave, vanilla, almond flour, and salt.
- Once combined, transfer the dough to a 9×9 square pan lined with parchment paper.
- Use a rubber spatula or your hands to press the shortbread into a flat layer.
- Bake for 12 minutes until the edges are golden brown.
- Remove from the oven and set aside.
Make the peanut butter layer:
- Whisk together the natural peanut butter, agave nectar, and melted coconut oil.
- Once smooth, pour it on top of the baked shortbread layer and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.
- I found it easiest to use a butter knife to spread the peanut butter layer out onto the shortbread. The rubber spatula was a bit too aggressive and messed up some of the top of the shortbread.
- Chill this in the fridge for 15 minutes, then make the chocolate topping.
Make the chocolate topping:
- After the peanut butter layer is done chilling, melt the chocolate in a small bowl and whisk in the cream.
- Once combined, pour it on top of the peanut butter layer and spread it out.
- Chill in the fridge for at least an hour for the chocolate to harden.
- Then, lift the bars out from the pan by pulling the edges of the parchment paper.
- Cut into 16 – 20 bars.
Nutrition Info:
- Serving Size: 1 bar
- Calories: 314
- Sugar: 16.6g
- Sodium: 69mg
- Fat: 22.4g
- Saturated Fat: 9.8g
- Unsaturated Fat: 0g
- Trans Fat: 0g
- Carbohydrates: 22g
- Fiber: 2.2g
- Protein: 7.6g
- Cholesterol: 14mg
I’m on an anti Candida diet so I would switch peanut butter to almond but as far as the sweetener, I typically use powdered xylitol. Will that work if I just sub it or should I make it into a simple syrup?
I didn’t get a response to my question but I went ahead and just switched out the agave with powdered xylitol.
These were AMAZING!! The only thing I would do differently is maybe half the ingredients to the shortbread because I only had an 8×8 pan, the shortbread was too thick in my personal opinion. Otherwise, these were BOMB. Thank you! Making it again soon.