These Peanut Butter Brownie Bars are so easy, you’d never expect them to taste so decadent, with a melt-in-your-mouth texture and a rich peanut butter flavor. With hints of coconut and butterscotch caramel, these crowd-pleasers will be gone as fast as… well, as fast as a batch of cookies in a room full of teenagers.

“Necessity is the mother of taking chances.”
— Mark Twain

The day I first invented these cookies, I needed a bar cookie that I could whip up quickly and get in the oven in the few minutes left before my cafe opened. One of my cookie racks was pretty much empty, and I had several customers who I didn’t want to disappoint by not having something peanut-buttery. I was also out of gluten free goodies, so I thought I would kill two birds with one cookie, so to speak.

After skimming through several peanut butter bar recipes and several gluten free bar recipes, my Peanut Butter Brownie Bars were born. If you need them to be gluten free, just make sure to use gluten free flour and check that whatever chips you’re using are gluten free.

It turns out that Reese’s brand peanut butter chips are gluten free, as are Ghiradelli caramel chips. Unfortunately, the Ghiradelli caramel chips can be ridiculously hard to find in my neck of the woods, except for sometimes around the holidays, but Hershey’s brand sea salt caramel chips or butterscotch are both gluten free as well (as of this writing).

And these Peanut Butter Brownie Bars are so insanely delicious, you’d never guess they’re gluten free!

What I love about these cookie bars, is that they’re only gluten free incidentally — there is absolutely no sacrifice in taste or texture! The first batch seemed so unbelievably delicious, that only about half of them made it out to the display rack, thanks to myself, my barista (Jolie), and a couple of strategically-timed coffee breaks.

In fact, these fabulous Peanut Butter Brownie Bars will forever remind me of Jolie and all of our wonderful, loyal customers who loved them — and that just makes them that much sweeter.

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