I bake the bars until the edges are lightly golden and the center no longer jiggles. When they come out of the oven, the top is slightly crackled, and the chips look melty and glossy. The hardest part is letting them cool. Warm, they are gooey and delicious, but if you want perfectly clean slices, you’ll want to wait until they cool fully. Still, I can never resist stealing a small square from a corner while it’s still warm—it’s like tasting a hug.
Pro Tips for Best Results
I tested this recipe three different ways—mixing all the chips inside, reserving a portion for topping, and even melting part of the peanut butter into the batter—and I learned that folding the chips in at the very end gives the best texture. When I added them earlier, they sank too much and didn’t distribute evenly. Folding keeps them suspended beautifully throughout the bars.
Another trick I learned is to not overbake the bars. The edges should be golden, but the center should look slightly underdone when you pull them out. Residual heat continues cooking them in the pan. Overbaking leads to dry, crumbly bars, and trust me, these bars are meant to be chewy and soft. Pulling them early ensures they stay gooey in all the right ways.
If you want your bars to slice neatly, chilling the pan for 20–30 minutes after cooling makes a world of difference. The bars firm up, and the knife glides through without dragging chips or pulling crumbs. I especially do this when I’m serving the bars at parties or gifting them.
And here’s a tip for extra flavor: sprinkle a pinch of flaky salt on top right when the bars come out of the oven. It melts into the warm chips and creates that irresistible sweet-salty contrast that takes the whole dessert to another level.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
I made this mistake the first time—using natural peanut butter. Natural peanut butter separates and makes the bars oily on top but dry inside. After that fiasco, I switched to traditional creamy peanut butter, and the texture became consistently perfect. So if you only have natural peanut butter on hand, stir it very well and expect a slightly different texture.
Another mistake is overmixing the batter once the flour goes in. Overmixing activates the gluten, turning these soft bars into dense, cake-like slabs. Fold gently until no streaks of flour remain, and then stop. Your bars will thank you with a tender, chewy bite.
Some people also forget to line their baking pan, and this can make getting clean slices nearly impossible. I once had to dig the bars out with a spatula, and even though they tasted great, the presentation suffered. Lining with parchment truly makes everything easier.(See the next page below to continue…)