Chocolate Peanut Butter Crispy Bars

Chocolate-peanut butter-graham cracker-caramel goodness sittin' on a Ritz cracker. Yep, a Ritz cracker. Who would have believed it? This crispy gooey delight is reminiscent of a Twix candy bar. Crispy layers sandwiched with a caramel filling and covered with chocolate. And easy? You don't even need your oven.  You'll need your stovetop and about 20 minutes to have these chilling inside your refrigerator, with you chilling outside of it peeking every 5 minutes to see if your bars are set and ready to eat.

I found this recipe on Buns in My Oven and they looked so deliciously tempting I had to try them. Another recipe in Taste of Home used Waverly Crackers, which I think would also be awesome, but you know that everything's better when it sits on a Ritz! (Andy Griffith said so.) You should try these. Really, you should. But don't hate me if you sit down with a cold glass of milk and eat way too many of them. Not that I'd know anything about that.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Crispy Bars (Printable Recipe here)

adapted from Buns in my Oven

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs

3/4 cup white sugar

3/4 cup brown sugar

3/4 cup butter (1 and 1/2 sticks)- melted

1/3 cup half and half or milk

Ritz Crackers- Enough to make 3 layers in your 9x13 pan. My pan used about 2 1/2 sleeves.

1 3/4 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 cup creamy peanut butter

Directions:

• In a medium saucepan over medium heat, combine melted butter, sugars, milk and graham cracker crumbs. Bring to a boil. Stirring constantly, cook about 5 more minutes. Make sure to stir constantly- the sugar will burn. Don't even ask me how I know that.
• Grease a 9x13 pan. (To make the bars easier to lift out, you could line your pan with greased-or nonstick-foil or greased parchment.) Cover the bottom of your prepared pan with a layer of Ritz crackers.
• Spread half of the graham cracker-sugar mixture evenly over the layer of Ritz crackers. Repeat with another layer of Ritz crackers and the rest of your graham cracker-sugar mixture.
• Top with a third layer of Ritz crackers.
• In your microwave on low power, melt together the chocolate chips and peanut butter. (Don't overcook...Melt the chips part-way and stir to finish melting.)
• Spread the chocolate mixture over the top layer of Ritz crackers. Put in the refrigerator to set completely. Cut into bars and hide some away for yourself, because they'll disappear fast!