Peanut Butter Cheerio Bars

Cheerio Bars are one of my favorite things to grab on my way out the door in the mornings. It's fast and easy, and if they contain peanut butter, they hold me over until I can get lunch. The cheerio bars from the store don't really hold me, though.

My mom makes her own peanut butter cheerios, and she was kind enough to pass the recipe on to me. :)



Here's how you make them.

Start by Pamming a Pyrex dish (mine is 8x8, but you could probably use a bigger one if you wanted skinnier bars.) and measuring out 4 C cheerios. I just set them on a paper towel.

Now, put 1/2 C of light corn syrup and 1/4 C of brown sugar in a pan on medium heat.
Stir to combine them. I always use my biggest spatula I've got. You'll understand why in the last step.
Your pan should be on medium heat. You want the sugar-syrup mixture to boil.

While you wait for the mixture to boil, this is a good time to prepare your peanut butter. You need to use natural peanut butter for this recipe. The annoying thing about natural peanut butter is that  the oil gets separated from the rest of the peanut butter. You have to stir it in. Anytime I try to stir it in the jar, I spill the oil all over the counter. It's a giant mess. I've started to pour the whole jar into a tupperware container. It is way easier to stir in a bigger container.

See? Look at all the oil...

Once your sugar-syrup mixture starts to boil, take it off the heat and add a little more than 1 C of peanut butter to it (FYI, if you're using Smucker's Natural peanut butter, you'll use about 3/5 of the jar) as well as 1 t vanilla.

Once it's fully combined, add your 4 C of Cheerios. Stir like crazy. This is the step where you'll be thankful for a big honkin' spatula. You have to stir so fast, I could not get a picture of this step. Once fully combined, pour into your Pyrex dish and flatten. Wait for your mixture to cool. Then, slice into eight pieces.

Enjoy!

Peanut Butter Cheerio Bars

4 C cheerios (or other cereal)
1/2 Light Corn Syrup
1/4 Brown Sugar
1 t vanilla
1 to 1 1/3 C natural peanut butter

1. Pam a pyrex dish (8x8 if you want thicker bars).
2. Set aside 4 C cheerios on paper towel
3. Bring corn syrup and sugar to a boil over medium heat.
4. When the mixture starts to boil, remover from heat and add vanilla and peanut butter.
5. Once peanut butter and vanilla are fully combined, add cheerios and stir like crazy.
6. Pour mixture into pyrex dish and press flat.
7. When mixture cools, cut into 8 pieces.