Chocolate Peanut Butter Confetti Squares

Today’s recipe is one of those times where I have a fantastic idea, get it all hashed out... and find out that it already exists. Whoops.

Anyway, if you’ve seen my Confetti Bars Recipe, you’re familiar with the inspiration for these delicious squares.

They’re some of my favourite nostalgic childhood treats from growing up in Manitoba - an addictive combination of peanut butter and butterscotch flavors, enrobing confetti-colored marshmallows - hence the name.

Those butterscotch marshmallow squares are ubiquitous back home, and show up not only during the holiday season, but at various get togethers and as after-school snacks ANY time of year.

It’s a no bake recipe that requires only minimal effort and can be whipped up fairly last minute, if needed - no wonder it’s so popular!

Anyway, recently I was thinking that I could make kind of a peanut butter cup inspired version - swap the butterscotch out for chocolate, and the fruit marshmallows out for plain, to create chocolate peanut butter marshmallow squares.

Well, as it turns out... chocolate peanut butter marshmallow bars are already a known - and somewhat popular - alternative to the original recipe.

Ah well.

Anyway, let’s look at what you’ll need in order to throw on a batch of this easy recipe.

You could be less than 5 minutes of work - and an hour or two of waiting - away from a tray of chocolate peanut butter marshmallow goodness, yourself!

Ingredients

This peanut butter marshmallow squares recipe only uses 4 simple ingredients - you won’t have any trouble at all finding them in any grocery store.

A few notes for you:

Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips

While the original recipe uses butterscotch chips - sometimes peanut butter chips - this one uses actual chocolate.

I tend to use semi-sweet chocolate chips, to offset some of the sweetness coming from the marshmallows and peanut butter. I feel like bittersweet chocolate might not be sweet enough (my husband would love it, though), and milk chocolate might be a bit TOO sweet.

That said, the recipe will work with any of them, so go with what you’ll like! If you have a wicked sweet tooth, go milk. If you love dark chocolate, use that!

Creamy Peanut Butter

Traditionally, smooth peanut butter is what you’re going to want for this recipe.

In theory, you COULD use crunchy peanut butter, but you’ll want to use a little more, to make up for the volume of actual peanut butter lost to the chunks of nuts in it.

Personally, I wouldn’t use the refrigerated type of natural peanut butter. The texture may be a bit off, and really... you need that salt and sugar to really enhance the peanut butter flavor in these bars, IMHO.

Mini Marshmallows

While the Confetti Squares this recipe riffs on uses multi-colored miniature marshmallows, I’m not so into the idea of fruity marshmallows + Peanut butter + Chocolate.

Maybe it’s fantastic, who knows? Maybe I’ll try it someday. In the meantime, I go with basic vanilla marshmallows, to let the peanut butter and chocolate flavours take center stage.

As a note, I realize that “A bag of marshmallows” isn’t a set amount of marshmallows, really. This is one where you measure with your heart!

I usually use about ⅔ of a small bag - I like there to be a fair amount of the “fudge”, proportionately. Sometimes I like extra marshmallows though, so there’s wiggle room.

Unsalted Butter

Really don’t have anything to add here, other than “Salted works fine, if that’s what you have”. We just tend to have unsalted on hand, so that’s what I used.

How to Make Chocolate Confetti Bars

The full recipe is in the printable recipe card at the end of this post, here is the pictorial walk through:

Grease or line a baking pan with parchment paper. There are a few different ways to do this.

First off, the pan - You can use either an 8 inch square pan, or a 9 x 13 inch pan. I like to use the 8" pan for nice thick bars, but 9 x 13 is a popular size as well - it makes thinner bars.

As far as the greasing goes, you can either butter it, spray it, and/or line it with parchment paper.

Personally, I like to spray it first, then line it with parchment paper - leaving enough paper overhang to let me pull the whole thing out of the pan for easy cutting.

The spray holds the parchment in place, and pulling the slab out makes for easy cutting.

In a glass bowl, heat chocolate chips, peanut butter, and butter - use a large bowl, as you’ll be mixing the marshmallows in later.

I like to microwave it for a minute or so, until the chips are about half melted. Stir with a rubber spatula until everything is melted, combined, and smooth.

Add in mini marshmallows, stir until all are evenly coated. Use between ½ and 1 small bag of them, depending on your tastes. I usually use about ⅔ of a bag, but used a whole bag for this batch (as pictured). Sometimes you want more of the “fudge” part, sometimes you want more marshmallows.

These bars are NOT a hard science!

When marshmallows are coated, transfer mixture into the prepared pan, and spread the peanut butter chocolate mixture into an even layer - I’ll use an offset spatula or the back of a spoon for this.

Cool mixture to room temperature, then chill until set - about 2-3 hours.

Use a sharp knife to cut into bars, and serve!

Leftovers

Leftovers will keep in an airtight container in the fridge for probably 4-5 days. Maybe longer - we’ve never had any bars left after about 2 days, so longevity is just a guess!

More Gluten-Free Dessert Recipes!

Looking for even more fantastic gluten-free desserts that *everyone* will love? Look no further!

Cherry Cheesecake Fluff Salad
Chocolate Fondue
Deviled Strawberries
Easy Gluten Free Brownies
Gluten-Free Brandied Apple Crisp
Gluten Free Butter Tart Bars
Gluten-Free Buttertarts
Gluten Free Doughnut Holes
Gluten-Free Earl Grey Pie
Gluten Free Fruitcake
Gluten-Free Lemon Bars
Gluten Free Maple Pumpkin Pie
Gluten-Free Nanaimo Bar Brownies
Gluten Free Puffed Rice Bars
Gluten-Free Pumpkin Spice Mini Doughnuts
Gluten Free Raspberry Bars
Gluten-Free Schmoo Torte
Gluten Free Sticky Toffee Pudding
Key Lime Cheesecake
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Also, be sure to check out our collection of Gluten Free Cookie Recipes!