This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #CrispyIsBack #CollectiveBias
A brownie/oatmeal base, smothered in chocolate cookie butter and topped with a cookie butter creme, decorated prettily with M&M's® Crispy! These Cookie Butter Crispy Creme Bars are a mouthful of comfort with the chewy base and creamy fudge like cookie butter cream combination and the M&M's® Crispy give them that crunch factor!
Do you remember the M&M's® Crispy? I know I do and I am super happy they are back! There were two reasons I love this M&M's® product. I love the crispy part and I loved the fact I could have a candy that was a lower calorie per snack bag (only 180 calories per serving!) and I could have a treat that wouldn't dig into my calorie allotment for the day too deep.
I have to tell you that these M&M's® caused a slight altercation between Grumpy and me. Yup, we had a little bit of an unsettling moment between us because of them. I made my recipe more than once. That meant I needed more than one bag around the house. See that jar full of candy in the photo above? I filled that jar and happily left if for Grumpy to munch on while I was at my Food Blog Conference. You would have thought that would have been enough for him. I bet you can guess where I am going with this, right? A food blogger's worst nightmare is finding a product or finished recipe gone before they can make the recipe or photograph the final product. I had that nightmare last weekend as I prepared to do a final run of my recipe! I went to the pantry where I had put the bag of M&M's® Crispy only to find that there was only about a cup of them left in the bag! Bad, bad Grumpy. I have a feeling that won't happen again any time soon! Being a seasoned blogger, he knows that for the most part, certain items are "untouchable" until I say so. I think the fact he tasted the candy the week before, "thought" I was done baking, and liked the candy, well, I guess I can't entirely blame him for digging in!
Two rules that should always be enforced in a food blogger home: 1.)Never do you ever eat anything without asking first and 2.) Hide whatever you don't want someone to find and sneak into on you! The effect of following those two rules? Nobody, and I mean nobody has to have any tears over the situation and yes. I did cry. I'm not ashamed to admit it. I only had enough left to make this recipe and no snacking for me while I was doing it. Do you have any idea how much that hurt? Oh, that was so hard to do!
That said, I have to say that when I saw that my local Walmart had a big M&M's® display back in their candy aisle, I about went crazy. Everything we love and want in one spot! Grumpy's favorite choices have always been the almond and peanut, where mine has always been the crispy choice. I have a feeling after the "situation" I just told you about that Grumpy loves those crispy one just about as much as I do! I think when we go out shopping next weekend I may have to stockpile and "hide".
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| I found my M&M's® Crispy in a big display in the candy aisle at my local Walmart |
I was in a mood for something chocolate, chewy, creamy and crunchy. I was inspired by a few different recipes I had seen on the internet and came up with this particular outcome. A bottom layer made with chocolate, chocolate cookie butter, and oatmeal as the main flavors. I then spread some chocolate cookie butter over the bottom layer when it was nice and hot (so it would melt) and let it cool for my final part of the recipe - the creamy, fudge like (uncooked) cookie butter layer.
Need to slip the finished product out of the pan to cut into perfect squares? No problem! I used both a ceramic baking dish and a glass baking dish in testing of this recipe. I only sprayed with cooking spray and these bars slid out very easily when I wanted to cut them. They need to be completely cooled and sit a few hours after completion of the entire recipe, so if you can wait that long, you can cut them just like I did!
What would you do with these M&M's® Crispy? Would you create a recipe with them or would you be tempted to just eat them out of the bag (like Grumpy did!). I would tend to do both! If your looking for more great ideas for recipes or party ideas with M&M's® Crispy be sure to check out their social hub!
Optional ingredient suggestions: If you do not have or can't find chocolate cookie butter or regular cookie butter, feel free to use a hazelnut spread or regular peanut butter in place of cookie butter in my recipe. I'm sure the results will be just as tasty!
Cookie Butter Crispy Creme Bars
Ingredients
- Cookie Base
- 1-½ cup whole oats
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup cocoa powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup unsalted butter, softened
- ¼ cup chocolate swirled cookie butter plus ⅓ cup for spreading on baked dough
- 1 cup packed dark brown sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ cup toffee bits
- Creme Base
- ¼ cup unsalted butter, softened
- ½ cup regular cookie butter
- 1 cup brown sugar
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 cup (or more if "someone" hasn't eaten them on you!) M&M's® Crispy
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray 9x13 pan with non-stick cooking spray.
- In a medium mixing bowl combine the oats, flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, salt and toffee bits. Set aside
- In another medium mixing bowl, mix together the butter, cookie butter, brown sugar, egg and vanilla extract until creamy.
- Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and mixed until well combined.
- Press the cookie base into the bottom of your 9x13 pan covering the entire bottom of pan.
- Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes. Remove from oven and immediately spread with ⅓ cup of chocolate cookie butter. Set aside and let cool completely.
- Make the creme base by mixing together the butter, cookie butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar and vanilla extract until well combined and creamy. Gradually add the flour to the butter mixture mixing well until thoroughly combined. Spread creme base over top of cookie base.
- Decorate with M&M's® Crispy and drizzle with melted cookie butter (about 2 tablespoons can be melted in the microwave up to 1-½ minutes).
- Cut bars into small squares and serve. Store in airtight container.
Makes 36 bars.
Pat says
What is cookie butter?
Shelby says
I buy mine at Trader Joe's and its called cookie butter - you can also do a google search and find other brands online. It is similar to peanut butter, but made with ground cookies (cinnamon flavored)
Beth says
i made the creme frosting exactly as the recipe and it is a POWDER. Not even approaching anything spreadable. Not sure how 1/4 cup butter and 1/2 cup cookie butter are supposed to balance out over 3 cups of dry ingredients to make a creme. Help?!
Shelby says
Hi Beth, I'm sorry you did not have good luck with this recipe. When you cream sugar and butter together the sugars "dissolve" and makes the mixture creamy when blended with butter and gives room for dry ingredients. Because I did not have this problem I am not sure what caused yours, however whenever you have a creamy topping that is too dry, you can always gradually add some milk to the mixture to "loosen" it up until it does become creamy.
Beth says
My husband actually had the same idea about the milk and saved the day (: It worked well and is delicious. Hooray!
Shelby says
Beth, I am so happy to hear that! I hope you enjoyed them!
Sheena @ Hot Eats and Cool Reads says
This recipe looks amazing, Shelby!! I could eat a few right now!
Hobbies on a Budget says
I love the mix of chewy, crunchy and sweetness in this recipe! Looks delicious #crispy
Camilla Hawkins says
Love these fun tasty treats and great for kids:-)
Dorothy at Shockingly Delicious says
Man those look good! You reeled me right in....
Peter of Feed Your Soul Too says
OMG. These look awesome!
Cindy @ Hun What's for Dinner? says
OMG these bars looks insane!! Drooling over them.
Erica S (EricasRecipes.com) says
wow Shelby! these look like such a treat!
Mary Ellen says
These look so good, the cookie butter looks amazing and M&M's are my favorite. I need to look for these.
Sandra Shaffer says
That thick cream base layer looks amazing! I have been known to hide some ingredients for the very reason you mention,. With this crispy M&M's enticement, Grumpy would have to be a Saint to leave them untouched 🙂
Sara Glover says
This is such a great idea! I need to make these! they are so fun and look delicious!
Sarah Olson says
I wish we lived closer! These are the best looking bars I have ever seen. Great recipe Shelby!
Christie Daruwalla says
I don't think I would have been able to resist tne M&M's Cripsy. I would eat them all too. The bars are a fun way to enjoy them, too.