No-bake Crunchy Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheerio Bars made with just 4 basic ingredients. An easy-to-make cereal bar that’s perfect for a snack or dessert!

When everyone’s making homemade granola bars with oats, I decided to go for cheerios instead to make a “cereal bar” so there’s that crunchiness without the baking!

And then of course Choco + PB is just something of its own so that just had to be the flavor.

Original Cheerios

I’ve been obsessed with Cheerios recently after discovering they’re actually one of the better cereals out there.

I’m talking about the Original ones here. They’re made with whole grain oats and barely have any sugar in them.

There’s a bunch of flavored ones too which aren’t as good for you though. The frosted and honey nut ones for instance have tons of sugar to give them that sweetness, so you’re basically just feeding yourself trash.

A recipe for gluten free and healthy no bake homemade chocolate peanut butter bars made with cheerio cereal, chocolate, creamy peanut butter and maple syrup

DIY Cheerio Bars:

You can make these bars at home with just a few ingredients that you’ve probably got lying around already

Cheerios: I’m pretty certain this is one of the most popular cereals in the US. If you don’t have a box at home already, your nearest grocery store is definitely going to have some!
As an alternative, you could use rice crispies too.
Peanut Butter: The glue, the base 2, the without-this-no-can-do!
I used creamy peanut butter for this recipe, but crunchy is equally good. I’d stay away from the so-stir kind though coz they’ve got palm oil added. Stick to something that has just peanuts and salt (or no salt).
Maple Syrup: Adds a slight sweetness to this treat, and also helps bind the cereal together.
To keep these healthy and sugar-free though, I used a stevia-sweetened maple syrup from Sweetleaf Stevia. Regular syrup would do the job, but its just got too much sugar and is really high in calories too.
Chocolate: You can’t have a chocolate peanut butter bar without the chocolate can you? The slabs are topped with chocolate, and it just makes things a whole lot better.
For these chocolate peanut butter cheerio bars I’d really recommend going semi-sweet or dark chocolate. You might not like the dark kind to bite into by itself, but trust me, it goes well here. Really really well with the nutty sweet and salty maple-PB-cheerio base.

How to make?

Stir together the nut butter and syrup. Microwave at 10 second intervals if the PB is too hard.
Add in the cheerios/cereal and mix well. Very Well.
Transfer the mix to a parchment lined pan, press it down tight and freeze for 20 mins.
Chop up the chocolate (or use chocolate chips) and melt in the microwave for about a minute. Longer at 10 second intervals if needed.
Spread chocolate on base.
Freeze again for 10 minutes.
Slice!

How to store?

Keep them in the freezer or fridge in an airtight container or zipper bag.

Peanut allergies?

Use almond butter instead!

Gluten free?

Yes! Cheerios are now gluten-free, and so so are these bars! Here’s the official word from General Mills – the guys who make the cereal.

Healthy?

Yes!

These healthy homemade peanut butter cereal bars have no honey, no marshmallows, no corn syrup and no added sugar at all! In addition to being made without any sugar, these cheerio bars also have no butter and no dairy in general.

They use stevia sweetened chocolate and maple syrup instead so indulge in 2 or even 3 at once!

What’s that chocolate? Lily’s! Here’s my thoughts on their favors.