Penzey's No-Bake Peanut Butter Bars

We made these bars last-minute for a 4th of July party and they were an absolute hit and SO YUMMY! I love that they are no-bake, so my oven had room for other stuff. We used creamy peanut butter but the recipe permits creamy or chunky. These came from the Penzey's Summer catalog and is the first Penzey's recipe I have made. Yummy!

• Ready In: 25 mins
• Yields: 24 bars

Ingredients

• 1 1⁄2 cups graham crackers, crushed (about 1/3 of a box)
• 1⁄2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1  cup butter (2 sticks)
• 2  teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 1 1⁄2 cups peanut butter (creamy or chunky)
• 3 1⁄2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 (12 ounce) bag chocolate chips

Directions

1. Crush the graham crackers into fine crumbs. One third of a box is usually one cellphane wrapped package. Mix in the cinnamon and set aside.
2. Melt butter in a large saucepan. Remove from heat and add peanut butter and vanilla and mix well. Add the powdered sugar and graham crackers, stir until well combined (it should be a stiff dough, you may want to use a hand mixer).
3. Pat the mixture into an ungreased 9x13 pan.
4. Melt the chocolate over low heat in a heavy saucepan, or spread evenly in a glass pie plate and microwave 30 seconds at a time, stirring after each 30 seconds, until melted.
5. Spread the melted chocolate over the peanut butter layer.
6. Refrigerate for one hour, bring to room temperature, and cut into bars.