Gold Bars

When I was in Elementary school, there was a gem of a treat served in the Albuquerque Public Schools called a Gold Bar. It was loads of crispy peanut butter goodness topped with chocolate, and it was awesome. I remembered this tasty treat the other day and wondered if I could ever recreate them. I found this recipe online and decided to give it a try.
I made it for our preschool group today and it was a hit - especially for the moms. Ben also really enjoyed it last night, which means a lot, because he thinks it's hard to make a good peanut butter/chocolate concoction at home. I forgot to add the corn syrup, so that would have given it a little more moisture. Also, I used healthy peanut butter, but it was still just fine. I'm thinking if I would have used regular PB (with all that sugar and high-fructose corn syrup - check your labels!) as well as the remembered the light corn syrup it would have been pretty dang close to the original.

For you PB freaks, here you go:

2 cups crunchy peanut butter
2 cups Rice Krispies
2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
4 tablespoons melted margarine or butter
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
3 large Hershey chocolate bars*, melted

Method: Mix peanut butter, Rice Krispies, powdered sugar, melted margarine, and light corn syrup until well blended. Press mixture evenly into a 9-by-13-inch pan that has been lined with plastic wrap over light oil. Melt chocolate bars in double boiler (or microwave). Spread evenly over Rice Krispie mixture; chill until set but not hard (chocolate will begin to lose its shiny appearance). Cut into pieces of desired size. Return to refrigerator until chocolate has hardened completely. Remove from pan and store in tightly covered container in refrigerator until ready to serve.

*the original recipe calls for 11 regular Hershey bars, which seems ridiculous. I think three big bars would be perfect. I used 2 big bars and 1 regular bar.