No Bake Peanut Butter Bars

I’m totally loving following along the different races to create a new recipe for each race in my Sprint Cup Snacks series. I’m learning more about regional foods and trying out new things as well. Like I had never made BBQ sauce before when I made the Homemade Jack Daniel’s BBQ Sauce for the Food City 500 @ Bristol Motor Speedway in Bristol, TN. What was I waiting for? So good! And I’ve been seriously addicted to the Ham and Cheese Sliders I made for the STP Gas Booster 500 @ Martinsville Speedway in  Martinsville, VA. I think they are going to make another appearance at our house this weekend. Total noms.

So we’re back to the “Old Dominion” state with this weekend’s race in Richmond, VA. I looked into what foods Virginia is famous for and of course there were plenty of seafood options for the area along the Atlantic coast and wines in the mountains in the Western part of the state. And then I found out there are peanut farms! Oh my so in love with peanut butter right now. I found these no bake peanut butter bars and knew that I had to make them for this race.

These no bake peanut butter bars are soo super easy and soo good. In all it took me about 10 minutes to put together and then I just had to wait for it to chill and set up. That’s it! I love how simple they were to make but I love jsut how good they are even more. They taste just like a Reese’s peanut butter cup!!

So here’s the thing… the first piece that you cut out of the pan will get all ugly from you scooping it out. That is your piece to sneak while you are in the kitchen before you serve them. See you were just looking out for your guests and you couldn’t give them them an ‘ugly’ bar. Gotta take one for the team!  😛

No Bake Peanut Butter Bars

Makes up to 32 squares

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter melted
• 2 cups graham cracker crumbs
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 cup + 4 tablespoons peanut butter
• 1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Process

1. In a medium bowl, mix together the melted butter, graham cracker crumbs, powdered sugar, and 1 cup of the peanut butter until well blended.
2. Press evenly into the bottom of an ungreased 9×13 inch pan.
3. Melt the chocolate chips with the remaining 4 tablespoons of peanut butter, stirring occasionally until smooth. Spread the melted chocolate over the peanut butter layer.
4. Refrigerate for at least one hour before cutting into squares.

Source: My Baker Lady

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{Sprint Cup Snacks Track Facts}

Another great night race this weekend! All of the races held at Richmond International Raceway are ‘held under the lights’. Richmond was built in 1946 and since then has evolved to become a state of the art facility with a Video Scoring Tower that boasts more LED square footage than any other track in the motorsports industry. There are four high definition LED screens that come together to measure 38-feet wide by 24-feet high. Are we going to see Kyle Busch on that screen in the winner’s circle again this year? The younger Busch has won the last 4 Toyota Owners 400 races at Richmond International Raceway. Can he do it again this year?!?!

Track: 3/4 miles

Shape: D-Shaped Oval

Banking: 8 degree banking in the front stretch, 2 degree in the back stretch, and 14 degrees in the turns

Surface: Asphalt

Capacity: 97,912 seats

Race: 400 laps for 300 miles

2012 winner:  Kyle Busch