Chocolate Peanut Butter Cereal Bars

This year I decided that with everything going on, it would be a good idea to start getting ready for Christmas a little early... ok, a lot early... like, I had all my parents' gifts planned out (and some of them ready) before Thanksgiving. I'm trying to convince myself that it was all just in case the baby came early, but honestly, when you grew up a California girl, rain (not snow) feels like Christmas. And it rains in Utah in September... so, yeah...

With all of the gift preparations mostly done before we even got to December, I decided to give out treat plates a little earlier as well this year (once again, just in case! Haha!). We just finished giving out our last treat plates and it turns out I made way more plates than I was originally planning on! Part of that is the fact that John decided to give some to his work buddies and school buddies and also the fact that neighborhoods here are a bit different than they were at home. Growing up, I knew my friend's houses in the neighborhood and maybe one or two others. My mom would only give Christmas treats to the neighbors directly next to and across from us which meant she only needed 5 plates (and most of the time, I didn't even know who those neighbors were). In our current neighborhood, we know almost every person on our street and see them at church weekly (which I just realized makes our city sound a bit like the Andy Griffith Show...). Not only that, but we're the corner house, so we have a few more "next door neighbors" than most.

Now that we're done handing out Christmas treats, I'm starting to wish we made a plate for ourselves... Luckily, this last batch of treats we made had some extras left over so I can get my Christmas sugar fix! Haha!

One of the desserts we usually put on our plates is from a recipe we got from my sister Julia. She made these Chocolate Peanut Butter Cereal Bars one year when John and I were visiting my parents for Christmas and they have been John's favorite Christmas dessert ever since! Technically, they're not even Christmas-y, but that's the only time of year we make them... Otherwise, we'd probably all get Diabetes. Lol.

First, measure out 12 cups of corn flakes into a large bowl. Next, put 2 cups of corn syrup and 2 cups of granulated sugar into a saucepan (I wasn't kidding about Diabetes... Haha!). Heat the mixture, stirring constantly, until the sugar is dissolved. This usually takes about 2 minutes of boiling the mixture. (As a tip: make sure not to boil it for too long or the cereal bars will turn out hard!)

Then, add the peanut butter and stir until it's incorporated. Pour the peanut butter mixture over the corn flakes and combine. Once that's done, dump the mixture onto a large greased baking sheet and flatten it a little with your spoon as you go.

To make the chocolate topping, pour 1 bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips and 1 bag of butterscotch chocolate chips in a bowl and microwave them for 1 minute. Stir them and return them to the microwave for 30 seconds. Continue to repeat this last step until they are fully melted and combined.

Pour the chocolate on top of the corn flake layer and spread it out with your spoon. Once the chocolate has set and is hard, you can cut them into squares or bars.

These Chocolate Peanut Butter Cereal Bars are super easy to make and taste so good! That's why they usually makes their way onto our menu for the Christmas season... except for when it comes to the peanut butter allergy neighbors... we make them something different... Because a trip to the ER is not really the nicest neighbor gift in my opinion. Haha!