Dump chopped candy bars in the pot and grab a spoon. Just 3 ingredients to get a dessert so rich, your husband will ask for it every night.
This little slow cooker dessert reminds me of the kind of thing church ladies would have dreamed up for potlucks once candy bars got cheap and plentiful. It’s the kind of recipe you make when you’re tired, the house is quiet, and you just want to dump a few things in the pot and let it take care of itself. With only three ingredients and no fussy steps, you end up with a rich, gooey peanut butter crisp cake that tastes like the inside of every candy bar you ever loved. It’s not fancy, but it is the sort of sweet that makes husbands ask if there’s any left before they’ve even finished the first bowl.
Serve this warm right out of the slow cooker, scooped into bowls with a sturdy spoon. It’s wonderful on its own, but a scoop of vanilla ice cream or a dollop of whipped topping will cool it down and stretch it a bit if you’re feeding a crowd. Strong coffee, cold milk, or even hot cocoa pair nicely with all that peanut butter and chocolate richness. If you’re serving company, you can sprinkle a few extra chopped candy bar pieces or peanuts over each bowl to dress it up without any extra work.
Lightly grease the bottom and lower sides of a 4- to 6-quart slow cooker with a little butter or nonstick spray to help with cleanup.
Roughly chop the peanut butter crisp candy bars into bite-size pieces. Aim for about 1/2- to 3/4-inch chunks so they hold some texture but still melt together. Dump all the chopped candy bars into the bottom of the slow cooker, spreading them into an even layer.
In a medium bowl, stir together the sweetened condensed milk and creamy peanut butter until smooth and well blended. It will be thick, but keep stirring until there are no streaks of peanut butter.
Pour the peanut butter–condensed milk mixture evenly over the chopped candy bars in the slow cooker. Do not stir; just let it seep down between the pieces as it heats.
Cover the slow cooker with the lid and cook on LOW for 2 to 2 1/2 hours, until the edges are bubbly and the center looks melted, gooey, and mostly set. The candy bars will have softened and fused together, with little pockets of crisp still peeking through.
Turn off the slow cooker and let the dessert stand, covered, for 15 to 20 minutes. This rest time helps it thicken into a scoopable, cake-like mass instead of a runny puddle.
Serve warm straight from the slow cooker, scooping down to the bottom so you get plenty of those soft, melted candy bar pieces in every spoonful. Store any leftovers, once cooled, in a covered container in the refrigerator and rewarm gently in the microwave or on LOW in the slow cooker.
Variations & Tips
For a little extra crunch, stir in 1/2 to 3/4 cup of chopped dry-roasted peanuts or salted peanuts along with the candy bars at the bottom of the slow cooker. If your candy bars are more chocolate than peanut butter, you can bump up the peanut flavor by adding an extra tablespoon or two of peanut butter to the condensed milk mixture. To make it a little less sweet, use natural peanut butter (the kind with just peanuts and salt) and choose candy bars with darker chocolate, then serve in smaller portions with plenty of unsweetened coffee. You can also play with different candy bar combinations—mix peanut butter crisp bars with chocolate-covered pretzel bars or caramel-nut bars, keeping the total amount to about 4 cups. For a firmer, more bar-like dessert, line the slow cooker with a wide strip of parchment before greasing, let the cooked mixture cool completely, then lift it out and chill before cutting into squares. If your slow cooker runs hot, start checking at 1 1/2 hours so the sugars don’t scorch around the edges.
