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Home » Recipes » Desserts

Sweet & Salty Monster Cookie Bars

Stacey – May 23, 2016 – 4 Comments

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This post is sponsored by my friends at MARS, but the thoughts and opinions here are all my own… just as always.  Plus, someone else having my thoughts is just weird.  🙂

Sweet and Salty Monster Cookie Bars: All my favorite flavors (Peanut M&Ms, pretzels, peanut butter, and chocolate) combined in one super easy cookie bar recipe!

Summer is nearly here and if you’re searching for a fun and easy recipe to take to all those warm weather picnics and barbecues, I’ve got one for ya!  These Sweet and Salty Monster Cookie Bars are just the ticket!  With chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, Peanut M&Ms, and crushed pretzels, they’re the perfect blend of sweet and salty – which y’all know I love!  And there’s just something about pretzels and chocolate?  Am I right??  Now add that to peanut M&Ms, peanut butter, and chewy cookie bars.  Seriously.  I’ll give you a minute to process through that…

Sweet and Salty Monster Cookie Bars: All my favorite flavors (Peanut M&Ms, pretzels, peanut butter, and chocolate) combined in one super easy cookie bar recipe!

Delicious, right!? And the new M&Ms in red, white, and blue make for the perfect way to add a little patriotic color to them! (Get a coupon here!)

Sweet and Salty Monster Cookie Bars: All my favorite flavors (Peanut M&Ms, pretzels, peanut butter, and chocolate) combined in one super easy cookie bar recipe!

And in classic Stacey fashion, they’re super easy!  It’s a matter of stir, stir, stir, pour, spread, bake!  🙂  Did y’all get that?  No worries.  I’ve got the full instructions below.

You know, I have such fond memories of cookie bars.  They’re such an easy way to make some delicious cookies without all the work.  My Mom has this one recipe for cookie bars that is super fantastic and super easy, too.  They were one of those things that she always took to barbecues and such and because they were so easy, they were a great after-school snack, too.  Goodness, I love those things.

Sweet and Salty Peanut M&M covered pretzel rods!

Jack absolutely adores chocolate covered pretzels, so when he heard me talking about chocolate and pretzels, he started asking for these chocolate cover pretzels rods I make sometimes.  To appease him, I coated a few pretzel rods in chocolate almond bark and sprinkled them with some crushed peanut M&Ms.  Didn’t they turn out great?  The best part is they tasted even better than they looked!  I just had to add a picture of them in this post.  They’re such a fun and easy treat!  See there – you just got two recipes in one post!  🙂


Sweet and Salty Monster Cookie Bars: All my favorite flavors (Peanut M&Ms, pretzels, peanut butter, and chocolate) combined in one super easy cookie bar recipe!

The great thing about these too is that they can be a great base for your favorite candy mix-ins.  Any other M&Ms would work – peanut, almond, plain, peanut butter, etc.

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5 from 2 votes

Recipe Card

Sweet & Salty Monster Cookie Bars

Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 25 minutes
Total Time 40 minutes
Servings 9 to 12
Author Stacey Little / SouthernBite.com

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted
  • 1 1/2 cups firmly packed light brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup peanut butter
  • 1 egg
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 cup Peanut M&Ms
  • 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
  • 1/2 cup peanut butter chips
  • 1 cup broken pretzels

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 350°F and lightly spray an 8X8 baking pan with nonstick cooking spray.
  • In a large bowl, mix the melted butter, brown sugar, and peanut butter together. Add the egg and vanilla and mix well. Add the flour and stir until combined. Fold in the M&Ms, chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, and pretzel pieces. Press the mixture evenly into the prepared baking pan. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until golden brown and set. (The toothpick test isn't great for this recipe as you still want them to be a little gooey.) Cool completely before slicing.
Did you make my Sweet & Salty Monster Cookie Bars?I'd love to see! Share on Instagram, tag @southernbite, and use the hashtag #southernbite!
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  1. Mary Frances Boykin

    July 15, 2022 at 7:49 am

    The best of sweet and salty!!!

    Reply
    • Stacey

      July 15, 2022 at 8:28 am

      Sweet and salty combo is the BEST!

      Reply
  2. Pam Elkin

    February 3, 2020 at 5:35 pm

    I would like to double this recipe. Would it work to just double everything and bake in 9×13 pan? Oh my, these are delicious! Going to do the pretzel rods, soon!! Thanks for both recipes!

    Reply
    • Stacey

      February 5, 2020 at 7:24 pm

      I’ve not tried that, so I can’t say for sure, Pam. But I don’t see why not.

      Reply

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Stacey Little of Southern Bite

Hey, y’all! I’m Stacey…

Feeding people makes me happy. Few things in this world delight me more than my family and friends gathered around my table enjoying a meal. Pull up a chair and join us! Read more…

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