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Birthday Butterscotch Bars

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Birthday Butterscotch Bars

Truth be told, I’ve never really been one to love celebrating my birthday. For some reason I feel oddly uncomfortable with birthday attention but when that attention involves cake, ice cream or something sweet, I can absolutely get on board. So that’s what we’re doing today! These birthday butterscotch bars are perfect for any special occasion and the sprinkles make it super fun.

If you stopped by the blog today looking for a healthy recipe, kindly shield your eyes from the delicious horror you will find below. When it comes to celebrating birthdays around here, I’m not looking to “healthify” a recipe and choose to embrace birthday indulgence with open arms!

Butterscotch Bars Recipe

This recipe is definitely worthy of a celebration, whether it be a birthday, a fun cookout with friends or a holiday gathering. The beauty of these butterscotch birthday bars is that you can omit the sprinkles entirely to make them look extra sad or liven up the bars with multi-colored sprinkles for a birthday or specific colored sprinkles for certain holidays (red, white and blue for Memorial Day or the Fourth of July, green and white for St. Patrick’s Day, etc.).

The inspiration for these Birthday Butterscotch Bars came from our recent trip to the Outer Banks. My mom’s cousin Jennie (Google tells me this means Jennie is my first cousin once removed but that’s way too complicated) brought Special K Bars to the beach and holy cow they were so fantastic. I am pretty sure I am responsible for the consumption of about 85 percent of the bars she made (I sincerely wish that was an exaggeration) and immediately requested the recipe.

As it turns out, Special K Bars are kind of a thing on the internet (a simple Pinterest search yields tons of recipes) but my favorite part of the bars was the rich butterscotch flavor I tasted in every bite. I ended up revamping Jennie’s recipe a bit to further highlight butterscotch flavor and made quite a few swaps that proved incredibly delicious.

These Birthday Butterscotch Bars are sweet and crunchy with a creamy butterscotch topping that melts in your mouth.

Butterscotch Bars

The best part (other than the actual taste of the bars) is that they are SO easy to make! There is no baking these babies and the bars are the perfect treat to prepare ahead of time to bring along for a birthday party, family reunion or backyard summertime barbecue.

Birthday Bars

Birthday Butterscotch BarsBirthday Butterscotch Bars

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Birthday Butterscotch Bars

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  • Author: Julie (PB Fingers)
  • Cook Time: 10 minutes
  • Total Time: 10 minutes
  • Category: dessert, recipes
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Description

Guess what? Today is my birthday! I’d love to celebrate with all of you and since celebrating with internet friends is kind of tricky, I was thinking we could celebrate together in an extra sweet way with some Birthday Butterscotch Bars! Sound good? I sure hope so!

Ingredients

Scale
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 cup corn syrup
  • 1 cup creamy almond butter or peanut butter
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
  • 6 cups Rice Chex cereal
  • 1/4 cup sprinkles + additional sprinkles for topping
  • 1 cup white chocolate chips
  • 1 cup butterscotch chips

Instructions

  1. Combine sugar and corn syrup in a large pot and heat to a boil. Quickly remove from heat and stir in almond butter or peanut butter until melted. Add vanilla and stir again.
  2. Stir in Rice Chex and continue to stir until cereal is coated. Stir in sprinkles. Spread into a 9×13 pan sprayed with cooking spray.
  3. In a microwave-safe bowl, combine white chocolate chips and butterscotch chips and microwave for approximately 90 seconds, pausing every 30 seconds to stir until chips are melted. Spread on top of bars and top with additional sprinkles.
  4. Refrigerate bars until topping hardens and cool completely.
  5. Slice and enjoy!

Notes

You can use peanut butter or almond butter (or a combination of the two) in this recipe. I recommend using the natural version of either (with no sugar added) for a greater depth of flavor and a nuttier taste.

Though I photographed these bars in large squares, I enjoy them most sliced into small, almost bite-size pieces (similar to how you might slice fudge). The bars are quite sweet and the melt-in-your-mouth butterscotch topping is pretty rich, so serving the bars in smaller squares (even if you end up eating a million like I always do) seems to go over well when serving them to a large group.

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Birthday Butterscotch Bars

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About Julie

My name is Julie and I am a full-time blogger, new mama, fitness enthusiast (certified personal trainer and group exercise instructor) and food fanatic (mostly healthy... but also not-so-healthy) living in North Carolina with my husband, dog and baby boy. Thank you for visiting Peanut Butter Fingers! I hope you enjoy little glimpses into my life and have fun trying the sweaty workouts I frequently share and making some of my favorite recipes along the way!

Comments

  2. Sarah says

    HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!! Hope you have a fantastic day!!! 🙂 The bars look incredible!! And I’m the same way as you – I don’t like attention on me whatsoever! That’s actually the reason my husband and I eloped lol! 🙂

    Enjoy your day, Julie!!

    Reply

  5. Juliette | Namastay Traveling says

    Happy birthday! These look AMAZING! I’ve been following your blog for years and I was so excited when I first figured out that we share a name (close enough) and also a birthday! April 27th is certianly the perfect birthday day 🙂 Enjoy!

    Reply

  6. Katie says

    Happy Birthday!
    I LOVE special K Bars! My mom used to make them all the time when I was younger. I make my own now, but a healthier version. These, however, look fantastic. Have a wonderful day 🙂

    Reply

  8. Heather @ Polyglot Jot says

    Happy birthday, Julie!!! Hope it’s an awesome one with extra snuggles from both of your men! 🙂 These look awesome–I always forget how much I love butterscotch flavor until I have it again and I LOVE it!

    Reply

  16. Allison says

    Happy birthday!! These bars look SO good. I think I’ll make them for my boyfriend’s birthday this summer….. I hope you have the best day celebrating with friends & family. <3

    Reply

  18. Ali Hotmar says

    Happy Birthday!
    I love Special K bars so I can only imagine how amazing these are!! Can’t wait to try 🙂

    Reply

  19. Wendy says

    Happy Birthday, Julie! Hope you have a great day. I’m definitely the same way – I love all the cake and ice cream involved in my birthday, but not all the attention. These bars look amazing – thanks for sharing!

    Reply

  20. Natalie says

    Happy Birthday! I hope you have a fantastic day! I didn’t know you were a fellow Taurus! It’s a great sign to be 🙂

    Those bars look delicious 🙂

    Reply

  21. Ginger G. says

    Happy Happy Birthday!! I am going to try these for our next work party. I love anything butterscotch.

    Reply

  26. Aimee says

    YUM! and Happy Birthday!!

    I’m on the same page as you, when it comes to birthday cake/treats, DO NOT try to healthify them. Just enjoy your day and eat your cake.

    Reply

  27. Bethany says

    Mmmm! Butterscotch is definitely one of the best ways to celebrate a birthday!

    Hope you have a wonderful birthday and a very special year ahead!

    Reply

  33. Bethany Kocher says

    Happy birthday, Juile! Thanks for your fun-loving, encouragin and transparent blog. It’s always a fun point in my day when I get time to read your new post!

    Reply

  34. alan says

    I’m a reader and a very occasional poster. Happy Birthday! At least your public self is always very smiley and happy (save for your heartbreak in the recent months)–I’m shocked you don’t love to celebrate your birthday.

    Well, I hope that you and the two men in your life have a great birthday celebration. Regards 🙂

    Reply

  35. Theresa says

    Happy Birthday Julie!! I love reading your blog every day. You’re so fun and uplifting and you have a beautiful family. I hope you enjoy the day and have a great time celebrating! 🙂

    Reply

  36. Lauren C says

    “…kindly shield your eyes from the delicious horror you will find below.” Love it! You crack me up.

    Happiest of Happy Birthdays! Hope you are spoiled by your boys today, and that you enjoy plenty of those yummy looking bars. 🙂

    Reply

  39. Mrs. B says

    Happy Birthday! These looks soooo tasty. @ 34 weeks pregnant, I am on a huge sweet kick right now so naturally, my mouth is watering looking at this.

    Reply

  47. Jen says

    Happy birthday! These look awesome! Also, “you can omit the sprinkles entirely to make them look extra sad” made me laugh so hard I then had to send it to 2 friends.

    Reply

  48. Molly says

    Happy Birthday! We share a birthday as its my day too! Thanks for your blog- i love reading your updates/recipes/workouts each week! Have a great day.

    Reply

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I am not a registered dietitian. My blog is simply a documentation of my life. The views I express are mine alone, based on my own experiences, and should not be taken as medical advice. I DO NOT post everything I eat. Though I am a certified personal trainer, the workouts I post may not be right for you. Please speak with a medical professional before making any changes to your current routine.

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