Name: Boozy Bacon Pretzel Peanut Butter Bars
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 70 min
Ingredients: ½ cup unsalted butter (softened); 1 cup light brown sugar (lightly packed); 1 egg; 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract; ½ cup creamy peanut butter (unsweetened (if at all possible!)); ¼ cup bourbon (I used a pecan bourbon, but you can use whatever you have on hand!); 1 cup all-purpose flour; 2 tablespoons bacon (cooked and chopped into small pieces (about 2 slices)); 1 cup mini pretzels (broken into pieces); 16 whole mini pretzels (for decorating)

Boozy Bacon Pretzel Peanut Butter Bars are the perfect salty-sweet dessert! This twist on a classic peanut butter blondie incorporates bacon, pretzel pieces and bourbon into the batter. Press mini pretzels on top before baking, then let these chewy peanut butter squares cool before cutting into bite-sized pieces. Perfect for a crowd, Boozy Bacon Pretzel Peanut Butter Bars make a versatile sweet treat for game day, a casual dinner party and more!

Jump to Recipe

Boozy Bacon Pretzel Peanut Butter Bars cool on a wire rack

Y’all know me and boozy desserts: I haven’t met one I didn’t like. (Looking at you, Bourbon Maple Bacon Cupcakes, Chocolate Bourbon Pecan Hand Pies and Bourbon Pecan Brownies!)

So when I signed on for a food blogger collaboration called Freaky Friday—more on this in a bit—and received the blogger whose blog I’d be cooking from, I was delighted.

Jennifer from Take Two Tapas is my kind of person.

Boozy Bacon Pretzel Peanut Butter Bars are served on a round white plate

She makes all kinds of entertaining recipes that are packed full of FLAVOR. She’s got gorgeous cocktails.

She shares appetizers with ease.

And she has some killer desserts, too.

These Boozy Peanut Butter Bars that have pretzels and bacon in them are her brainchild, and when I discovered this recipe, I knew this was what I would make because YUM.

Freaky Friday Winter 2019 Banner, calling for a mug of cocoa with a heart-shaped marshmallow

So… what is Freaky Friday?

I’m glad you asked! It’s an old-fashioned blog hop.

For those of y’all who haven’t been around the blogosphere for a zillion years like I have (hello, I’m basically an Internet dinosaur with TSP and my previous personal blog), a blog hop is a collaboration between bloggers where everyone brings something to the table, then you link to one another when the posts go live.

Michaela from An Affair from the Heart, the lady who founded this quarterly hop, secretly assigns everyone another blogger… and we make a recipe from that person’s blog, photograph it as if it were our own and write a post about it with our own personal anecdote!

Then, on the selected Friday, our posts go live at the same time so we can share them with y’all and with each other.

We hope that this collaboration helps you discover some amazing new recipes, as well as find new bloggers to follow!

Three Boozy Bacon Pretzel Peanut Butter Bars are stacked on top of each other in front of a bottle of milk

These Boozy Bacon Pretzel Peanut Butter Bars are something else, y’all.

They’re a little bit sweet, a little bit savory, and they have an amazing crunch. (Thank you, pretzel pieces!) And they have the flavor of bourbon for some extra punch.

Because you can never go wrong with bourbon. Truer words have never been spoken.

Ingredients for Boozy Bacon Pretzel Peanut Butter Bars are laid out on a towel

How do you make peanut butter bars?

Preheat your oven, spray your baking dish, and start making that batter!

Cream together the butter and brown sugar using a stand mixer or hand mixer.

Add the egg to the mixture, and stir. Pour in the vanilla and stir, too. Then add the bourbon… and stir again.

Measure in the peanut butter, and beat until smooth.

Next, add the flour and blend until combined. Then add the pretzel pieces and the bacon pieces, and fold them in with a rubber spatula.

Pour the batter into the prepared baking dish, and spread evenly. Press pretzels into the batter to create a design, then pop them into the preheated oven to bake until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. (It’ll take about 20 minutes or so.)

Then all you do is let ’em cool, and then you can enjoy them!

An egg is added into the batter of Boozy Bacon Pretzel Peanut Butter Bars

I’m allergic to peanuts. What can I substitute for peanut butter in this recipe?

Assuming you’re not allergic to tree nuts, you could probably swap almond butter for the peanut butter in this recipe.

That said, I haven’t tried it, so I cannot 100% confirm this is a good idea.

(Also, this recipe’s main ingredient is peanut butter. It might be best to find a dessert where you’re not allergic to the main ingredient so you don’t have to make substitutes… If you need dessert inspiration, you can search my dessert recipes here.)

Bourbon is poured into the batter of Boozy Bacon Pretzel Peanut Butter Bars

How can I make these peanut butter bars dairy free?

I haven’t tried this, but my favorite 1-to-1 substitutes for butter are vegan butter or room temperature (still somewhat hard, not melted) coconut oil.

You could also use vegetable shortening in place of the butter, and you’d also be golden.

Either way, any of those could work in making these bars dairy free. If you make them dairy free, I’d love to hear how they turn out and what you used!

Flour is added to the batter of Boozy Bacon Pretzel Peanut Butter Bars

I don’t drink. Can I leave out the bourbon from these bars?

Absolutely! Leaving out the bourbon will take away some of the flavor of these peanut butter bars, but it’s not essential.

You don’t have to replace it with anything, either, so make the bars as you would, but leave out the booze.

Pretzels and bacon bits are added to the batter for Boozy Bacon Pretzel Peanut Butter Bars

How can I make this recipe gluten free?

Since it calls for a very small amount of flour, you could prooooooobably substitute the all-purpose flour for a 1-to-1 gluten free flour mixture and be A-OK.

That said, I haven’t tried this, so if you do, please report back, and let me know how it turned out!

Boozy Bacon Pretzel Peanut Butter Bars in the pan before baking

What do I need to make these Boozy Bacon Pretzel Peanut Butter Bars?

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Close up of Boozy Bacon Pretzel Peanut Butter Bars on a white plate

What are some other delicious boozy desserts that you could serve along with these blondies at a party?

Pinterest graphic for Boozy Bacon Pretzel Peanut Butter Bars, featuring the bars cooling on a wire cooling rack

Take a look at all of our Winter Freaky Friday Recipes:

An Affair from the Heart – Coconut Mug Cake
Aunt Bee’s Recipes – Creamy Gorgonzola Pasta with Steak
Bowl Me Over – Best Crock Pot Beef Stew
Hostess at Heart – Chili Con Carne
Kylee Cooks – Banana Cream Parfaits
LeMoine Family Kitchen – Chicken Bacon Penne Alfredo Casserole
Lemon Blossoms – Valentine’s Day Dessert Nachos
Mildly Meandering – Tiramisu Latte
House of Nash Eats – Philly Cheesesteak Dip
Seduction in the Kitchen – Chicken Lime Soup
Take Two Tapas – Taco Tater Tots
The Foodie Affair – Slow Cooked Meatballs
West Via Midwest – Corned Beef and Cabbage Soup
Who Needs a Cape? – Cajun Chicken Meatballs in Cajun Cream Sauce

Curious about how you can make these bars at home? Scroll on down…