We have a church picnic to go to tomorrow and everyone is to bring a dish to pass. I, of course, signed up to bring a dessert. I rarely make desserts without chocolate being the main ingredient and today wasn’t going to be any different.

You’ve more than likely seen this recipe around before. Many other bloggers before me have posted it, variations are out on Allrecipes.com and Cooks.com. This recipe is definitely no secret, but there’s a reason for that. It’s SO yummy. I’m featuring it on my blog today because I want to show you just how easy it is and how much fun it can be to make with your kids!

Many of the recipes call for a 9×9 inch pan, some of them add marshmallows and yet others substitute brownies for the fudge. Today we’re making a big 9×13 inch pan of these yummy fudge bars because it’s a potluck and we’re going to have lots of mouths to feed. I’ve enlisted my son, Dane, to help. He was more than willing, believe me. His sister was napping, so he knew the spatulas, bowls and candy were all his.

For the recipe you’ll need:

3 12-packs of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups (Regular size packs)

24 oz. bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 1/2 cans of sweetened condensed milk (14 oz. cans)

And that’s it! Let’s get to “no” baking!

Wrap your pan with tin foil and spray with nonstick cooking spray.

Unwrap candy from 2 of the Reese’s packages. You’re basically unwrapping 24 cups. Dane is showing you his Reese’s Cups. He did awesome with all of the unwrapping. And I was so proud of him. He didn’t ask to eat even one of them. . .yet.

Place the unwrapped cups in rows in your 9×13″ pan. You should be able to fit 4 rows of 6 cups each.

Next start pouring the chocolate chips into a pan. We started with 3 cups. . .

And then just threw in the rest of the bag for good measure.

Hello, chocolate chips.

This is the fun part. Pour one can of sweetened condensed milk into the bowl with the chocolate chips. I added about 1/2 of another can. I was tempted to add the rest of the second can, but I held myself back because I wasn’t sure if it would set.

Put the pan on the stove and start melting this mixture together, stirring often. Have you ever burned chocolate? Yep, you know what I’m talking about. It’s a terrible, terrible thing and it will ruin your entire day so just try not to get distracted and keep stirring.

It’s starting to get gooey. Keep stirring.

Now, this is what you want to see. Keep stirring until it gets a little smoother. You can leave it a little more chunky if you like. It just depends on what consistency you’re going for.

While you melt the chocolate mixture, have your assistant start cutting up the last package of peanut butter cups (the 12 remaining cups). Don’t worry, he’s using a butter knife and he’s starting 4K this fall. He’s already a pro at cutting up Playdoh, why not peanut butter cups? He did a great job. Just throw these into a bowl and hang onto them. We’re not quite ready to use them yet.

When your mixture on the stove is ready, pour it over the peanut butter cups.

Spread the chocolate (covering all of the cups) all of the way to the corners of the pan.

When you’re done with the spatula, let your assistant take a little break and enjoy. Then send him to the sink to wash his hands and get ready for the next step.

Take the bowl of cut-up Reese’s cups and sprinkle them over the top of the fudge mixture, pressing them into the chocolate ever so slightly. The deeper you push them in, the more they will melt. If you want a chunkier bar, just basically let them sit on top of the fudge.

And, that’s it. Let the pan cool for a bit on the counter then throw it in the fridge to cool completely. Cut the fudge into squares when you’re ready to go! If you have recipes that use Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups feel free to link up below and share your recipe!