Lucky Charms Cookie Dough Bars {No-Bake}

These Lucky Charms Cookie Dough Bars are a magically delicious dessert consisting of three layers: a sweet and buttery cereal crust, a marshmallow packed cookie dough middle, and a simple buttercream frosting top.

My favorite thing is when I post something on my blog and my mom calls me and says, "ooh your dinner looked so good tonight!" And I'm like, "that was my dinner 2 months ago." Because typically, it takes me at least a month from the time I make a recipe until the time I post it on my blog.

In addition to testing the recipe multiple times, doing a photo shoot, editing the photos, and writing the post, bringing my content live takes a lot of hours. And I have a lot of recipes in progress at all times (I currently have at least 5 new recipes that are finished and ready to post and about 20 recipe photo updates).

But these Lucky Charms Cookie Dough Bars? I made these bars on Monday and am posting them today. They are so freaking delicious and St. Patrick's Day is coming up quickly and I just couldn't wait another minute.

So, if my mom calls me tonight and says "your dessert tonight looked delicious!" I'll say, "thank you, it was!"

IS COOKIE DOUGH SAFE TO EAT?

First things first, if you're new here, you may not know about all the cookie dough treats I post. Clearly, I'm all about eating raw cookie dough, but there are a few things you need to do to make it safe to eat.

Probably the most obvious? Don't include eggs in your cookie dough. None of my raw cookie dough recipes include eggs, so you're good to go there.

The not so obvious? Bake your flour. Many people think it's the eggs in raw cookie dough that causes illness, but it's often actually the raw flour that causes foodborne illness (source). The solution? Bake your flour before adding it to the cookie dough. You can easily do this by spreading flour on a cookie sheet and baking it at 350 degrees for just five minuntes.

Because of this, I guess these cookie dough bars can't technically be considered "no bake," but since you don't have to bake the bars, I'm still referring to them that way. Plus, you can always buy heat-treated flour so you can skip the baking step. Also, I'll admit I've made cookie dough many times without baking the flour. But especially if you're serving these to kids, the elderly, or people with compromised immune systems, I recommend baking it!

HOW TO MAKE LUCKY CHARMS COOKIE DOUGH BARS

All of my cookie dough recipes are super easy to make and consist of a crust, a cookie dough middle, and some sort of topping. For these Lucky Charms cookie dough bars, I used the cereal (sans marshmallows) as a crust, a Lucky Charms marshmallow cookie dough middle, and a simple buttercream icing top.

MAKING A CRUST WITH CEREAL

Every time I make cookie dough bars (which is probably admittedly too often), I use Oreo cookie crumbs for the crust. When I make cheesecake bars, I often use gingersnaps, graham crackers, or Nilla Wafers. But what if... I thought to myself.. I used plain old cereal instead?

I figured it was worth a try so I added just the toasted oats part of the Lucky Charms to a food processor, along with some granulated sugar. I processed until the cereal was fine crumbs and then I added in melted butter and pulsed a few more times to form a crust.

Then I poured it into a foil-lined 8x8 baking pan lightly sprayed with cooking oil and pressed it down and popped it in the freezer for 30 minutes.

MAKING COOKIE DOUGH FILLING

The cookie dough filling is just a simple edible cookie dough with vanilla and Lucky Charms marshmallows mixed in. Start by beating butter and sugar on medium speed in the bowl of a stand mixer (or in a large bowl with a hand mixer), until light and fluff, 3-4 minutes. Then beat in vanilla and salt and stir in Lucky Charms marshmallow pieces.

With mixer on low, slowly add flour to bowl until well combined. Add milk until the dough comes together.

Press the cookie dough into a smooth layer over the chilled crust.

MAKING BUTTERCREAM FROSTING

This part is easy, too! I often like to top my cookie dough bars with just a thin layer of buttercream frosting because it looks nice and adds some more sweetness (not that these need any more sweetness!).

My buttercream frosting is just room temperature butter, confectioners' sugar, and vanilla.

I spread the buttercream frosting over the cookie dough and topped with remaining marshmallows. Then popped the whole shebang in the fridge for 45 minutes so chill and make slicing easier.

You can either slice these into large bars (and get about 16) or smaller bars (and get about 36). I liked the large bar look, but these are so sweet and indulgent that I recommend small. Plus, that means you'll have more to share... And you can always have 2 if you want!

These Lucky Charms cookie dough bars taste just like a bowl of Lucky Charms. But a bowl of Lucky Charms that melts in your mouth and is even more delicious than you could possibly imagine.

I'm so happy I was able to utilize the toasted oats boring part of Lucky Charms cereal to these bars. I think it really helped make these bars as delicious as they are and I was also very pleased with how the crust held together.

I still had lots of toasted oat cereal leftover from the box and utilized all the marshmallows, so maybe I'll have to buy a big bag of Lucky Charms marshmallows (affiliate link) to make some more of these without wasting any cereal.

Chris always says he knows one of my recipes is really good when I say multiple times, "This is so good!!" because I guess I apparently don't talk up many of the things I make (even when I do think they're super delicious!). But he's right...

And I think I've eaten more of these Lucky Charms cookie dough bars than I have any dessert I've made in recent times (these molasses ginger cookies are the closest contenders).

I recommend keeping these cookie dough bars in the fridge because I think they taste best chilled... They're also delicious when frozen. But really, I'd eat them any way you served them!

If you're going to any St. Patrick's Day parties or just need a fun to dessert to celebrate one of America's most loved cereals, I hope you'll make these Lucky Charms cookie dough bars!

For more fun cookie dough recipes, check out my Lemon Cookie Dough Bars and my Funfetti Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes. For more ways to bake with Lucky Charms, check out my Lucky Charms Granola Bars. I also love these Loaded Lucky Charms Treats from Food Folks and Fun!