I totally forgot to mention that Saturday was World Nutella Day!

I’ve made no secret of my obsession with the smooth, chocolatey, hazelnutty goodness that is Nutella. And I actually commemorated this year’s anniversary quite by accident.

My obsession with Nutella goes pretty far back, to a holiday season years ago when my mom’s cousin used it to make her White Trash (a special recipe for another day!). At the time, Nutella had not yet gained its popularity stateside, and it was a hard-to-find, gourmet delicacy (moms also weren’t yet being encouraged to spread it on toast for their children’s “nutritious” breakfast. Do what?). In the ensuing years, many of us made Nutella memories while traipsing around Europe. Mine mostly involve obsessively sticking my spoon (okay, fingers) in the jar while driving on the wrong side of the road. It was totally worth the scary danger. Now Nutella is available to the masses — they even sell it at Wal-Mart, which I guess is how you know you’ve really arrived.

So, tonight I have to bring dessert to a party, and I knew I needed to make something easy this weekend. Very easy, and very fast. A few weeks ago, my coworker found a recipe for these Nutella-peanut butter bars and brought them into the office. We all scarfed them down in record time.

I whipped up my own batch yesterday without remembering to give a nod to World Nutella Day. (That still counts though, right?) These bars are simple, yet impressive, require no baking and they taste amazing. There’s a bit of graham cracker crumbs added to the peanut butter base, which makes them extra crunchy. Then they’re topped off with layers of chocolate and Nutella. How I wish most things came that way.