Recipe: Peanut Butter Bars

One of my husband’s favorite desserts (and quite possibly his absolute favorite!) is Peanut Butter Bars. Really, what’s not to love? An oatmeal cookie base topped with chocolate and peanut butter is classic perfection.

I don’t make these a lot in the summer time because they’re pretty heavy. But once the leaves start changing and football comes on the television, I know it’s time to break out this recipe. I hope you love it as much as we do!

Ingredients:

For crust –

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

1 stick butter (softened)

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup white flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 cup quick oats

For topping –

1 cup powdered sugar

1/2 cup peanut butter

4-5 TB milk

Other –

1 c of chocolate chips (or more!)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350*
2. Cream the softened butter. Mix with brown and white sugars.
3. Add egg and vanilla and mix well.
4. In a separate bowl, combine the flour and baking soda. Mix gently into soft ingredients.
5. Add oats and mix well. NOTE: Recipe calls for quick oats. If I only have rolled oats on hand, I use those. No biggie.
6. Spread into a greased 9×13 baking sheet and bake for 15-20 minutes until golden and gorgeous.
7. Once you remove the crust, add a cup of chocolate chips on top. Literally, just sprinkle them on top of the crust. The heat of the crust will melt the chocolate. Run a spatula across them after a few minutes and get a nice chocolate layer going. NOTE: The recipe calls for one cup of chocolate chips. We like chocolate, people. 😉 I usually use a bag of dark chocolate chips and a bag of milk chocolate too. This far exceeds the recipe, but it’s what we like. Play with it! Some of our family doesn’t use the chocolate layer at all, some, like us, double or triple it. Make this yours!
8. Let this cool. While it’s cooling, let’s make the peanut butter layer! Mix the peanut butter and powdered sugar together in a bowl. Add the milk in tablespoon increments until you get a nice smooth, topping-esque consistency.
9. Once you have your topping and your crust and chocolate is pretty cool, drizzle the peanut butter layer on top of the chocolate.

Ta-da! Your creation is done! Try not to eat them all at once. 😉