Peanut Butter Cookies Recipe – Peanut Butter Bars Cookies
I am a huge fan of peanut butter but sadly the hubby does not care for it at all. Occasionally I can sneak it into a recipe like Shrimp in Peanut Sauce and he’ll eat it but he is not a big fan. When it comes to any kind of baked treat I can just forget about it – he won’t eat a peanut butter recipe at all. Me? I love peanut butter cookies, peanut butter cakes, peanut butter ice cream – bring on all the peanut butter! Since these were for a pot luck I knew there would be other desserts for him to enjoy so I decided to make a delicious, decadent peanut butter recipe. Adapted from Six Sisters Stuff.
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Peanut Butter Bars
I cup granulated sugar
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 cup butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
2 1/2 cups peanut butter, divided
2 cups oats (not quick cooking)
2 cups all purpose flour (I used white whole wheat)
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
Chocolate Frosting
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup milk
1 to 2 tsp vanilla
3 TBS cocoa
2 to 3 cups powdered sugar
1 oz piece of dark chocolate for grating over top
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Preheat oven to 350°.
Grease a 13″ x 8″ jelly roll pan. (My jelly roll pans are double this in size so I ended up using a glass 13 x 9″ pan.)
In a large bowl, cream together sugars and butter.
Add vanilla, eggs and 1 cup of the peanut butter and mix well.
Stir in the oats, flour, baking soda and salt.
Spread dough into the prepared pan and bake 15 minutes, until golden brown.
While hot, spread remaining 1 1/2 cups peanut butter on top. (Learn from my mistake and don’t leave little dollops of peanut butter in the middle!)
Cool so that the peanut butter solidifies again. (You can chill them in the ‘fridge so they set up faster.)
While the cookies are cooling, make the frosting:
Beat all ingredients with an electric mixer. Add extra milk or powdered sugar until the desired consistency is reached.
When the cookies are cooled, frost. Grate the chocolate over the top
Cut into pieces to serve. I chose to cut these large for the party we were going to but I really think smaller cuts would have been fine. This is a substantial cookie so you really don’t need a large serving.
How Were the Peanut Butter Bars?
Mighty tasty if I do say so myself! They are chocolatey, peanut buttery and I think these would make great bake sale cookies! You can cut the bars as big or as small as you would like. One thing they are not is dainty – these are stick to your ribs, fill you up kind of cookies. They are also full of flavor – chocolate and peanut butter. Pour a cold glass of milk and you are all set for a delicious snack. YUM!
Setting Up a Cookie Bar
If you have a party coming up and need a selection of cookies with a variety of flavors these would be a great start. Then you could add a couple of other bar cookies like apricot cherry bars and pecan pie blondies. If you want to expand you could then also make drop cookies or slice and bake cookies. No matter what you will have lots of delicious, home made cookies for your cookie bar or cookie sale.
