Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Bars

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Bars - December 5, 2009

If you like peanut butter blondies, you'd probably like this recipe. It's quick and easy to make and it tastes like a typical blondie but it's peanut butter instead of brown sugar. I'm not a huge peanut butter fan so for me, this was just okay (there's that being picky thing again). I would prefer the milk chocolate and peanut butter brownies from Fearless Baking by Elinor Klivans that I posted previously. That's probably my favorite peanut butter brownie.

Perhaps blondies in general just aren't my thing. Most of them are too sweet. This one isn't because it's got the peanut butter to offset the sweetness but blondies also tend to be cakey and when I eat a bar cookie, I prefer something fudgy and chewy. Am I unenthusiastic enough about this one yet? LOL. This was another recipe from Rosie's All-Butter..... baking book. If the award-winning brownies were a 10, I'd give this one a 5.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Bars

1 1/3 cups plus 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
½ cup commercial smooth peanut butter
½ cup granulated sugar
½ cup plus 2 tablespoons (tightly packed) light brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350˚F. Lightly grease an 11 x 7-inch baking pan with butter or vegetable oil.
2. Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt together into a medium-size mixing bowl and set aside.
3. Using an electric mixer on medium-high speed, cream the butter, peanut butter, both sugars and the vanilla until light and fluffy, about 1 ½ minutes. Stop the mixer to scrape the bowl with a rubber spatula.
4. Add the eggs one at a time and beat on medium speed until partially blended after each addition, about 10 seconds. After the last addition, beat until blended, about 30 seconds, stopping the mixer twice to scrape the bowl.
5. Add the dry ingredients to the batter and mix with a spatula until the flour is absorbed. Then mix on low speed until blended, 7 to 10 seconds. Scrape the bowl, especially the bottom.
6. Add the chocolate chips and blend for several seconds. Scrape the bowl. Spread the batter evenly in the prepared pan.
7. Bake the bars on the center oven rack until the edges are deep golden and the center is lightly golden and slightly puffy, 25 to 30 minutes. The center will drop when the bars are taken out of the oven, creating a chewy texture. Cut the bars into squares after they have cooled a bit on the rack.