Peanut Butter and Jelly Bars

Manami's Note:

Courtesy Ina Garten. These are really great and easy to make. The only time consuming part is waiting for them to cool. Barefoot Contessa has done it again.

• Total Time: 55 mins
• Prep Time: 10 mins
• Cook Time: 45 mins

Ingredients:

Serves: 12

Yield: 24.0 bars

• ½ lb unsalted butter , at room temperature
• 1 ½ cups sugar
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 2 extra-large eggs , at room temperature
• 2 cups creamy peanut butter (Skippy)
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 ½ teaspoons kosher salt
• 1 ½ cups raspberry jam or 1 ½ cups other jam
• 2⁄3; cup salted peanuts , coarsely chopped

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Grease a 9x13x2" cake pan.
3. Line it with parchment paper, then grease and flour the pan.
4. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar on medium speed until light yellow, about 2 minutes.
5. With the mixer on low speed, add the vanilla, eggs and peanut butter and mix until ingredients are combined.
6. In a small bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and salt.
7. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the flour mixture to the peanut butter mixture.
8. Mix just until combined.
9. Spread 2/3 of the dough into the prepared cake pan and spread over the bottom witha knife or offset spatula.
10. Spread the jam evenly over the dough.
11. Drop small globs of the remaining dough evenly over the jam.
12. Don't worry if all the jam isn't covered; it will spread in the oven.
13. Sprinkle with chopped peanuts and bake for 45 minutes, until golden brown.
14. Cool and cut into squares.

Reviews

[Erin R.]

I copied a version of this recipe out of Bon Apetit a few weeks ago, but they're pretty darn similar. Wow, what great bars. I cut way back on the butter (used 2 tablespoons) as there's plenty of fat in the peanut butter already, and they are still just delicious. I also used grape jam, and since my peanut butter was crunchy I had no need of the sprinkled peanuts. I can't tell you how much we enjoyed these. Everyone was a little unimpressed when I said what they were, but the first bite got a great reaction from each person. I'll definitely keep this recipe. Thanks.

[Atheen]

I made those with a few changes : instead of the jelly, I've sprinkled Rolo candies cut in 4 for some chewy caramel action, and some semi-sweet chocolate chips in the middle, then covered with the 2nd half of the dough and sprinkled more chocolate chips on top. I've also added caramel topping to the cooled and cut product. I've uploaded a few pictures of what the finished product looks like. These were AMAZING. VERY rich, but it's like eating a snicker's bar cookie.

[JFitz]

I saw Martha Stewart on the Today Show and she was recommending baked goods to send to college students and this was the recipe. Since I was looking for something for my kids I thought I would try. Let me say how yummy these were. Next time I will probably bake them a little longer because the center should have baked more. The only change I made was chunky peanut butter because I had it on hand so I didn't add the chopped nuts. Next time I am going to try some of the other suggestions of chocolate chips. Thanks so glad I found this!