These Peanut Butter Smoothie Bars are a peanut butter lovers dream. The bars bake up very moist and fudge-like, with lots of rich peanut butter flavor. Sometimes I am just in the mood to make something easy and delicious. This is where bar cookies are really king!
Most bar cookies consist of mixing up a batter, smoothing it into a pan and baking, what could be easier than that? For these cookies, to provide a little texture and crunch, I omitted the chocolate chips from the recipe and instead added one cup of lightly chopped salted peanuts. I added even more peanut butter flavor by stirring in a cup of peanut butter chips and sprinkling even more chopped salted peanuts on top just before baking.
Whew, that’s a lot of nuts! But in around 30 minutes you have the best peanut butter bars around. Here is how you can make your own:
You can find the basic recipe here. Start by lining a 9″ x 9″ baking pan with aluminum foil and spray lightly with Pam. Set aside. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment cream the butter and peanut butter together until smooth and combined. Add the sugars and beat until combined.
Beat in the eggs one at a time then beat in the vanilla extract. Beat in the flour mixture until just combined.
Mix in the cup of peanut butter chips (I used these instead of chocolate chips) and I added one cup of lightly chopped salted peanuts to the batter as well.
Smooth the batter into the prepared pan. I topped the batter with 1 cup of lightly chopped salted peanuts and a little sprinkle of sea salt.
Bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown and the edges pull away from the sides of the pan.
I recommend that you allow them to cool in the pan for around an hour before cutting to get the cleanest cuts. Of course, if you can’t wait you can always dig in while they are still warm!
