Peanut Butter Bar Cookie Recipe
Peanut butter cookies are not difficult to make. It’s just that baking cookies always takes longer than I want to spend when I am craving a sweet right now. This was the case yesterday when I wanted a peanut butter cookie (which you can’t just buy in New Zealand), but I had a ton of stuff to get done. So, I made a quick search through my cookbooks and the web for a shortcut. I was thinking, “Why not just bake peanut butter cookies as a bar cookie?” But I wanted to ensure I had the right volume of dough for the pan, some idea of cooking time, and guidance on any changes to leavening. Unfortunately, I could not find a single recipe that looked like a simple pb cookie baked as a bar. Most recipes for “Peanut Butter Bar Cookies” contained oats, which seemed completely wrong. The rest had either chocolate, peanutbutter chips, or peanut butter cups in them, or a thick frosting on them, none of which makes a good old fashioned peanut butter cookie.
Eventually, when it started appearing that it was going to be faster to bake pb cookies than find a shortcut, I decided to risk making my own recipe. I used the Blondie recipe from Joy of Cooking and one of the simplest of the bar recipes with oats to concoct the recipe below. It worked!
Note: When I tasted the dough it didn’t seem sweet enough, so I added some honey, which radically changes the flavor from a standard pb cookie but tastes fantastic. If you are going for the classic, substitute 2 Tablespoons sugar plus 1 teaspoon vanilla for the honey.
Peanut Butter Honey Bar Cookies
1/2 cup softened butter1/2 cup peanut butter
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
2 Tablespoons honey
1 egg
1 3/4 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
Preheat oven to 350′F (180′C). Lightly butter an 8 inch x 8 inch pan.
In a medium bowl, cream together the butter, peanut butter and sugar. Cream in the honey and egg. Stir the baking soda into the flour, then stir flour into the butter mixture. Spread dough evenly into pan. Bake in the top of the oven for 15-20 minutes, until center is puffy and golden. Cool pan on a rack for at least 30 minutes before cutting. Makes 16 generous bars.
This article was written on Wednesday, March 18th, 2009 and is filed under Making Creations.
For more articles about: cookies (1), baking (1), recipes (2)
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on March 25, 2009 at 8:59 am cookie recipes wrote:
It’s good to know that you substitute 2 Tablespoons sugar plus 1 teaspoon vanilla for the honey.
I’ll try it on this weekend. Thanks for the idea…
on April 8, 2009 at 5:19 pm Delicious Bar Cookies - Triple Layer Chocolate Bars And Cranberry Coconut Bars | Salad Dessert wrote:
[pingback]
This is a fun foodie site that posted a link to us. Her recipes look quite good too!
on April 27, 2009 at 5:17 pm Izzi wrote:
I tried these today (w/out the honey) and unfortunately i forgot to add the peanut butter until after the flour step (i skimmed over and forgot it was one of the ‘butters!’ in the beginning. Anyway, it turned out yummy. I actually topped mine w/ a layer of nutella and an oatmeal crumble on top. Thanks for the idea!
on April 27, 2009 at 7:47 pm BeeZed wrote:
Thanks Izzi- glad it worked out in the end! I clarified the instructions so no one else has the same “oops!” Nutella on top- yum! I think you just set off a new craving…
on December 7, 2009 at 8:55 am Eileen wrote:
Thank you! I’ve been searching for the past hour for a recipe like this! I’m too lazy today to make actual cookies, so I wanted to make a bar cookie…no oatmeal and not a brownie!!