Monday, January 17, 2011

By the Batch - Peanut Butter & Jelly Bars

I picked this week's cookies with my Dad in mind; he loves peanut butter cookies. Martha's Peanut Butter & Jelly Bars come from the Soft & Chewy chapter and are like your favourite childhood sandwich reimagined in a cookie!


Ingredients:
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for pan
3 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for pan
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
2 1/2 cups smooth peanut butter
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups strawberry jam, or other flavor
2/3 cup salted peanuts, roughly chopped


Directions:
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9-by-13-inch pan with butter, and line the bottom with parchment paper. Grease the parchment, and coat inside of pan with flour; set aside.


Place butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat on medium-high speed until fluffy, about 2 minutes. On medium speed, add eggs and peanut butter; beat until combined, about 2 minutes.


Whisk together salt, baking powder, and flour. Add to bowl of mixer on low speed; combine. Add vanilla.

Transfer two-thirds of mixture to prepared pan; spread evenly with offset spatula. Using offset spatula, spread jam on top of peanut-butter mixture.


Dollop remaining third of peanut-butter mixture on top of jam. Sprinkle with peanuts.

Bake until golden, about 45 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool. Refrigerate for 1-2 hours and then cut into about thirty-six 1 1/2-by-2-inch pieces.


According to Sarah:
These cookies are literally like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich; they are even a little moist in the middle. They were fairly easy to make with the dough coming together nicely at the end. One thing to note is that the dough gets really thick and heavy when you're mixing in the last ingredients. I turned my back for a second to grab my pan and the bowl popped right off my stand mixer! Next time I would mix in the vanilla by hand.
They baked in my oven for exactly 45 minutes without getting too dark on top. I didn't have a 9x13 pan so I just used a smaller, deeper dish and cut my bars into smaller, taller pieces so the recipe still yielded about 36 cookies.
I will definitely make these again!


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