Peanut Butter and Dark Chocolate Bars or Peanut Butter Lovelies

inspired by The Village Baker's Wife Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies

ingredients

1 cup butter (two sticks) at room temperature

1 cup peanut butter (your choice!) room temperature

1 cup sugar

3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

2 cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

15-20 ounces of dark chocolate, cut into 1/2 in chunks (1 pound or so)

2 cups crushed pretzels (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, as usual. Like your 9 x 13 pan with parchment paper- you will thank yourself later for this step.

Cream the butter and peanut butter together, adding the sugars and mixing until it is all fully incorporated. Next, add the eggs one at a time followed by the vanilla.

In another bowl mix together the flour and baking soda. Gradually add this dry mixture to the wet mixture and combine until it is all gloriously intermingled. Toss in 1/3 of the chopped chocolate (about 5 ounces or 2/3 cup). Use a rubber spatula to clean down the sides of the bowl and make sure everything is mixed together well.

Now, best part and the reason I went with bars instead of cookies, dump the whole thing into the prepared pan and spread around with a butter knife or a spatula. Bake for 22-27 minutes, or until the edges are a nice golden color and a toothpick inserted comes out relatively clean (I prefer to under-bake my goodies so they retain their moist chewiness, which means that I let a few crumbs slide onto the toothpick and call it done, which was about 24 minutes in my kind of super hot oven).

Finally, take the leftover chocolate and melt it in a double boiler over simmering water until all the chocolate is melted. Then, pour the melted chocolate over the cooled bars, spreading it all evenly around as best you can. Here is my great idea I have yet to try, put crumbled pretzels on the top after you pour the chocolate- I imagine this would be divine! I'm going to try this next time. Let this chill in the fridge until the chocolate hardens, about 2 hours or pop them in the freezer if you need them faster. They are best cut up when the chocolate is hard, but closer to room temperature or it will crack. Serve at room temperature. Enjoy! -m

Enjoy!

-m