Peanut butter, oats, chocolate all together in a yummy treat of peanut butter bars. You just might not want to share.
One of our favorite treats to splurge on (and when I say splurge I don’t mean money-wise I mean calorie-wise) are Macey’s Bakery’s Peanut Butter Bars. They are the perfect combination of chocolate and peanut butter. — They seem slightly undercooked, giving them the delicious cookie doughish taste, and the chocolate frosting is to die for.
I’ve wondered for a while if I could make my own version of these bars, to save us the trip to Macey’s. A few weeks ago my friend Liz said she made peanut butter bars for an activity and so I figured I’d give her recipe a go. The first time I made these on Monday they were good, but not great. Nate said they needed more sugar, I thought they needed a little less oats. Well, I wanted needed to bring a treat to share with my students today, so I decided to try the peanut butter bars, and just tweak the recipe a little more. So I added more sugar and more flour and less oats.
I’m not saying these bars are a copy cat of Macey’s. But what I am saying is they are amazing. They probably don’t cut the calories down much from the Macey’s version, but they are delicious. Plus, its always more fun to make things yourself right?
For my final amounts I quadrupled the original recipe since I wanted to make a lot to share. So that’s the recipe I’m going to share with you. But, be warned it makes a full cookie sheet of bars, that are delicious enough I’ll you’ll want to eat the whole thing, but my your thighs might not thank you later.The point is, you could probably cut this recipe in half and put the bars in a 9×13 pan, or quarter the recipe and cook the bars in an 8×8 recipe. Either way, you should definitely make these.
Peanut Butter Bars
Ingredients
Homemade Chocolate Frosting
- 4 TBS butter
- 2 TBS milk
- 2 - 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
- 2 TBS cocoa
Peanut Butter Bars
- 2 cups flour
- 2 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 cup butter (softened - 2 sticks)
- 1 cup peanut butter (creamy)
- 1 1/4 cup white sugar
- 1 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 4 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 3 cups rolled oats
Instructions
Peanut Butter Bars
- Preheat oven to 375
- Stir all ingredients into a bowl and mix well
- Spray an 11x14 cookie sheet with spray oil
- Spread dough evenly in the cookie sheets, pat all the way to the edges
- Bake for 18 to 20 minutes, until golden brown on top. (Don’t check by sticking a toothpick in, it won’t come out clean.)
- Allow to cool
- Cover with frosting
Homemade Chocolate Frosting
- Mix all ingredients together in a medium sized bowl. Add more powdered sugar, or milk to get the right consistency. I used 2 1/4 cups powdered sugar.
- Spread on cooled bars.
Feel free to use your favorite chocolate frosting recipe or storebought chocolate frosting, they are all good on these peanut butter bars.
Barbara says
These are Great! I. used a recipe similar to this one But your is so much better everyone loved my other one I cannot wait for them to try this one Thank you for sharing !!
Bobbi Jo Edgeman says
Oh my goodness!!! So super AMAZING, thank you, Bobbi Jo Edgeman
Carrie says
These are AMAZING! Thank you so very much for the recipe. I felt like I could eat all of them before my husband got home from work– luckily I (sort of) restrained myself. We’ll be making these again and again.
Aimee Berrett says
I’m so glad you liked them Carrie! Peanut butter and chocolate are my favorite flavor combo, so its hard for me to stop eating them too!
The Sisters says
These are like our favorite treat! YUM! Thanks for sharing your ideas on “Strut Your Stuff Saturday!” We’ll see you next week! -The Sisters
Me And My Sweets says
Hi,
I’ve started My Sweet Party, where I every month host a party with a theme (MAY theme is CHOCOLATE). The party is ongoing the entire duration of the month and then I will choose my top three favourites and feture those blogs. I would LOVE you to join My Sweet Party!
The last day for the May link up is the 31st.
http://meandmysweets.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/my-sweet-party-chocolate-cake-love.html
XXX
Johanna
Janis@All Things Beautiful says
Ok, so I’m drooling here! The pic with the glass of milk really got me! I’m a huge chocolate Peanut butter fan. Definitely gonna try these!!!
Claudine says
These bars look yummy!!!
I have a question… could I just melt chocolate to put on top, instead of the frosting?
aimeeberrett says
I bet melted chocolate would work/taste great. Maybe just add a little butter or shortening to it. But just know that it will probably get hard and be more difficult to cut. If you do try it, let me know how it goes!
Jonnique says
This looks too good!Your newest follower via bloghop please follow back!
Carole Hegg says
HOW DO YOU PRINT YOUR RECIPES???? EMAIL ME PLEASE.
CAROLE caroleamk@aol.com