Thursday, July 19, 2012

Chocolate and Peanut Butter Bars

I am on a serious condensed milk kick! I can not get enough of baking with this stuff so naturally I picked up a few more containers of it on my last supermarket run and baked something with it again. I turned to BHG's Biggest Book of Cookies and found alongside the previous recipe, this recipe for Chocolate and Peanut Butter Bars. The head note of this recipe sites this as healthful what with the oats and a bit of whole wheat flour, but who are they kidding? This recipe is rich and delicious and I'mt not ashamed! This is another really easy recipe to make- an oat mixture is made, some of it is set aside, but an egg is added to the rest of it to form the crust. I did make one mistake here and that is that I neglected to refrigerate the topping while I worked on the rest of the cookie. Due to the INSANE heat here in Jerusalem, it kind of melted altogether by the time it got into the oven instead of being a nice bar with a crumble topping. Oh well. I left these in the office on base and then left base to run some errands. When I got back these were demolished. Literally, to the last crumb. Success!

Chocolate and Peanut Butter Bars
from BHG Biggest Book of  Cookies

2 cups oats
1 3/4 cups brown sugar
1 cup flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup butter
2 cups chocolate chips
1 egg
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1/3 cup peanut butter

Preheat the oven to 350. Have ready a jelly roll pan; set aside.
For the crust, in a large bowl, mix together the oats, sugar, flours, and leavenings. Using your fingers, rub in the butter until the mixture resembles fine crumbs.
Set aside about 1 3/4 cups of this mixture and add the chocolate chips to it. This is your topping.
Add the egg into the remaining crust mixture
and press into the prepared pan.
Bake fifteen minutes.
For the filling, stir together the milk and the peanut butter and pour over the baked crust, spreading to coat evenly.
Sprinkle topping evenly over the filling.
Bake fifteen minutes more or until light brown around the edges. Cool completely on a wire rack and then cut into bars.

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