Saturday, June 14, 2008

Peanut Butter Jelly Time

Peanut Butter Jelly. Peanut Butter Jelly. Peanut Butter Jelly. Peanut Butter Jelly Time.


Now that you hate me for putting that earworm up there, I'll tell you this entry is really about Martha Stewart's Peanut Butter and Jelly Bars. See, now you can't hate me because they sound too good. Right?

They really are scrumptious. It takes the childhood favorites of PB&J and turns it into dessert. The bars are rich, so cut them small. And have a glass of milk handy.



Ingredients

Makes about 3 dozen.

* 1 cup (2 sticks) 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

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. Bake until golden, about 45 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool; cut into about thirty-six 1 1/2-by-2-inch pieces.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I am totally making these....next week after we are done with Birthday Party Madness, 2008 edition! I even have all the ingredients already!

Rina said...

Yum! I'm linking this in my Link Love post! Thank you!