peanut butter + jelly bars
I’m taking some time off the next few weeks to spend with my family and our new baby girl. In the meantime, I’ve asked a few of my amazingly talented blogger friends to fill in with guest posts. Joanne of Eats Well With Others has been a dear friend of mine ever since I met her in real life at the Big Summer Potluck last year. She’s just as much of a gem as you’d think she is by reading her blog, and the food she makes is just as delicious as you’d expect by looking at it — or in my case, drooling. So much drooling. Ahem. Anywho, welcome Joanne and these peanut butter and jelly bars that I’m pretty sure — nope, definitely sure — I want to stuff my face with every minute of every day.
Will you allow me to predict the future for a second?
I don’t really foresee Steph being a PB&J kind of mom.
No, she’ll be sending little Avery off to school someday with cilantro-lime tofu sandwiches on cracked wheat bread in her lunch box. Complete with a side of rutabaga fries.
Quite honestly, that sounds like what I wish I had for lunch every day, so no judgment from me.
But a life with nary a PB&J in it is a sad life indeed, which is why I am sharing these peanut butter and jelly bars today!
Personally, I prefer them to PB&J in sandwich form because peanut butter shortbread cookie crust + fudgy peanut butter jelly insides + MORE peanut butter shortbread topping + salted peanuts for some extra crunch.
That beats out Wonder bread any day.
Less of a blondie and more of a bar cookie, these are the perfect mix of sweet, salty, and stick-to-the-roof-of-your-mouth good.
As it should be.
Peanut Butter and Jelly Bars
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 45 mins
- Total Time: 55 mins
- Yield: 24 bars 1x
Ingredients
- 2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 2 extra-large eggs, room temperature
- 18 ounces creamy peanut butter (I used Skippy Natural!)
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 18 ounces raspberry jam
- 2/3 cup salted peanuts
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9×13-inch cake pan. Line it with parchment paper, then grease it again.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar together on medium speed until light yellow, about 2 minutes. With the mixer on low, add the vanilla, eggs, and peanut butter and mix until all ingredients are combined.
- In a small bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the flour to the peanut butter mixture and mix until combined.
- Spread 2/3 of the dough into the prepared cake pan, making sure it covers the entire surface evenly. Spread the jam evenly over the dough. Drop small globs of the remaining dough evenly over the jam. Sprinkle with the peanuts. Bake for 45 minutes, until golden brown. Let cool and cut into squares.
Can I just skip lunch and go straight to these PB&J bars?! Kthanks 🙂
I want a friend that makes these for me! I would love to be eating these and holding a new little baby with my other arm! Perfect combo! Congrats!
Thank you thank you for letting me guest post! <3 you big time, girl!
Oh, they look awesome! How I wish I had those in my lunchbox in school. But I had a lot of apple and wholegrain crackers… Haha, much too healthy for my taste. Thank you for sharing this, Joanne and Stephanie… 🙂 Have a great day!
PB&J in cookie form? Outstanding!
Yum – love this version with the peanuts on top!!
Stunning recipe, and congrats on the new arrival 🙂
Taylor — YES. I plan to do the same. 😉
tahnycooks — Thanks! I’m one lucky gal to have friends like Joanne. 🙂
Joanne — Right back at ya, sweet lady! xo
Tina — Oh, I can so relate; thankfully even one bite of these bars could erase so many bad memories of ham sandwiches on white bread and fruit snacks. 😉 Thanks!
Anna — Right?? Joanne = genius.
Shashi — Me too! Can never have too much peanut buttery flavor. 🙂
Tandy — Thank you so much!
These look amazing Stephanie! Love peanut butter so much!
These bars are perfect!! I want 5 right now!
So good! As per usual, Joanne! xo
I think Avery is going to be one of the most well-fed children in the history of ever! In fact, I’m a little jealous…and I’m seriously craving a slice or two of these bars. Yum!
These look amazing, my boys would love these!
That prediction of what little Avery will have for lunch totally cracked me up, as in, I actually LOL’d! These peanut butter jelly bars look so yummy and a bar that my husband would totally fall in love it, definitely going to make these 🙂
my fave sandwich turned into a cookie bar?! YES PLEASE! These look amazing!!
Congrats on your new addition, Stephanie!! And Joanne, these bars look insanely perfect.!!
Oh my goodness…I LOVE PB&J, I am 33 and most days still take one with me to work for lunch! These bars are incredible looking and I am printing the recipe right now to make this weekend!
Haha your future prediction sounds right!! I love these bars!! A classic 🙂
She may not feed her kids PB&J, but I think she’d definitely be down with these PB&J bars! How could you not? If I had these waiting for me when I got home for school, I would have been in heaven! 🙂
Yum!! PB and Js are my favorite ~ these look delicious!!
Mmmmm eating these warm out of the oven as an afternoon snack with a cafe con leche sounds pretty amazing to me right now. I hope I have some free time this weekend to make these, because I know I’m going to be thinking about them for the next couple of days haha
Thanks for sharing! xx
This post has me craving rutabaga fries and PB&J bars #lifeinbalance. Thanks, Joanne and Steph!
These bars look so good, I adore the raspberry jam layer!
Love PB and J anything! I also love you two ladies and would sooooo wanna hang out with the two of you anytime!!!
So amazing!!! Love this combo. It a classic and favorite!
I think that the lovely Joanne’s definitely come up with a winner here! 🙂
Peanut butter and jelly were an awesome combination to me already but even more now. If PB & J in any form was ever suitable to make everybody want to be friends with you in school this would be the way to go for sure.
Wow these bars look great 🙂
So much better than a pb&j sandwich! These bars sound perfect!
yummy bars!
These bars are a winning combo!
Discovered your blog on Tasty Kitchen and I am looking forward to following you! These peanut butter and jelly bars look incredible, can’t wait to try 🙂
Happy Blogging!
Happy Valley Chow
I’m dying over these – they look delicious! I think I’m going to have to make these for Father’s Day!
Oh, these look so good! I haven’t had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich is so long. In fact, I have to go shopping to get the ingredients.
Ha! I was going to make a version of these last week, these look delicious. I hope mama-hood is going well for you 🙂
Wow! These look absolutely AMAZING! I might even add chocolate chips in there 🙂
One of the best combos known in the world. So yummy! Joanne, how do I get to meet you at a summer potluck? 😉 Sounds fun.
Hope you’re having a sweet time with that precious baby, Stephanie. 🙂
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