Friday, November 18, 2016

White Chocolate Peanut Butter Blondies



If you need to bake for an event, but are short on time, I think that bar cookies are the answer. They are usually quicker to make, as you just have one baking time. You can also make them in advance and they hold up great! You can do just about any combination of flavors in a bar cookie, so the sky’s the limit! I don’t always have a lot of time in the evening to bake, so bar cookies, where I can bake the cookies one night and cut them another, are often my choice to make.

I’ve had the ingredients on hand to make these for some time. They were kind of my back up cookie, if I couldn’t decide on another cookie. These don’t require anything that unusual, just white chocolate and peanut butter chips, which I often buy and then use in other recipes! Oh well. I had just under 1-1/2 cups of white chocolate chips, so I just added a little extra peanut butter chips. Bar cookies also tend to be forgiving, which is nice.

These cookies are very easy to make. The dough is a little oily, which is different. You bake these uncovered and then covered, so that they don’t brown too quickly. The original recipe said to bake these for about 30 minutes total. My bars were still quite raw at that time, so I kept baking them for a couple more minutes, then a couple more. Perhaps I could have taken them out of the oven a minute or two earlier, but they are nicely browned. The edges are too dark, but you cut those off anyway! These have a wonderful sweet salty peanut taste, which is fabulous.
               
White Chocolate Peanut Butter Blondies
1/2 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 and 3/4 cups packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 cups white chocolate chips
1 cup peanut butter chips
Additional peanut butter chips, optional
Sea salt, optional

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9" x 13" pan with aluminum foil and spray the foil with nonstick cooking spray. 

In a large mixer bowl, combine the melted butter, peanut butter and brown sugar. Beat on medium to combine. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing for one minute before adding the next. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the salt, flour, and baking powder. Stir in the white chocolate and peanut butter chips. Spread the mixture into the prepared pan. Sprinkle with additional peanut butter chips and sea salt (if desired).

 Bake the blondies for 15 minutes, then cover the pan with aluminum foil and bake for about 20 additional minutes, until they're light brown. Allow the bars to cool completely.

Once the bars are cool, lift them from the pan and peel away the foil. Cut into bars.

Recipe from Baker by Nature

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