Peanut Butter Blondies

The week leading up to Easter often seems awash in way too many sugary sweets. Some years I have given up candy for Lent, but that wasn’t the case this year. (We gave up watching television on Saturdays, if you are curious.) It would probably be better for my waistline to give up candy, but we’ve really been enjoying our quiet Saturdays at home. I don’t think the cats understand the radio and were the sound comes from, but they’ll just have to adjust.

I saw these cookies on Tastespotting and I knew I had to make them. I thought these would fit in just perfectly with the pre-Easter cavalcade of sugar. I do love chocolate and peanut butter, and these looked so decadent. I also figured that stores would have Easter candy on sale and I could get the peanut butter cups at a good price. I do think about these things!

The original recipe was baking in an 8 inch square pan, but I decided to double the recipe, which is the recipe that I have given here. These are very rich and you really need to cut them small, so I probably would have been able to get away with making the smaller batch. Oh well, the ones that were left at home and not taken to work are long gone. They are so yummy. I’m not one to eat cookie dough typically, but the dough for these was awesome. Almost irresistible! You should make these, they are the best. And if you don’t want to eat too many, you’ll need to give them away!

2 cup flour
1/2 cup cake flour
1-1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup smooth peanut butter
2 sticks unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2 cups firmly packed light brown sugar
3 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups chopped peanut butter cups
1-1/2 cups peanut butter chips
1/2 cup chocolate chips
Additional peanut butter cups (about 20)

Linea 9 x 13 inch pan with aluminum foil, allowing the foil to hang over the sides of the pan, and spray with nonstick cooking spray. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Stir together the flours, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

In a sized mixer bowl, stir together the melted butter and peanut butter. Whisk in the brown sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Switching to a wooden spoon or a spatula, mix in the flour mixture. Stir in the chips and peanut butter cups. The dough will be thick and chunky.

Scrape the dough into the prepared pan and spread it in evenly. Bake for 30-35 minutes; the bars are done when the dough is set and golden. Immediately after removing the bars from the oven, press as many peanut butter cups as you want into the surface of the blondies. Let the pan and bars cool completely on a cooling rack. Lift the cookies from the pan remove the foil and cut into bars.

Recipe from one kitchen, two dogs and a girl