peanut butter chocolate chip bars

As summer comes to an end, I want to make sure I cross everything off my summer to-do list. That said, it has been a busy week and a half between all of my blueberry-picking, wedding-attending, baseball game-watching, extreme-tubing, and sunflower field-searching (in which case, the hunt is over, by the way).

With all of these fun events that I’ve enjoyed attending lately, I’ve been thinking about how lackadaisical I might become when class begins Monday. But thankfully, this blog will continue to be my happy place during my super-senior semester–the place where I can continue to unload hundreds of photos and thoughts of lust-worthy foods without a single trace of judgement from all of you lovely readers. Thank you for this.

Speaking of lust, let’s talk about these amazing goo-bars down below. Before I moved back up to school I concocted these awesome [fattening?] things. They’re called peanut butter chocolate chip bars, but you and I could probably just call them peanut butter blondies. They are deliciously addicting and I made them for three very important reasons:

1) The combination of peanut butter and chocolate has never been one to let me down.

2) I’m a blonde. So, in turn, I love blondies. And,

3) I love to make a sugary mess.

And then I ate them. All of them. In one day (a day which equals three hours), with help from my good friend Allie and a little hardly any help from my parents. But in my defense the recipe only makes an 8×8 pan.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Bars

(Recipe adaptation courtesy of Bakeat350 — Yields 1 8×8 dish)

6 tbsp. unsalted butter
1/2 cup natural chunky peanut butter
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup  light brown sugar, packed
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup flour
1/4 tsp. coarse salt
1 tsp. baking powder
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350. Lightly grease an 8 x 8″ pan. In a small bowl, whisk together flour, salt and baking powder. Set aside.

In a large bowl, cream together butter and peanut butter together until smooth. Beat in sugars until combined. Next add eggs, one at a time, scraping bowl after each addition. Stir in vanilla.

Gradually add flour mixture and stir completely. Fold in chocolate chips. Lick the beaters.

Spread the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for about 30-32 minutes or until slightly golden on top. Cool completely before cutting–inside will be gooey!