Bailey's Brownies

Hey y'all,

It's been ten months since I last posted here. Ten months! And my post before that one was a full year ago. Whaaaat?!

It's not that I haven't been baking during all that time, or that I haven't thought about you readers a lot, it's that life got a little crazy for a while. Becky and MusicMan got married. That was kind of a big deal. I moved into my own apartment. Also a big deal. Becky and I took over co-direction of a dance company. Big deal. I acquired some books at work, became chair of a board, and joined a leadership program. All big deals. Becky, Music Man, and I turned 30. Big deal x 3.

And I baked these Bailey's Brownies.

Okay, so maybe that last one doesn't seem like a big deal compared to all those other things, but stay with me: These are possibly the best brownies I've ever made in my entire life.

Yeah. Totally a big deal.

It's no surprise I liked these brownies so much--Bailey's is one of my great passions in life. But the fact that they turned out so well was a bit unexpected, because rather than follow someone else's recipe, I improvised one of my own--I riffed off the Classic Brownies recipe from way back when, which is still my go-to brownie recipe after all this time.

Not that adding a couple tablespoons of Bailey's and tweaking a couple things is all that risky...but I'm proud that following my intuition yielded such great results.

It makes me wonder...if trusting that I've got the base recipe down and then tossing in what I'm passionate about made the most satisfying brownies ever, what could that approach do for the rest of my life? Are the best moments of my life still to come?

Realizing that is a pretty big deal.

Cheers, y'all.
-Katie

Bailey's Brownies
Adapted from Classic Brownies
Makes 12-20 brownies depending on how large you cut them


1/2 cup butter, softened
1 teaspoon instant espresso powder
2-oz (2 squares) unsweetened chocolate, chopped
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
2 large eggs
2 tablespoons Bailey's Irish Cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2/3 cup flour
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup mini chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Line an 8×8-inch square baking pan with aluminum foil and lightly grease.

2. In a small, heatproof bowl, melt butter, espresso (if using), and chocolate together. Stir with a fork until very smooth. Set aside to cool for a few minutes.

3. In a large bowl, whisk together sugar, eggs, Bailey's, and vanilla extract. Whisking steadily, pour chocolate mixture into sugar mixture. Stir until smooth. Sift flour, cocoa powder and salt into the bowl and stir until just combined. Stir in mini chocolate chips, then pour brownie batter into prepared pan.

4. Bake 35-40 minutes, until brownies are set and a toothpick inserted into the middle of the pan comes out with only a few moist crumbs, not batter, attached.

5. Cool in the pan on a wire rack completely. Lift brownies out by foil onto a cutting board and cut into squares.

Sugar Cookie Bars

Hey Chickadees! Happy New Year!


It's been a while since Beck and I last blogged--since November, in fact. How did that happen?! It's not like we didn't bake during the month of December. On the contrary, I lost track of how many batches of Toffee Almond Crunch and Christmas Gingerbread I made, and only the elves know how many Spritz Cookies were spritzed because we ourselves stopped counting at about 249 million.


Yes. 249 million.

But it's the new year now, and I'm looking forward to blogging. I can't promise we'll be blogging every Sunday--there are simply too many other things on our plates right now (mainly the planning of a certain very special occasion for Becky and the Music Man!) But when I do have the time, I enjoy baking and photographing and blogging; it's one of the small joys in my life.


Which, btw, is one of my new year's resolutions--to find more joy in the little things.


Things like sunsets, and discovering a new restaurant. Things like Pinterest, and crackle nail polish, and sprinkles.

Sprinkles!


Here's a story about sprinkles: Once, when I was about 13, I put sprinkles on some ice cream and when I bit down, there was a sprinkle positioned just right to make the sealant on one of my teeth pop off.  I had to go back to the dentist and sit there with the UV light in my mouth all over again.


Good story, huh?

Stories. That's another good thing to take joy in this year. Hopefully stories that are more interesting than the one I just told.

Yet another small joy: baking several dozen sugar cookies without dirtying a rolling pin or cookie cutters.


These Sugar Cookie Bars bake up in less than 30 minutes and are frosted and ready to be cut in less than an hour. And as an added bonus, one batch yields close to 249 million.


Which, btw, is the number of small joys I hope to experience this year. What little joys are you looking forward to in 2012?


--Katie

Sugar Cookie Bars

Adapted from A Little Bit Crunchy A Little Bit Rock and Roll

Makes approximately 70 bars

Cookie Base

5 cups flour

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

2 cups sugar

4 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease a half sheet (13x18 inch) pan and line with parchment paper.

2. In a medium bowl, sift flour, salt, and baking soda together and set aside.

3. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until fluffy.  Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add vanilla.

4. Add dry ingredients and mix until combined.

5. Press dough into prepared pan. An offset spatula might be helpful here. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until edges just begin to brown and the middle no longer looks wet. Set on a wire wrack to cool completely. Frost with frosting below.

Frosting

1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1/2 cup shortening

1 teaspoon vanilla

pinch of salt

4 cups powdered sugar

5 tablespoons of milk

food coloring (optional)

sprinkles (optional)

1. In a mixing bowl, beat shortening and butter until creamy.  Add vanilla and powdered sugar.  Gradually add tablespoons of milk until you reach your desired consistency (I used about 4 tablespoons).

2. Frost cookie base using an offset spatula or knife. Place bars in refrigerator for about 15 minutes so frosting can set. Cut into bars. (These cut great with a pizza cutter.)

Stored in an airtight container, bars will stay fresh (and even get better!) 3 to 4 days.

M&M Samoa Blondies

Let's go back in time 12 or so years, shall we?

The Time: New Year's Eve, 1999.

The Setting: My family's house, for the annual family-friendly NYE extravaganza.

The Players: Me, Katie, 16 years old; and our good friend Kirsten, 14 years old.

K&K circa 1994, five years before the millenium

The Backstory: Kirsten and I love M&Ms. It's our thing.

The Proposal:

"Hey, Kirst! You know how M&Ms are the official candy of the millenium because of how two Ms equals '2,000' in roman numerals?"

"Yeah."

"Well, what if, to celebrate the new millenium, you and I ate 2,000 M&Ms before morning?!"

(I pause here, readers, to let the magnitude of that proposal sink in. But only for a moment, because I don't remember Kirst hesitating much before she said...)

"Yeah!"

And then I said, "yeah" like she did, but with a question mark after it. Because really, readers, you'd have to be a little crazy to try to eat 2,000 M&Ms and I wasn't sure it was really such a good idea.

But Kirst was as crazy as I was, or at least as crazy about M&Ms as I was, and that, combined with all the caffeine we'd already consumed, was impairing both our judgements.

We furiously gathered all the M&Ms in the house and started counting.

"1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10!" Crunch.

"11 12 13 14 15 16!" Chomp.

Toss, catch, crunch, "17!"

Toss, catch, chomp, "18!"


Pop. "19!"


Pop. "20!"

And it went on like that for a few hours. As other party goers caught on to what we were doing, some cheered us on, and some told us we were downright stupid.

Around 2am, it turned out the latter group was right, and things got a little ugly.  Because dear readers, no matter how much a person loves candy coated chocolate that melts in your mouth and not in your hand, nobody can eat 2,000 M&Ms in one night.

Kirst and I called it quits at 900-something M&Ms between the two of us and rang in the new millenium with upset bellies and really bad sugar headaches.

But even as early as New Year's Day, we knew our crazy plan had been completely worth it, for we had made a commitment to something we loved and for better or for worse, we came out of it better friends and with a fabulous story to tell.

A few weeks ago, Becky and I witnessed Kirsten commit to something she loves even more than M&Ms (at least I'm pretty sure)--her fiance, Zach. 

I considered attempting to eat 2,000 M&Ms again to celebrate K&Z's special day, but thought my inevitable rainbow-colored vomit might distract from the celebration, so Becky and I chose to make these M&M Samoa Blondies instead. They were really easy to throw together, looked festive on a picnic table, and were well received by weary travelers. Kirsten's matron of honor even tells me they made a great breakfast the morning of the wedding :-)

Kirsten and Zach - It's clear you are already the best of friends and have many wonderful stories to tell. When people say you're crazy for committing to something as daunting as loving one person with all your heart for the rest of your lives, may you remember New Year's Eve 1999 and that sometimes, for better or for worse, the craziest and most impossible ideas are the best ones of all.

With Love,
Kate

M&M Samoa Blondies

Adapted from eatatallies.com

1 1/4 cups unsalted butter

2 cups packed brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

4 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 1/2 cups sweetened flaked coconut

1 (12 oz.) bag mini M&Ms (with a few reserved for the top)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 9x13-inch pan with foil and spray lightly with nonstick spray. 
2. Heat butter in a small saucepan over medium heat until it browns and begins to smell nutty (watch it closely so it doesn’t burn). Allow the butter to cool slightly.
3. In a large mixing bowl, combine the browned butter and sugars.
4. Stir in eggs, vanilla and salt.
5. Add the flour and stir just until combined.
6. Add the coconut and M&Ms and stir to combine.
7. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top with a rubber spatula or wet fingers. Sprinkle a few additional M&Ms on top. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes. Let the blondies cool completely before turning them out onto a cutting board and slicing into squares.

Spiced Brownies

These brownies were introduced to me by friend Emily a few months ago. I loved them the moment I tasted them then, but kept forgetting to ask Emily for the recipe. Then earlier this week, when deciding what to bring as I tagged along to a Father's Day get together here on the right coast, but wanting to at the same time honor our DaddyBob on the left coast, I remembered Emily's excellent spiced brownies, and finally asked for the recipe.

I chose to  honor DaddyBob with these brownies because they remind me of Mexican Hot Chocolate Snickerdoodles, which DaddyBob adores.  We call those cookies "Wait For It Cookies" because the heat doesn't kick in right away.  These brownies are like that, too. The heat sneaks up on you, warming the back of your throat only after you swallow each bite.  

If you want to have some bakerly fun, put these brownies out in front of a crowd, watch as people dive at them with shouts of "Oooo! Brownies!" and then sit back and smirk as they realize that what they just ate isn't your typical treat.

Which, by the way, is totally something DaddyBob would do - he's practically a professional smirker. He's also a wonderful teacher, so it's no surprise that Becky and I enjoy keeping people on their toes. Afterall, it takes a slightly mischievous dad to raise slightly mischievous daughters :-)

Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there, and a big, cross-country hug to ours.

-Katie

Spiced Brownies
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen, who adapted it from Baked: New Frontiers in Baking and the Baked Bakery in Red Hook, Brooklyn

Makes 24 brownies

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons dark unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
11 ounces dark chocolate (60 to 72% cacao), coarsely chopped
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 teaspoon instant espresso powder
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
5 large eggs, at room temperature
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 9 x 13 baking pan with foil and grease foil. 

2. In a medium bowl, whisk flour, salt, cocoa powder, cayenne pepper, and cinnamon. Set aside.

3. Put chocolate, butter, and instant espresso powder in a large bowl and set it over a saucepan of simmering water, stirring occasionally, until the chocolate and butter are completely melted and smooth. Turn off the heat, but keep the bowl over the water and add the sugars. Whisk until completely combined, then remove the bowl from the pan. The mixture should be room temperature.

4. Add 3 eggs to the chocolate mixture and whisk until combined. Add remaining eggs and whisk until combined. Add vanilla and stir until combined. Do not overbeat the batter at this stage or your brownies will be cakey.

5. Sprinkle flour mixture over chocolate mixture. Using a spatula (not a whisk), fold flour mixture into chocolate until just a bit of flour mixture is visible.

6. Pour batter into the prepared pan and smooth top. Bake in the center of the oven for 30 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through the baking time, until a toothpick inserted into the center of the brownies comes out with a few moist crumbs sticking to it.

7. Set brownies on wire rack to cool completely. Using foil edges, lift entire pan of brownies out onto cutting board and cut into squares. Tightly covered with plastic wrap, brownies keep at room temperature for up to 3 days.

Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

I'll get to these cookie bars in a second, but first, a little coming-of-age-story...

One day when I was about twelve years old, I had a sudden urge to be self-sufficient and ironed my own shorts.

(For all our Fancy Dancer friends out there, these were the white shorts we wore with the red recital t-shirt with a train on it. I've forgotten the name of the actual recital...but I haven't forgotten that we had to wear white shorts. White shorts, Miss Patty? Really?!)

I was so full of pride that I had successfully ironed my shorts all by myself, that I ran to Mama B and announced my accomplishment.

"Congratulations," she smirked. "You can iron all your own clothes from now on."

And that's exactly how things proceeded in our house, whether I liked it or not.

Now, back to the cookie bars.

Mama B made chocolate chip cookie bars for every BBQ and birthday party when we were kids, just like she used to make Rice Krispie treats, and just like she used to do my ironing. She has stopped doing my ironing, as discussed above, but still makes chocolate chip cookie bars.

Our Aunt Jan also makes chocolate chip cookie bars. To be more precise, she makes mint chocolate chip cookie bars. 

(I know - "mint chocolate chip cookie bars" sounds a bit weird, right? I always thought so too, but trust me, once you taste them, you realize that if they are weird at all, they are definitely the good kind of weird.)

So between Mama B and Aunt Jan, Becky and I certainly had our fill of chocolate chip cookie bars as kids. They probably accounted for 43% of all the food we consumed at family functions.

But whenever I've tried to make Mama B's recipe, my bars always turn out dry, or just don't taste as good as Mama B's. I blame it on Mom Magic. You know what I mean - things just taste better when made by your mom, right?

And I've never even attempted Aunt Jan's cookie bars, because I'm afraid that if I demonstrate I am capable of making them myself, Aunt Jan will stop sending Becky and me home with tins of cookie bars for our freezer.

Which would be tragic.

So Mama B and Aunt Jan, let me be very clear: this is not an "I ironed my own shorts" situation. Like yours, these cookie bars are moist and gooey and chewy and oh-so-chocolatey. BUT, they are not your cookie bars. They are purposely made from a third recipe - one that Becky and I now claim as our own, one that our kids will someday eat at BBQs. By posting this recipe here, we by no means wish to give the impression that you are to stop making yours just because we are old enough to now make our own.

Because seriously, I get choked up when I think about a world without Mama B's and Aunt Jan's cookie bars.

I may have been ready to iron my own shorts at twelve, but at more than double that age, I'm not nearly ready to make my own cookie bars if it means I have to give up the ones that are dear to my heart.

Okay, Mama B? Capisce, Aunt Jan?

- Katie

P.S. - The cookie bars in these photos are actually not nearly as gooey as they usually are. Check out the original recipe for a better photo. I blame this batch's lack of gooey-ness on 1) slightly over baking them, and 2) using generic chocolate chips, which never work as well as Nestle or even higher quality chocolate chips. So learn from my mistakes, friends. Don't skimp on your chocolate, and watch that oven carefully.

Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies Bars

Adapted from King Arthur Flour
Makes approximately 24-30 bars

2/3 cup (10 2/3 tablespoons) butter

2 cups + 2 tablespoons firmly packed brown sugar

3/4 teaspoon salt*

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 large eggs

2¼ teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon espresso powder, optional

2¾ cups flour

3 cups chocolate chips; or a combination of different flavored chips, or chips and nuts

*Use 1 teaspoon salt if you use unsalted butter.

1.     Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a 9×13-inch pan with parchment paper.

2.     Melt butter and stir in brown sugar. Add salt and vanilla, stirring until well combined.

3.     Allow mixture to cool slightly, then add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Scrape sides and bottom of mixing bowl midway through this process.

4.     Add baking powder, espresso powder, and flour, stirring to combine.

5.     Stir in chocolate chips or other additions.

6.     Scoop batter into prepared pan, spreading to edges with a wet spatula or wet fingers. Smooth top as best you can.

7.     Bake bars 30 to 32 minutes until they have risen and the top is shiny and golden. Center will still be quite molten; as long as no wet batter is showing farther out towards the edges, bars are done. As they cool, center will solidify.

8.     Remove bars from oven. If edges have risen, use a heatproof spatula to press them down. Let bars cool completely before cutting. Once bars are cool, wrap airtight. Store wrapped bars at room temperature for a couple days.

Berry Cornmeal Crumble Bars

It was 70 degrees and sunny in New York City on Friday. The weather put me in such a good mood that I actually skipped down the hallway at work. I also did a few time steps in the elevator bay.

Not that me tap dancing while waiting for the elevator has anything to do with the weather. I always tap dance in the elevator bay, no matter if it's snowing or cloudy with a chance of meatballs.

But my renegade tap steps definitely had a little extra "umph" on Friday. Spring and sunshine just put me in a good mood.

When it comes to baking, berries are to spring as pumpkin is to fall. And just like sunshine, berries make me happy. I've just got to bake with berries in the spring.

So when I received my Everyday Food in the mail this week and saw this recipe for Raspberry Cornmeal Crumble Bars, I texted Becky right away--could she pick up some raspberries on the way home?

Beck's a good sis and understands that when one is called to a recipe, sometimes one must answer the call immediately, so she came home with frozen raspberries.

(Even better than recipes that use berries are recipes that use frozen berries, because these recipes allow you to answer "the call" even if the berries you seek are not quite in season.)

When Beck got home, however, she realized she'd picked up one bag of raspberries and one bag of strawberries, instead of two bags of raspberries, as the recipe called for.

"No problem!" I said. "We are not berry exclusive in this kitchen!" (Yes, I like me a pun now and then. Go ahead and groan. I am used to it.)

Hence, Raspberry Cornmeal Crumble Bars became Berry Cornmeal Crumble Bars. Because let's face it--"Raspberry Strawberry Cornmeal Crumble Bars" is just too much to say, especially if your mouth is full of strawberry-raspberry-cornmeal-crumbles.

These bars are buttery and not too sweet, and remind me of strawberry shortcake, minus the whipped cream.

Speaking of which, I'm told NYC can expect a little "whipped cream" of our own later this week...in the form of snow.

Really, NYC? Really?!

If you don't mind, I think I'll carry on as if spring were here to stay, tapping my feet in the elevator bay and baking with as many merry berries as I can find.

Happy Spring!

-Katie

Berry Crumble Bars
Adapted from Everyday Food (April 2011)
Makes 24-28 bars

1 1/2 cups natural almonds
1 cup yellow cornmeal
4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 tsp coarse salt
2 cups (4 sticks) unsalted butter, melted
Approximately 16 oz. frozen berries

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line 9" x 13" pan with parchment paper.
2. Pulse almonds in food processor until finely ground.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together almonds, cornmeal, flour, sugar, and salt.
4. Add butter and stir until dry ingredients are evenly moistened.
5. Press about two-thirds of dough into baking pan.
6. Scatter berries over top and crumble remaining dough over berries.
7. Bake until top is golden brown, about 50 minutes. Let cool in dish on wire rack. Cut into 24-28 bars.
8. Store in air-tight container, or tightly wrapped in plastic, at room temperature, up to 3 days.

Sin Bars

Almost eight years ago, Becky and I spent a semester studying abroad with the Casa de la Solidaridad program in El Salvador, Central America, where we were introduced to these absolutely sinful cookies.

You may be thinking at this moment that these cookies are therefore Salvadoran.

Not so.

See, we were not introduced to these cookies at a panadería or anywhere else in la comunidad, but rather at the home of our program director T when she hosted once-a-week Spirituality Nights.

For me, these weekly gatherings were a lifeline throughout the semester, for a few reasons: 1) We were encouraged to speak English rather than Spanish, 2) I needed the personal and small group reflection time to process the intense experiences I was going through, and 3) T always made baked goods.

I'm telling you - the baked goods were at least as big a draw at those Spirituality Nights as the whole God/faith thing, if not bigger.

So when the Casa program recently distributed a cookbook with some favorite program recipes, Becky and I literally squealed, then drooled, when we saw this recipe in there.

Me gustan oatmeal cookies.

Me gusta fudge.

Me definitely gusta the combination of the two.

Which makes me wonder, why, oh why, did I not ask T for this recipe sometime in the last eight years?

These are oatmeal cookie bars with a layer of oooey, gooey fudge in the middle, and are every bit as indulgent as their name implies.  They are super easy to make, too.

T- thanks for all the support and comfort you offered all those years ago, especially the kind of support made from sugar, butter, oatmeal, and chocolate.

Readers - who will you indulge with these?

Happy Sunday,

-Katie

Sin/Pecado Bars

Adapted from T's recipe

2 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened

2 cups lightly packed brown sugar

2 large eggs

2 tablespoons vanilla extract

3 cups oatmeal (I used a combination of quick oats and original oats since that's what I had on hand)

2 cups (1 bag) chocolate chips

1 10 oz can sweetened condensed milk

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line a jelly roll pan (10 x 15 inches) with parchment or foil.  Mix flour, baking soda, and salt in medium bowl and set aside.

2. In large bowl, cream butter and sugar using an electric mixer until light and fluffy.  Add eggs and vanilla and mix until blended.

3. Add flour mixture in two batches, blending until incorporated.  Stir or blend in oats.

4. Press three quarters of mixture into bottom of pan (I found an offset spatula useful here).

5. In microwave, heat chocolate chips and sweetened condensed milk in 30 second intervals, stirring until chocolate chips are melted.  Spread chocolate mixture over cookie dough.

6. Drop mounds of remaining cookie dough over chocolate.

7.  Bake 25-30 minutes, until top is golden brown.  Let cool on wire rack.

8.  When bars are cool, lift entire pan of bars onto cutting board using parchment or foil.  Cut into bars. (You may find it helpful to refrigerate bars before cutting them.  It's not necessary, but makes for a cleaner cut.)

Peanut Butter and Jelly Bars

Becky and I are PB&J kids. We ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches just about every day from approximately first grade through, well, last year. On wheat bread, english muffins or bagels (never white bread), toasted if we were at home, peanut butter on both sides to keep the bread from getting soggy, with strawberry jelly. If we didn't have strawberry, it was raspberry for me; grape for Beck.

Then, one day, it occurred to us that we were basically eating sugar for lunch. We were no longer dancing eight hours a day. Instead, we were sitting in desk chairs on our bums, and those bums were getting bigger and bigger. 

So, our beloved PB&J was banished from the lunch-sphere and into the realm of treats.

And boy, are these PB&J bars a treat.

Do you remember that Peanut Butter Jelly Time video from 2002? The one where a banana bounces around the screen rapping about peanut butter jelly and a baseball bat? Remember how in your face it was?

Yeah. These bars are kind of like that.

In fact, if your taste buds could talk, they might say a bite of these bars is like getting hit with a...wait for it...peanut butter jelly baseball bat.

The dough for these bars comes together really quickly, and smells absolutely fantastic. But my favorite thing about this recipe is that if you buy an 18 oz jar of peanut butter, you don't even have to deal with the annoying mess of scooping peanut butter into and out of measuring cups; you just dump the whole jar in.

One recommendation: Because these bars are so sweet, definitely use raspberry jam or another jam with bite (i.e. not strawberry or grape). Otherwise, you'll be on such a sugar high that you'll start bouncing around like the dancing banana.

Gone are the days of Jif and Smuckers for lunch, but Becky and I always have been and always will be PB&J kids. Are you a PB&J kid, too? If so, make these bars and have a grand old peanut butter jelly time.

-Katie

Peanut Butter and Jelly Bars
adapted from Ina Garten
Makes approximately 36 bars

1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs, at room temperature
2 cups (18 ounces) creamy peanut butter (I used one 18 oz jar Jif)
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 1/2 cups (18 ounces) raspberry jam or other jam
2/3 cups salted peanuts, coarsely chopped

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Line a 9x13 inch pan with parchment paper, then grease and flour the pan, or spray with baking spray.

3. Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt and set aside

4. Cream the butter and sugar on medium speed with mixer until light yellow, about 2 minutes. With the mixer on low speed, add the vanilla, eggs, and peanut butter and mix until all ingredients are combined.

5. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the flour mixture to the peanut butter mixture. Mix just until combined.

6. Spread 2/3 of the dough into the prepared cake pan and spread over the bottom with a spatula or your fingers. Spread the jam evenly over the dough. Drop small globs of the remaining dough evenly over the jam. Don't worry if all the jam isn't covered; the dough will spread in the oven. Sprinkle with chopped peanuts.

7. Bake for about 45 minutes, until golden brown. Cool on wire rack, then chill in refrigerator until ready to cut. Lift bars out of pan onto cutting board using parchment and cut into squares. Store at room temperature or in the fridge.