Peanut Butter Bars

My mom gets credit for the recipe for this addicting dessert - she first made these for my dad's birthday back in August.  When we were visiting for Thanksgiving she pulled out the recipe box and gave me the recipe - I made these for the party we hosted Saturday night for the UGA/GA Tech game (yeah Dawgs!!).  They are pretty easy and if you like the mouthwatering combo of peanut butter and chocolate, then of course you'll love 'em!  It was impossible to keep my spoon out of the dough, and once I was done with that the icing was even better!  The icing recipe could definitely be used to frost chocolate cupcakes or a cake - it was delicious!

The only thing I'd do differently is to fully melt the butter before combining with the rest of the ingredients - I just softened it to room temperature and had some trouble spreading it evenly in the jelly roll pan.  I typically buy natural peanut butter and keep it in the fridge but for this recipe I used the traditional kind, assuming that it would be easier to work with.

Ingredients:

1 stick butter melted

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 cup flour

1 cup quick cook oats

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips

Icing:

1 cup confectioners' sugar

1/4 cup peanut butter

3 tablespoons half n half

Directions:

Heat oven to 350 degrees.  Line a 9 x 13 pan with parchment paper.  In a large bowl mix the butter, sugars, peanut butter, and vanilla until smooth.  In another bowl whisk together the flour, oats, and salt.  On low speed beat together flour mixture with butter mixture until just combined.  Press dough firmly and evenly into greased pan.

Evenly sprinkle chocolate chips over the top.  Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.  Remove from oven.

To make the icing:

In medium sized bowl, blend the peanut butter, half n half, and confectioners' sugar on high until smooth.  

Pour the icing over the uncut bars while still warm and cool completely.  Once cooled, cut into bars - this yields about 16 - 20 bars depending on how big you want them!