These bars prove that everyone is truly a kid at heart. Soft, sweet and just a little gooey, they taste like the best peanut butter cookie you have ever had – dipped in jam. These are perfect for your next potluck, football party or afternoon snack.
I can admit that I didn’t like the classic peanut butter and jam combination until recently, and I now consume it often. So when I saw these bars on Martha Stewarts website I was excited to try this new idea. In the end, after some googling I actually ended up adapting an Ina Garten version, but the inspiration did come from Martha Stewart.
I could continue waxing poetic about how great these bars are (try them crumbled on your oatmeal in the morning, glorious), but you should just go and make them. Go now. I mean it, run.
(makes 16 bars)
Adapted from Ina Garten’s Peanut Butter and Jelly Bar’s Recipe
1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup natural peanut butter (I used crunchy)
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour (you can use all white flour)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup raspberry jam
1/4 cup roasted salted peanuts, chopped
Preheat oven to 350F. (Feel free to do this in your stand mixer if you have one.) Cream together butter and sugar. Add egg, vanilla and peanut butter and mix until thoroughly combined. In a separate bowl whisk together flours, soda and salt. Gently fold dry into wet. Spray, or grease an 8×8 baking dish and put in two thirds of the batter, distribute evenly. Spread jam on top of batter (I used my fingers, not sure how else it would work!) Dollop remaining batter on top and sprinle with peanuts. Bake for 45 minutes or until golden brown.
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{ 16 comments… read them below or add one }
Oh these look delicious! My husband and kids would love these. Don’t you just love Ina Garten’s recipes
Great blog you have here.. I’m visiting from FoodBlogs.
omg these combine the best billion things in the world
i’m sooooooo making these!
YUUUUUUUUUMMMMMM!!!!!!! I LOVE peanut butter and jam! I WILL make those FOR SURE! I’m salivating already….
Great pics, also! What kind of camera do you have? You use the macro setting?
Sarah – Thanks! I love her recipes too.
Karyn – they are rich but very, very good. Oatmeal, seriously!
Laurie – I have a Nikon D40 SLR and am actually working on all manual settings these days. Some of my older photos were taken with a Fujifilm Point and Shoot on the macro setting.
I have been a peanut butter lover for a long time, although admittedly I usually eat it plain, without jam. I could see these being an excellent dessert though. In fact, I definitely foresee it being my new favorite dessert.
Oh wow, they look awesome!!!
xox Sarah
You mean run after making and eating them all up! haha These look fabulous. I’ve seen these before but never tried them out. I’m bookmarking this recipe.
Bah I wish I noticed this yesterday! I made terrible peanut butter brownie thing. Of course I mixed up baking soda and powder and added both, though I only needed to add powder. Still i am not sure that particular recipe could have been saved. Weirdly my brothers can’t get enough so it wasn’t a competely failure.
Memoria – it is possible I mean that
Yosha – don’t you hate that? Although it is good to keep men around to eat leftover things that don’t appeal to the rest of us.
I am trying to find breakfast items with taste, but yet healthy. This sounds like a great recipe for K-12 students.
Teresa – If you are giving them to kids for breakfast you might want to reduce the sugar a bit and use some low sugar jam. these are delicious but quite sweet!
SO yummmy! I do love cooking cakes and pastries together with my kids. But I haven’t tried this peanut butter and jell bar together. I guess I need to try this one.So sure my kids gonna love this also.
Are you able to freeze these bars? Would it be okay to freeze them with the jelly?
Elizabeth – I am not sure if they would freeze well or not, I would try it and wrap them in several layers (i.e. aluminum foil and then saran wrap).
Hi! I’m new to your blog and made these two weeks ago…. Loved them! I will admit I wasn’t loving them straight out of the oven but, I think they were awesome the next morning and my hubby, daughter and I ate them all week enjoying every bite. My mom visited too, and she couldn’t stop eating them when she was here.
I am back to try your Spaghetti Squash Gratin Recipe and can’t wait to see how it turns out!
That is funny, and similar to my experience too! So glad you enjoyed and good luck with the gratin.