Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Reese's Peanut Butter Bars

  • 3/4 cup of butter, softened
  • 3/4 cup Reese's creamy peanut butter
  • 2 cups light brown sugar, packed
  • 1/4 cup of honey
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 2 1/2 cups quick cooking oats
  • 2 1/2 cups of AP flour
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1 1/3 cups of Reese's Mini Pieces or quartered Reese's Mini PB cups
Chocolate filling
  • 1 stick of butter
  • 2/3 cup of Hershey's cocoa
  • 1/3 cup of sugar
  • 1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract

Pre-heat your oven to 350. Spray a 13x9 with cooking spray. Set aside.
In a LARGE mixing bowl, beat the butter, peanut butter, brown sugar, and honey until well blended. Add eggs and vanilla, beat thoroughly.  In another bowl, combine the flour, oats, soda, and salt. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture. The dough will be thick. Once fully combined, remove 2 cups of the dough and set aside. Press the remaining dough into the bottom of the 13x9 baking pan.

Prepare the chocolate filling. Melt the butter in a saucepan over low heat. Stir in the cocoa and sugar. Stir to combine, then add the condensed milk and cook, stirring constantly until smooth and thick. Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla extract.

Spread the chocolate filling/mixture evenly over the dough. Sprinkle candy pieces evenly over the filling. Crumble reserved dough evenly over filling.
Bake at 350 for 25 minutes or until golden. Cool completely and then cut into bars. Very rich and delish!