Peanut Butter and Jelly Bars

Katie
Summer is great. Summer is awesome, in fact. If seasons were movies, summer would be the huge, action-packed, explosion-filled Blockbuster that everyone talks a lot about and which does really well at the Box Office and is an undisputed success. Nobody hates summer - it's too easy to love.

And then comes fall. Fall has it harder, and not for its lack of charm - colorful trees, apple picking, and that beautiful crispness in the air are all just as, if not more, enchanting as beach days, barbecues, and warm summer nights. No, fall has an unfair disadvantage simply because it means the return of the one thing adolescents everywhere dread most: going back to school.

Now, I'm not saying that school is in and of itself unenjoyable for everyone (personally, I like it most of the time), but what it represents - the end of the great freedom that summer provides - can be almost unbearable. It used to be, back when getting an education was little more than nap time and fractions, that going back was an

exciting chance to show off your new backpack and see who was in your class. But now that we're older and wiser and grumpier, that first day has lost nearly all of its appeal and school, rather than being thrillingly novel, has deteriorated into forcing ourselves to get up six hours earlier than we're used to and go to a place where no one really cares about our shiny new pencil cases.

But seeing as this was my last year to have an official First Day of School, I've begun to get a bit nostalgic. I miss not being able to sleep the night before. I miss walking down to school with my dad, I miss being praised for reading books without pictures and I miss, above all, the innocence and simplicity of those days (as cheesy as it may sound.) So when I saw this recipe in my favorite Martha Stewart cookies book, I knew that they were the perfect way to bring back a taste (literally!) of those good ol' days. PB&J has always been a lunchtime staple of mine and as I took my first bite of one of these salty-sweet bars I was transported back to my earliest lunchroom, devouring the Wonderbread grandness my mom had packed for me in a brown paper bag. It was the perfect way to start my last year of school and forget, for a little while at least, that I'm not supposed to enjoy going back. After all, what's not to like about a place where you can have peanut butter and jelly every day?

Peanut Butter and Jelly Bars

From Martha Stewart's Cookies Book

I got the following recipe from her website

Ingredients

• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for pan
• 3 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for pan
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 1/2 cups smooth peanut butter
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups strawberry jam, or other flavor
• 2/3 cup salted peanuts, roughly chopped

Directions

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9-by-13-inch pan with butter, and line the bottom with parchment paper. Grease the parchment, and coat inside of pan with flour; set aside. Place butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat on medium-high speed until fluffy, about 2 minutes. On medium speed, add eggs and peanut butter; beat until combined, about 2 minutes.
2. Whisk together salt, baking powder, and flour. Add to bowl of mixer on low speed; combine. Add vanilla. Transfer two-thirds of mixture to prepared pan; spread evenly with offset spatula. Using offset spatula, spread jam on top of peanut-butter mixture. Dollop remaining third of peanut-butter mixture on top of jam. Sprinkle with peanuts.
3. Bake until golden, about 45 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool; cut into about thirty-six 1 1/2-by-2-inch pieces.

Peanut Butter Swirl Brownies

Katie

When I was little, my two favorite things to eat were hamburgers and chocolate. You could take or leave your pizza, popcorn, or fruity candy - I wouldn't have cared either way. But plop a nice piece of beef between two buns in front of me with a side of a Snickers bar and I swear I couldn't have been happier. I'm not joking. You would have been my best friend.

Now, I have a couple obsessions, too. Of course one of them is chocolate because, let's be honest, chocolate is and always will be my closest pal. But (sorry, hamburgers,) I have a new second favorite food, and that is peanuts. I don't care what condition they're in - smooth peanut butter, crunchy peanut butter, shelled, unshelled, salted, roasted, and even in a can of mixed nuts. A peanut is a peanut and I am nuts for them!

I think you can see where I am going with this. Ever since the invention of peanut butter cups, people have known what a blessing to mankind the combination of peanuts and chocolate is. So when I was going through my Martha Stewart Cookies book the other day (one of my favorite cookbooks) and I came across a recipe for PEANUT BUTTER SWIRL BROWNIES, well, I felt like God put it in that book just for me. My two favorite foods: peanuts and chocolate, swirled together harmoniously.

I could feel my waistline expanding just thinking about it.

So here is the recipe for maybe the best combination of chocolate and peanut butter I have ever tasted (and I have had a lot of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups in my fifteen years, let me tell you.) My one recommendation: Share these. Because if left in the same room with no willpower, you can, and will, eat half the pan. Trust me, I know.

Peanut Butter Swirl Brownies
From Martha Stewart's Cookies Book

For the Batter:

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces, plus more for pan
• 2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped
• 4 ounces semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
• 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon coarse salt
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

For the Filling:

• 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted
• 1/2 cup confectioner's sugar
• 3/4 cup smooth peanut butter
• 1/4 teaspoon coarse salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Butter an 8-inch square baking pan and line with parchment, allowing a 2-inch overhang. Butter lining (not overhang). Make batter: Put butter and chocolates in a heatproof medium bowl set over a pan of simmering water; stir until melted. Let cool slightly. Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Whisk granulated sugar into chocolate mixture. Add eggs, and whisk until mixture is smooth. Stir in vanilla. Add flour mixture; stir until well incorporated. Make filling: Stir together butter, confectioners' sugar, peanut butter, salt, and vanilla in a bowl until smooth. Pour one-third of batter into prepared pan; spread evenly with a rubber spatula. Drop dollops of peanut butter filling (about 1 tablespoon each) on top of batter, spacing about 1 inch apart. Drizzle remaining batter on top, and gently spread to fill pan. Drop dollops of remaining filling on top. Gently swirl peanut butter filling into batter with a butter knife, running the knife lengthwise and crosswise through layers. Bake until a cake tester inserted into brownies (avoid center and edges) comes out with a few crumbs but is not wet, about 45 minutes. Let cool slightly in pan, about 15 minutes. Lift out; let cool completely on a wire rack before cutting into squares. Brownies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature up to 3 days.