Peanut butter and chocolate; do food combinations get much better than that? It does if you can make it into layered bar cookies in a couple minutes! I said it before with the cake mix cookies and I’ll say it again with these Layered Peanut Butter Bars: sometimes pre-made mix is a good thing. In this case, if you don’t have the time to make peanut butter cookie dough, you just buy the Betty Crocker PB cookie mix.
Don’t feel too guilty about this; you’ll be making the peanut butter cream layer and chocolate ganache all by yourself.
These are heaven. They melt in your mouth. The cookie layer is soft and chewy. The peanut butter layer is sweet and creamy. The chocolate ganache is rich and decedent. Your teeth slice through the chocolate and peanut butter cream layers with ease before puncturing the cookie base and your mouth erupts with a symphony of harmonious textures and flavors. Yeah… This is my blog on wine.
If the symphony is not your thing, then let me say this: these bars are a peanut butter cup in cookie form…on steroids.
A good bar cookie is like an ogre; it has layers. I love how defined the layers are in these bars. You could almost pick them apart like an Oreo.
The one, minuscule, tricky thing about these bars is spreading out the ganache evenly before it sets up. Be very gentle and try to keep your knife parallel to the bars so you don’t pick up a smudge of peanut butter cream and drag it all across your shiny chocolate ganache. Once you start that it’s difficult to fix. You’ll think there’s not enough ganache, or that the layer will be too thin, but like any good husband, you will be wrong.
These are dangerous. Get them out of your kitchen as soon as possible unless you had planned on eating the whole thing to begin with anyway. In which case, you’re just badass and I need to party with you.
Layered Peanut Butter Bars
by Betty Crocker
Cookie Base
1 pouch (1 lb 1.5 oz) Betty Crocker® peanut butter cookie mix
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon water
1 egg
Filling
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
2 cups powdered sugar
2 teaspoons milk
Frosting
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/4 cup butter
Directions
Heat oven to 350°F. Spray bottom of 13×9-inch pan with cooking spray.
In large bowl, stir all Cookie Base ingredients until soft dough forms. Press dough in bottom of pan using floured fingers. Bake 15 to 18 minutes or until golden brown. Cool completely, about 1 hour.
In small bowl, beat all Filling ingredients with electric mixer on medium speed until smooth. Spread mixture evenly over cookie base.
In microwavable bowl, microwave all fosting ingredients on high for 30 seconds; stir until smooth. Cool 10 minutes; spread over filling.
Refrigerate 30 minutes or until set. For bars, cut into 9 rows by 4 rows.
Adventures of a Hungry Redhead 
Oh man. All the baked goods you make are seriously like food porn. Please welcome wine to your blog more often! haha.
Ha! So noted. I didn’t finish the bottle yet, so there could be more tonight…