Old Fashioned Oatmeal-Peanut Butter Bars

This past weekend, Holly was in the mood for something made out of peanut butter. So I looked at a few recipes and decided to make some good old fashioned oatmeal-peanut butter bars. The recipes I looked at called for a chocolate ganache layer. One even called or a peanut butter ganache layer in addition to the chocolate layer. Honestly, that seemed a little labor intensive to me, so I simplified the execution. After the bars were made and baked, I simply spread on some creamy peanut butter over the warm bars. Once solidified that basically was what I was looking for. Then I frosted the entire pan with a batch of chocolate frosting. These turned out great. The nice thing in making a large batch of these bars, is that we ended up sharing them with neighbors and friends. 

Dan's Oatmeal-Peanut Butter Bars:

1 cup sugar

1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed

1 cup butter

1 tsp vanilla

2 eggs

2 cup peanut butter

2 cups oatmeal (not quick)

2 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

Cream the softened butter and the sugars together until light & fluffy. Add the vanilla, eggs, and 1 cup of the peanut butter and combine. Add the remaining dry ingredients and mix together. Spread prepared dough on a greased jelly roll pan (18x13x1). 

Bake at 350 degrees for 15-18 minutes, or until golden brown. While hot spread 1 cup peanut butter on top. Cool so that the peanut butter has become slightly solid again. You can place these in the fridge so they set up faster. Spread a batch of chocolate frosting on top and cut into bars.

Chocolate Frosting:

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened

1/4 cup buttermilk or milk

2 tsp vanilla 

1/4 tsp salt 

1/3 cup (5 tablespoons) dutch processed cocoa 

2-3+ cups of powdered sugar

Mix all ingredients with a mixer until smooth, light & fluffy. Spread on top of bars.