Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Bars
It’s Monday.
I realize that most of you hate Mondays.
I don’t.
Mondays are really very necessary for my health and well being.
Not that I don’t love my family dearly. But usually by Sunday afternoon, family togetherness has started to turn into family TOGETHERNESS …and the laundry has begun to pile up very rapidly.
Although I don’t have a problem with Mondays, I have decided to meet you in the middle. You hate Mondays. I hate a lot of other things. So from here on out, my Monday posts are going to be dedicated to those issues. We can be grumpy together.
I’m a good friend like that.
For my first “I hate” Monday post, I want address forwarded texts. You know the kind…the header reads FW:FW:FW:FW and you already don’t even want to know what it says. But–you read it anyways…you’re curious like that. Aren’t we all? And the message starts off with “I know this sounds crazy, but it works. My best friend’s cousin’s wife’s brother did this and he got a call an hour later that he had won $899″, or “Forward this if you are not ashamed to love God, he will know if you don’t do this”. And of course, they want you to forward this junk to a minimum of like, ten people.
I know that these messages are often sent via email as well, but I take more of an issue with the texted ones.
Why?
Because the people who have my cell phone number are usually in a closer circle of mine than the ones who just have my email address. So if I am getting one of those texts, chances are good that it is from someone I consider myself to be somewhat friends with. And that, is a fact that I don’t even want to face.
Now, I’m not even going to get into the logic that tells someone that God is keeping tabs on our text forwarding…..we all know what we think about that one.
What I want to know, is that if people are so very convinced that this text they sent me is going to result in money magically coming my way, why don’t they ever follow up on it? I have never once had a person ask me “Hey, that text I forwarded you the other day, how much money did you end up winning?”.
That has never, ever happened.
So this is what I propose we do: from now on, when someone sends us one of those messages, we need to wait a day or two, and then call the friend that sent it. We then need to tell this friend “Hey, I forwarded that message along like you said and I still haven’t gotten my call that I won some money. I thought you promised that this thing works? Do you think you can give me the phone number of your best friend’s cousin’s wife’s brother? I want to ask him how long it took for him to get his money and what I should do next.”
It’s only fair.
I hate those dang forwarded texts. They should be OUTLAWED.
Now that we have properly started off our Monday by releasing some anger and aggression, let’s move on to a combo that is always a good thing–chocolate and peanut butter.
This recipe comes from Rosie’s Bakery cookbook, which I love. It’s hard to find this book new, but there are a bunch of used copies for sale on Amazon. These bars are completely delicious and easy to throw together. I added M&M’s to mine but they are not called for in the original recipe.
INGREDIENTS
1 1/3 cups plus 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup commercial (not generic) smooth peanut butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons lightly packed light brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1/2 cup milk chocolate chips
1/2 cup M&M’s (if not using, increase chips to 1 cup)
Preheat oven to 350. Lightly grease an 11×7 inch (NOT 9×13) baking pan with butter or cooking spray.
Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together into a medium size mixing bowl and set aside.
Using an electric mixer on medium high speed, cream the butter, peanut butter, both sugars,and the vanilla until light and fluffy, about 1 1/2 minutes. Stop the mixer the scrape the bowl with a rubber spatula.
Add the eggs one at a time and beat on medium speed until partially blended after each addition, about 10 seconds. After the last addition, beat until blended, about 30 seconds, stopping the mixer twice to scrape the bowl.
Add the dry ingredients to the batter and mix with a spatula until the flour is absorbed. Then mix on low speed until blended, 7 to 10 seconds. Scrape the bowl, especially the bottom.
Add the chocolate chips and M&M’s and blend for several seconds. Scrape the bowl. Spread the batter evenly in the pan.
Bake the bars on the center oven rack until the edges are deep golden and the center is slightly puffy, 25 to 30 minutes. The center will drop when the bars are taken out of the oven, creating a chewy texture.
It’s very important that you measure your flour out for this recipe very carefully and use name brand peanut butter, they won’t come out right otherwise.
What things do you hate? Let me know and maybe I can address it in an upcoming Monday post. Together, we just may change the world.
Happy Monday!!!
Thanks for visiting my blog! I realize you could be doing more important things with your time. Like watching the news or washing socks. I hope you stay awhile. Much more fun than socks, I promise. 
