My mother loves peanut butter, I mean she can and will eat anything with peanut butter in, on or near it. Thank goodness none of my children have a peanut allergy or they would never be able to see their grandmother. Anyway I was looking through Martha Stewart's Cookie Cookbook and came across the Peanut Butter and Jelly bars and knew my mother would love them. I changed the recipe a little here and there to fit our tastes better. I admit it, I like Martha Stewart and really like to play around with her recipes. I cannot follow a recipe to the T and I have to make it the way I know will be good. Make these bars and you will forget just how cold it is. Hey what happened to Spring??? This is What's Cookin on Beaty's Creek.
Needed:
1 cup of softened butter
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar-packed
2 eggs(I use free range)
1 t salt
1 1/2 t baking powder(I use Rumford's)
1 t vanilla
2 cups preserves of your choice(I used Griffin's, an Oklahoma company that makes the BEST store bought Strawberry Preserves I have ever eaten.)
Preheat oven to 350'. Meanwhile beat in your Kitchen Aid mixer your butter, eggs, both sugars, and vanilla until they are light and fluffy. Now, sift flour, salt, and baking powder together add a cup at a time to butter mixture until mixed well. Now place 1/2 of the mixture on a parchment lined 9x13 pan, smooth evenly. I used a large metal spoon to achieve this and it worked very well. Now pour your preserves over the layer, spread the preserves evenly and crumb the rest of the peanut mixture on top. Bake for 45 minutes. I covered mine at about 25 minutes due to fast browning. Martha says to bake for 45-60 minutes and to cover if it is getting too brown. My oven is right on temperature and the bars were starting to brown at 25 minutes, so be careful.
