Chewy Peanut Butter and Nutella Cookie Bars
I’ve always advocated life in moderation and this is the second full fat yummy treat that I’ve posted (the other is my Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies). Eventually I’ll have a full section on my site for that but when you advocate life in moderation, more decadent recipes are going to take some time! These cookie bars are like a big chewy peanut butter cookie topped with Nutella and then topped with crunchy, salty and sweet honey roasted peanuts; oh yeah!!!
Makes 16 Cookie Bars
1 ½ Cups allpurpose flour (I used white…eeek!)
1 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
¾ Cup Smooth Peanut butter
½ Cup (salted) butter, at room temperature
2 (Large) eggs, at room temperature
¾ Cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
¼ – ½ Cup Nutella (hazelnut spread) see notes
¼ Cup honey roasted peanuts, slightly crushed
Preheat your oven to 350.
Grease a 8 x 8 baking pan and then line it with parchment paper; you’re going to use this paper to pull the entire cookie bar out of the pan without breaking it so leave enough room on either side of the pan to make a good handle.
Combine the flour, baking powder and salt together; set aside.
Using a stand mixer, or electric hand mixer, cream the peanut butter, butter, eggs, brown sugar and vanilla extract.
Slowly incorporate the flour mixture into the wet mixture until well combined and smooth.
Pour half of the dough into the prepared pan and smooth it out completely, ensuring it reaches all of the corners.
Put 4 dollops of nutella on top of the dough, evenly spaced and then smooth it out evenly across the dough until smooth.
Place the remaining dough in 16 dollops on top of the nutella (4 x 4) and then slightly flatten them.
Top evenly with the crushed the peanuts.
Bake for about 30 minutes, until the top of the bars is golden.
Let the pan cool completely before lifting out the cookie bar.
When cooled, pull the cookie bar out of the pan using the parchment paper handles.
To serve, cut the bar into 16 even pieces, using each dollop as a guide.
Notes:
- Unsalted butter would work too.
- Light or full fat peanut butter works here.
- I went with a ¼ Cup Nutella but when can you have enough Nutella?!?
