Sunday, March 22, 2009

Peanut Butter Squares with Milk Chocolate and Oats


A lot of people loved these peanut butter squares - I think due to the crazy yummy peanut butter icing (which is really similar to the icing used on the Elvis fluffernutter cake I made last year). The bar itself was okay. Overall, the square was just okay for me - which was kind of a disappointment because the recipe comes from the Rebar cookbook (a personal favourite) but since lots of others liked it (and asked for the recipe) I'm sharing it with you. I think the squares would be good with no icing, and with added coconut and maybe peanut butter chips.

The background of these photos looks so blue (whereas it should be more white-ish) - anyone know how I can fix this (ie. with Adobe)?


If this sounds good, you might like:
Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Scones
Chocolate Scotcheroos
Chunky Peanut Butter and Oatmeal Chocolate Chipsters
Peanut Butter Fudge

Peanut Butter Squares with Milk Chocolate and Oats
Adapted from Rebar: Modern Food Cookbook

Makes 12 squares

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1/3 cup smooth peanut butter
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup rolled oats
1 cup unbleached flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
4 oz (120 g) milk chocolate, chopped into large chunks

Icing
1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
2 tbsp soft butter
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 cup icing sugar
1/4 cup heavy cream

1. Preheat the oven to 350F. Grease an 8" x 8" pan and set aside. Cream together the butter, sugars and peanut butter until light and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla and mix well.

2. Combine the oats, flour, baking soda and salt in a separate bowl. Add this to the butter/peanut butter mix and stir well. Fold in the chocolate chunks. Spread into the prepared pan and bake 25 minutes. Set aside to cool.

3. Prepare the icing by creaming together the peanut butter, butter and vanilla. Blend in icing sugar. Stir in cream until you get a nice spreading consistency, using more if necessary.

4. Cut into 12 squares.

29 comments:

LizNoVeggieGirl said...

Aww sorry that they were a bit of a disappointment for you :-( They sure do look beyond perfect!!

Pearl said...

i'm sorry they weren't as good.. probably personal preference! they did turn out well, though! :)

Kit Chen said...

Try this quick tutorial on Photoshop color correction.

To help figure out what the brightest and darkest points are in a photo, go to Image > Adjustments > Threshold and run the slider back and forth while looking at your image.

It would, of course, be better to set white balance before taking the photo if your camera has that ability. Finally, color accuracy on uncalibrated computer monitors is generally poor, so even if your image DOES have the correct color balance, it may still look off on different monitors.

Anonymous said...

Seriously, peanut butter frosting on ANYTHING and you've pretty much got a winner. They LOOK great, anyway! :)

Deborah said...

Well, they look fantastic!

Elyse said...

I must say that these bars sure do look delicious. I'd love to try them with added coconut and pb chips. Now, that pb frosting is a whole 'nother story--I think I could eat it with a spoon; it looks so good!

Chris said...

You can't really argue with ingredients like that :P The icing does look a bit heavy and perhaps unnecessary - I hope you try these again and figure out something better :)

Snooky doodle said...

these look yummy! I adore peanut butter and these bars look so so good! I love the addition of oats. :)

Unknown said...

They LOOK wonderful! Too bad they weren't up to your expectations.

Anonymous said...

these sure don't look just okay! they look delicious!

Anonymous said...

They look absolutely gorgeous, as everybody else had said. What a shame about that they don't live up to their good looks!

I use this method of correcting white balance in Photoshop if there is a spot of white in the photo to work with

Cathy - wheresmydamnanswer said...

Sorry they did not taste like you had hoped - They look good!!

Laura said...

lordy those bars look good!!! peanut butter is probably the best food EVER...i think those need to be eaten by me veeeery soonly. thanks for posting this recipe...now if i could only get that picture out of my head!!

Lisa Turner said...

Oh, these do sound good and I'm totally enjoying looking at that icing.

kickpleat said...

The frosting looks great and they remind me of the peanut butter bars I was addicted to from a local coffee shop ages ago. Too bad they were a let down, but maybe with a few tweaks they'd be perfect!

La Cuisine d'Helene said...

I love that cookbook, beautiful bars.

Unknown said...

holy cow... food porn ;-)

Bunny said...

I loved that fluffernutter cake!! If that's the frosting on those bars I'm on it!!

Amy said...

This recipe has me grinning from ear to ear! It's DEFINITELY on my must make list!! YUM!

Steph said...

Maybe it's the peanut butter in combination with everything you don't like, since both contain peanut butter. Or it could be your high expectations! Everything you bake always looks so good. I always seem to have a problem with stuff I bake and then have people tell me it's ok. Then I start doubting whether they're actually telling me the truth or if it's because I have high expectations..haha. I guess it's just when I share stuff I bake with others, I get all self conscious and worried.

I have the same problem with my pictures.. everything is so cold!

I'm so glad we both share the same ideas when it comes to baking b/c I thought I was kinda crazy..haha. Like.. the whole changing texture thing, how long to cool cookies on the sheet, types of pans, measuring cups. When I try and explain this to my friends, they think I'm weird. I annoy my entire family with all my 'tests' all the time. Apparently, it tastes the same to them, but not me.

I have a psych major too..well soon, which totally sucks because I have no idea what to do with it and didn't exactly apply for grad school like the rest of the people who don't know what they're doing and just want to delay the process. Anyway... enough rambling!

Sara said...

Oh my....I'm speechless. These look beyond delicious! I'm definately going to try making this recipe and I might already be drooling. :)

Maria said...

How delicious!! I am really wanting to try these!

Anonymous said...

A disappointment? Really? Everything about them sounds like they'd be great! We will have to test this out as well.

The Food Librarian said...

These look great! Sorry they didn't rock your world. Re: blue color. It is best if you set the white balance on your camera so you have less to do in Photoshop (I've heard). I didn't know what white balance was...i thought it was a bleached balance beam. There is a youtube video that helped me. I think it was this, but there are a bunch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2Q2aSgTZPc
Good luck!!! Your photos are always great - blue or not! :)

Mary Jo said...

wow, this looks so good!

Anonymous said...

Wow, what a killer combination of flavors and textures!

Olivia said...

Oh gracious these look divine.

Allison said...

eat me, delicious has been picked and featured as the Best of the Web on the Worthington Wire. You will see your article linked in the recipes category today.

Feel free to grab a badge to show off that you were featured on the Worthington Wire.

http://worthingtonwire.com/badges

Congrats on the feature!

test it comm said...

Those squares look really good!