Happy Tuesday! This week’s recipe is definitely a keeper. Have you ever tried tagalong girl scout cookies? If you have, aren’t they so addicting?! If not, basically they are these shortbread and peanut butter cookies coated with chocolate…and they are good.
I saw the idea for these bars on Averie Cooks, one of my favorite food bloggers. How can you go wrong with shortbread, peanut butter, and chocolate? They were a hit! The shortbread “crust” has this melt-in-your-mouth buttery texture. The peanut butter middle is perfect and tastes just like the original cookie filling. It’s all topped with chocolate that’s not too sweet, not too bitter. It’s one of those desserts where you finish it with a satisfied sigh. Yum.
You can find the original recipe here. I also included what I did because I changed a few things here and there. Hope you enjoy!
- Shortbread Crust -
- 1 cup + 1 TB all-purpose flour
- ⅓ cup powdered sugar
- ½ TB cornstarch
- ¼ cup salted butter, very soft
- ¼ cup coconut oil, very soft
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- Peanut Butter Filling -
- 2 TB salted butter, melted
- 1 heaping cup creamy peanut butter
- ⅓ cup confectioners' sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- Chocolate Layer -
- 1 heaping cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 2 TB coconut oil
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line an 8-inch square baking pan with parchment paper and set aside.
- For crust, combine all ingredients in a large bowl and cut in the butter/coconut oil with a pastry cutter or two forks until a crumbly mixture forms. Turn crumbly mixture out into prepared pan and using your hands or a spatula, hard-pack the crumbs to form an evenly smooth crust layer. Pierce crust with a fork in a dozen places before placing in oven. Bake for 10-13 minutes, or until crust has just barely set. It should should still be white, but crusted over and set. While crust bakes, make the PB filling.
- For peanut butter filling, add the butter to a medium bowl and heat in microwave to melt, about 30 seconds. Add the remaining ingredients and stir until smooth. Spread filling over still warm crust using an offset knife or spatula to form an even layer. Set aside.
- For chocolate, heat chocolate chips and coconut oil in microwave to melt, about 1 minute. Stop to check and stir, and continue heating in 15-second intervals until mixture can be stirred smooth. Pour chocolate over peanut butter and shake the pan a bit to help chocolate even out. If need be, use an offset knife to evenly spread.
- Cover pan and allow bars to cool and set up for at least 3 hours in the refrigerator, or overnight, before slicing and serving.
Um, yummy! These look like a must-make. The only trouble is, I “collect” way too many of these sweet recipes and then think, “you really don’t *need* to have all those sweet treats.” Hence, I don’t ever get around to making them. I did print this one out though, so maybe… 🙂
Haha, I have the same exact problem. My pinterest is filled with a couple thousand recipes I’d like to try. Will I ever get to them? Nope. 😉 Anyhoo, if you do ever get around to making these I hope you like! Thanks for the comment, Rissi, it made me smile. 🙂
These look amazing and so yummy. What would be a coconut oil replacement? Butter maybe? or regular oil? We have a coconut allergy in the house so no coconut oil 🙁 I hear it is wonderful and would love to try but can’t.
Shannon
Hi, Shannon!
Awh, I’m sorry to hear that. Yep, you can just replace the coconut oil in the shortbread crust with butter. As for the chocolate topping, you can either use vegetable shortening or omit altogether, though omitting will make the chocolate more difficult to spread and not as visually “pleasing.” Either way is totally fine, though!
Thanks so much for stopping by my blog. I hope that if you do try these you enjoy them! 🙂
going to get the stuff to make this next week. Wish me luck! 🙂
Awesome! Hope you like!! 🙂
These are so amazing. I made them for a friend when I went to visit and I’m pretty sure we at them all in one night. Thanks for sharing.
Hi, Abby. So glad you enjoyed them. Thank YOU for visiting my blog! 🙂