Crumb-Top Choco-Peanut Butter Bars

The Mission:
To find an easy cookie/bar recipe to take to a surprise birthday party. I really wanted to find something that didn't require a trip to the grocery store, either.... so I scoured my little recipe booklets - the ones you can find in the grocery store checkout lane - to find the perfect bar. Success was met when I found this yummy recipe out of a 2005 "Treasury of Holiday Cookies" featuring Jif Peanut Butter.

The Ingredients:

• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 2/3 cup creamy peanut butter
• 1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cups flour
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/2 cups quick oats

The Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 350*F. Grease a 13x9 inch baking pan - I used a non-stick pan so I skipped this step. Melt the cup of chocolate chips - either in a double boiler or the microwave and set aside. In a large mixing bowl cream the butter, brown sugar, and peanut butter until smooth. Add in the egg and vanilla and beat well. Sift in the flour, baking soda, and salt and mix until combined. Stir in the oats. Take 3/4 of the dough and press into the bottom of the baking dish, then spread with the melted chocolate. Dot the chocolate layer with the remaining dough. Bake for 25 minutes and let cool. Cut into bars and serve!

The Results:
I was really making this in a hurry, so I was a bit scared of how they'd end up, but they turned out great. I melted the chocolate in the double boiler, but in retrospect, it probably would've been easier to use the microwave. Even with the melting step, this recipe was easy to put together - using the non-stick pan really helped too, it was a breeze to cut and remove the bars from the pan! They smelled delicious, too :)

The Reviews:
Everyone had great things to say about them, especially my husband. A friend cut them into mini-bars so they were bite sized and easy to handle - they disappeared quite quickly from the serving plate. All in all - they tasted great, were easy to make, and I didn't get any leftovers since my husband took them all! haha. This recipe is definitely a keeper.