For this month’s Secret Recipe Club, I had a hard time deciding what to make. I got picked to make a recipe from Authentic Suburban Gourmet and Lisa had a lot of tempting recipes. My list of options included an Apple & Fig Tart, her Toffee & Caramel Cheesecake and these Fig Muffins with Brown Sugar Topping. Ultimately, though, my inner-peanut butter loving self decided to make an adaptation of her Mini Peanut Butter & Chocolate Cookies. To save a little time, I made the cookies into bars and was very happy with the result. I may or may not have eaten a few scoops of the peanut butter cookie dough while baking.
Speaking of eating something delicious, last night I got back from an amazing weekend in Atlanta that included a ton of delicious food. I’ll definitely be sharing some photos of my reunion-weekend eats.
In the meantime, I have to say, it was a bit of a surreal experience visiting Emory after five years away. It was enough time to feel like college was forever ago, but when I stepped on campus and traced the familiar routes around Decatur, Buckhead, the Highlands and more, it was as if I never left.
I’m a Northeast girl at heart, but Atlanta will always hold a special piece of it. There are great restaurants, lots of good shopping, and a friendly culture. I had to get to some of my favorite food places while I was there, but there is a reason that these places mean so much to me.
College was such an amazing time in my life, truly some of the best four years. I met some of my lifelong best friends, including my husband. Matt and I have so many memories that built the foreground of our relationship. My girlfriends and I have an uncountable number of stories that brought us together but also those that just make me laugh so hard my stomach hurts and tears roll down my cheeks. Being back in this place where I grew out of my insecure high school self and into a young woman who knew how to walk with a bit of confidence makes me feel so content. It was hard to say goodbye to my friends and a former home.
Luckily these were tucked away in my freezer
[print_this]Peanut Butter Cookie Bars with Chocolate Ganache
Makes 24 bars
Adapted from Lisa’s Mini Peanut Butter & Chocolate Cookies
Peanut Butter Cookie Bars
Ingredients
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
- 1 cup salted creamy peanut butter (I used Skippy Natural)
- 3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Cooking Directions
- Whisk flour and baking soda, set aside
- Beat butter on high until light and creamy
- Add peanut butter and continue to beat until creamy
- Add sugar and beat into batter until light and fluffy
- Add egg and vanilla, beat on medium speed until combined
- Stir in flour and baking soda mixture
- Refrigerate batter for at least 1 hour or overnight
- When ready to bake, pre-heat oven to 350 degrees line a 13×9 pan with parchment paper
- Once oven is hot, press dough evenly into prepared pan
- Bake for 20-23 minutes or until firm in the center; set aside to cool
Chocolate Ganache
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
Cooking Directions
- While cookie bars are baking, prepare ganache
- Set up your double boiler; bring water to a simmer in medium pot over low-medium heat
- Place heat-proof bowl of chocolate over the pot
- Pour the cream over your chocolate
- Whisk until chocolate mixture is melted and smooth
- Place ganache in refrigerator until thick, about one hour
- When ganache is thick enough that it won’t drip off a spoon, spread evenly over cookie bars
- Store cookie bars in refrigerator until ready to serve
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Did you live somewhere else that has special memories?
Yum, these look amazing! I love reading all the secret recipe club posts because you get to stumble upon some awesome blogs and recipes.
Sounds like you had such a fun weekend – I’ve only been back to where I went to university once but your post makes me feel like I’m overdue a reunion!
I’m so glad you had a great weekend. I bet it was filled with good friends and food. :-) On the other hand, these look amazing!!! :-)
Mmmmmm….your bars look fabulous!!! Sounds like you had a fun weekend! I’m going back to my university for homecoming this fall for the first time in 20 years…so excited to hang out with some dear friends :)
That sounds wonderful, Liz! I hope you have an amazing time.
Sounds like a great weekend! These bars look sooooo good :)
These sound great. And I’m glad you had such a special visit back to your college home!
Looks so inviting and perfect blend of contrasting colors.
These look so yummy!
This post made me so excited for me to go back to University of Delaware, my alma mater this weekend. Its hard to believe its been over 3 years since I graduated! Like you, I am going to be hitting up all my favorite eating locations.
I would say that college is when you undergo the most changes in your life. Like you, college days hold so many wonderful memories for me.
Anyhow, your SRC pick looks delicious. I like the fact you did change this to a bar recipe. Nothing beats chocolate and peanut butter. Well done.
I still live in the same area I grew up in, and only went to college maybe 45 minutes away.
I’m a bit of a homebody :)
Oh we’re SO glad you picked the peanut butter bars! Not that the other treats don’t sound fabulous, but you know our deep love for anything pb & chocolate. These look insanely delicious – we will have to try them!
Fellow peanut butter lovers, UNITE! Makes me feel like an old woman when I go back to my college campus, haha. But still, brings back fun memories :)
These bars look great! They would be a total crowd pleaser. I think I’m gonna try these soon!
I love that you turned the cookie recipe into bars. Great adaptation. These look yummy!
PB and chocolate, what could go wrong with that! I would have had a hard time not devouring all the dough!
It’s great to return to a dear place…I would love to go back to Europe even after living their for 8 years!
Great choice for your SRC! These look awesome (like, I’d have two or three awesome!) ;)
Mmm, I love bar cookies, especially when they get sweet toppings. :) I feel the same way about revisiting my undergrad campus–your post definitely made me a bit nostalgic! I’m glad you had such a great weekend, though, and it’s so nice that you’re able to go back and see those places (and people) that hold so many memories for you.
My inner peanut butter lover always sneaks out! I probably would have picked these too! They look perfect!
Wow what a great choice for SRC, these look incredible!! :)
YUM! I absolutely love these. Thanks!
These would be perfect to take to a tailgate. Or just to consume entirely by myself (:
Haha yes, they would be perfect for both of those things;-)
Lauren, the look yummy! Glad you made them into bars. Love it!
Glad to hear you had such a fun weekend. We moved our family from RI to AZ nine years ago, but Rhode Island will ALWAYS be “home”.
These look addictive! Great SRC choice.
I love how you turned these into bars! PB + chocolate is always a win in my book.
You can really never go wrong with peanut butter and chocolate! It’s a win every time in my book :) Great pics!
YUM – chocolate and peanut butter are always a delicious combo to have tucked in your freezer! Sounds like you had an amazing, and emotional, weekend trip. Whenever I visit Philadelphia it’s like I never left. I love NYC, but still miss many things about my old “home”.
I have a inner peanut butter loving self also. I think there is a bit of that in all of us. Looks like you got a great blog for SRC. You also picked a fantastic recipe to blog about. Thanks for sharing with all of us.
I think you picked a great recipe to make!! I’m crazy about pb and chocolate too so these are a dessert I want to eat right NOW!!
What a great recipe! How can you go wrong with peanut butter and chocolate?!
love cookie bar recipes, as they can be great timesavers. And who doesn’t love peanut butter chocolate together, great SRC choice!
If you haven’t already, check out my butternut squash gnocchi post from the SRC group at http://itsyummytomytummy.blogspot.com
This is my kind of dessert. I love peanut butter and chocolate! I wish I had one for my afternoon snack.
Glad to hear that you had a good time in Atlanta! I’ve never spent more than a day at a time there, and usually just for a layover on my way back from Florida, but it’s on my list of places to go and spend some time.
It is definitely worth a trip! There are a ton of great restaurants and good shopping… plus some interesting sites and museums.
ahh these look so great!
Great job with those bars! I’m with you – Lisa does a super job. These just look incredible!!
Very tasty looking! The combination of chocolate and peanut butter is hard to match :)
Gulp, does it get any better than this!
oooo those would be a hit at our house!! I love it!! great job!
Glad to be in Group C with you!!
Love that you picked this recipe and put your own twist on it by making them into bar cookies. It did take me a while to put all those together. I am with you on the having a few bites of the cookie dough – sometimes that is why I actually make cookies, so I can have the dough. Nice to meet you virtually through SRC. Let me know if you make any of the recipes you highlighted. I need to now check out your site in detail and I am sure I will find some to make from yours. Have a wonderful week!!!
Thanks for the comment, Lisa. The bars were a huge hit and the ganache was amazing. I can’t wait to try some more of your recipes!
This looks delicious! I’m a big fan of the Secret Recipe Club….I’m glad you had a good time in Atlanta! As for a place that holds a special memory….there are lots, but I’d say living in Sicily is probably the most vivid.
These sound crazy awesome! I love love love chocolate ganache. Serving it up on a peanut butter cookie? Even better.
How clever to turn the cookies into bars. Hard to go wrong with peanut butter and chocolate!
I would have chosen these bars too! They look awesome :)
Awesome to be in the Secret Recipe Club with you. Here is my post from group C – http://su.pr/2rtACr
What a great recipe, this looks delicious! Perfect choice for SRC! :)
These remind me a little of bars my mom made all the time and tucked in our lunches during elementary school. I definitely need to add these to the must make list :)
The place that holds the most special memories is Chuncheon South Korea. My husband and I moved there straight out of college and ended up celebrating our first wedding anniversary there. Explains the obsession with Korean food.
Who doesn’t love the peanut butter/chocolate combo? It would be “un-American” to dislike chocolate and peanut butter, LOL!
So true!
Yum, these look wonderful.
It’s awesome that you get to keep adding more great memories to the ones you already have. I can see myself making some pretty great memories with these yummy bars and using salted peanut butter is a good idea.
These would be gone in about 4.5 seconds in our apartment!!
What a great choice for the SRC! I get nostalgic when I think about living in Florida. I took a year off after my first year of college to up and live in Florida. I, of course, discovered that it wasn’t for me – while it’s nice to visit for a week, I wouldn’t want to live there (am I crazy?!).
Those look so good!!! Sweet & salty are fabulous combinations!