Category: peanut butter

Monster Cookie Bars

These are the BEST monster cookie bars in the entire world! Literally 1-inch in thickness, these bars are chewy, gooey, moist and 10x better than regular ‘ole monster cookies.
The combination of peanut butter, chocolate chips, M&M’s, and oats creates the most decadent cookie bar you’ll ever put in your mouth!
For the past 4 years, my sister Brittany, was like the “team mom” for the Oklahoma State cross country team. She loves to bake and would make sweets for her boyfriend Colby and his teammates before each race.
If you didn’t know, Brit and Colby got married last weekend. As you could guess, many of Colby’s cross country teammates were his groomsmen. To keep the baking tradition alive, Brittany decided to make these monster cookies bars for Colby and the groomsmen as a “pre-race”, aka pre-wedding treat!
Right before the wedding, I mentioned to Brit that she should try to make monster cookie bars. She did some searching on her own and found this recipe through Marina’s blog over at Domesticated Duchess. What sold her on these bars was how thick they were!
Lucky for me, Brittany was thoughtful (perhaps because I pleaded…Lol) and saved 3-4 monster cookie bars for me to snack on. Thank goodness, because as I said earlier, they were AWESOME!
Enjoy!
Spread dough into a greased 9 x 13-inch pan.
Bake for 15-20 minutes in a 350 degree F oven.
Let cool. Then cut into bars.

Monster Cookie Bars
Ingredients
1 stick unsalted butter
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 cups creamy peanut butter
3 eggs
2 tsp. baking soda
4 1/2 cups quick cooking oatmeal
1 package (12 oz.) chocolate chips
1 package (12 oz.) milk chocolate M&M’s

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. In an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugars until smooth. Beat in the eggs and baking soda. Then ddd the peanut butter and beat until smooth.
3. Mix by hand the oatmeal, one cup at a time. Slowly add in the M&M’s and chocolate chips.
4. Spread mixture into a well greased 9 x 13-inch pan and bake for 15-20 minutes. Do not over bake! (They will taste better just a little on the soft side.) Store in an airtight container.

Recipe from: Domesticated Duchess
Yield: about 20 bars

Peanut Butter Balls

This Peanut Butter Ball recipe is as easy to make as Puppy Chow (which I am now craving), but instead of powdered sugar and chocolate, these have a sweet peanut buttery taste that keeps you coming back for more.
These Peanut Butter Balls are one of my favorite snacks.  Whenever I visit my Aunt Jolene in Houston, I always request that we make them.  I’d like to call them “healthy” due to the high protein count in the peanut butter and the low-fat nature of Special K cereal, but I just can’t!  There is absolutely too much Karo syrup and sugar in these balls for them to be “good for you”.
When making these, I have just two pieces of advice:
  1. Do not over-boil the Karo and sugar.  If you do, the peanut butter balls will become hard as a rock, not chewy like they should be.
  2. Do not use chunky peanut butter.  Jolene and I made that mistake, thinking that it would not make a difference, but it does.  The chunky peanut butter makes it harder to shape the balls, thus they fall apart, and are too dry.  You need smooth peanut butter to keep them moist and in a ball.
If you follow the directions just like I’ve stated, they ought to come out perfectly and you’ll be popping Peanut Butter Balls in your mouth one after the other.  Enjoy!
Combine the Special K cereal and flour together in a large bowl.

Bring Karo and sugar just to a boil.

Immediately remove from heat and stir in peanut butter.

Pour peanut butter over Special K cereal mixture and shape into balls.



Peanut Butter Balls
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups Karo syrup
18 oz. (1 jar) smooth peanut butter
4 Tbsp. flour
7 cups Special K cereal

Directions
1.  Place sugar and Karo into a saucepan and bring to a boil.  Immediately remove from heat once it starts to bubble and stir in peanut butter.
2.  Meanwhile, in a large bowl, stir together flour and Special K.  Pour peanut butter mixture over cereal.  With greased hands, shape peanut butter and cereal into tightly compressed balls.
3.  Place balls on wax paper and let cool completely.  Enjoy.

Yield:  6 dozen balls