Chippy Bars with Peanut Butter Frosting & Chocolate Drizzle

I have a sweet tooth. I think it's safe to say a lot of people do. Life is just more fun with sweets. Plain and simple. 

I love making these bars. They are easy and always a crowd pleaser. By adding a peanut butter frosting and chocolate drizzle, you can knock some socks off with tastiness and eye appeal. The platter will be empty before the party even starts.

Cookies (Tollhouse recipe):

2 1/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 sticks butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla 
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cup chocolate chips

Peanut Butter Frosting:

6 oz Reese's Peanut Butter Chips

6 tbsp butter
1 tbsp light corn syrup 

Chocolate Drizzle:

1/2 cup chocolate chips

1 tbsp shortening

For cookies:

In a bowl combine flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside. In a separate bowl, mix butter, sugars and vanilla until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add chips and mix just until chips are evenly distributed.

Preheat oven to 350. Prepare a 9x13 baking dish with cooking spray or rub olive oil on bottom and sides. 

Bake for about 25 minutes or until a knife stuck in the middle of the bars comes out clean.

For Frosting:

Melt together chips and butter, once smooth add in corn syrup and mix well. Pour over cooled chippy bars. Let the bars cool on the counter until frosting has set then chill in fridge for 2 hours. 

For Drizzle:

Melt together chips and shortening in microwave for 45 seconds or so. Careful not to burn. Stir well and drizzle over bars. 

Enjoy!

Reese's Peanut Butter Cheesecake Bars

Last week Cara shared Hugs and Cookies xoxo's cheesecake bars on our Facebook page.

I knew I had to have them. ASAP. I didn't want to be a total copycat so I changed it up a little. Check it out:

Cookie Crust (original recipe calls for Oreo cookies, which I'm sure would be awesome)

1 row Fudge Stripes Original (6 cookies)

1 row Fudge Stripes Dark Chocolate (8 cookies)

6 tbsp butter, melted

1/3 cup sugar

Dash of salt

Prepare an 8x8 pan with nonstick foil. Crush the cookies, add sugar and salt. Pour in melted butter and stir. 

Pour into prepared pan.

Bake at 350 for 8 minutes. Let cool.

Cheesecake with Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups

8oz cream cheese, softened

½ cup sugar

1 egg

2 tbsp flour

8 oz bag of mini Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup

Mix cream cheese until smooth. Add sugar and mix until smooth. Add egg and flour. Mix well. Pour in the bag of Reese’s. Gently stir them into the cheesecake.  

Pour cheesecake over cooled cookie crust.

Bake for 30-35 minutes. Remove from oven once the cheesecake begins to slightly turn brown. Cool to room temperature. I sped up the cooling process, just as Hugs and Cookies xoxo did, in the freezer.

Chocolate glaze

6 oz milk chocolate

8 tbsp butter (next time I will use 6 tbsp, my glaze came out thinner than I would have liked)

1 tbsp light corn syrup

Melt together the butter and milk chocolate. Once smooth stir in corn syrup. Pour over cheesecake. Smooth the top to disperse evenly. Let cheesecake sit on counter until the chocolate glaze has cooled then chill the bars for a couple of hours. Use a sharp knife to cut these delicious bars into squares.

Peanut Butter Drizzle

½ cup peanut butter baking chips

1 tbsp shortening

Melt ingredients together in microwave for 45 seconds or so. Careful not to burn. Stir well and drizzle over bars.

Refrigerate leftovers.

Cookie Caramel Brownies

Here’s what I know… making caramel squares is not my calling. Yikes! These puppies are hard to make. Last weekend, I attempted them twice. Twice I failed. The first was a complete waste. The second batch I was able to save. They were too soft to wrap but I knew I could find a use for it.

I should be able to make caramel if we’re going to unintentionally promote it. As we’ve said before, we didn’t name our blog “Caramel Living” because we have an obsession with caramel.

Last week I contemplated how I would use this too-soft caramel. I had several thoughts… pancakes, ice cream, caramel apple pizza (a recipe provided at our caramel party) and so on and so forth. I was suddenly excited to bake something with this caramel. 

I decided on making a combination of bars. One half would be brownie. The other half would be chocolate chip cookie. A layer of caramel would divide them. The rest is history.

Brownies (Adapted from: Allrecipes):

*you can also use Cara's recipe

2 sticks melted butter

1 ½ C white sugar

2 tsp vanilla

3 eggs

1 C flour

2/3 C unsweetened cocoa

½ tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

Mix together butter, sugar and vanilla. Next add eggs, one at a time, mixing in between. Set aside.

Combine flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt. Gradually mix flour mixture into butter mixture.

Preheat oven to 350°. Grease 9x13 baking pan. Spread the brownie mix evenly into the pan. Set aside.

Spread brownie dough

Let’s get the cookies dough ready.

Cookies:

I cut my normal recipe in half.

1 1/3 C flour

½ tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

Just under ½ C white sugar

Just under ½ C brown sugar

1 stick of unsalted butter, softened

½ tsp vanilla

1 egg

½ - ¾ C chocolate chips

Combine flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside

Mix together white sugar, brown sugar and butter. Next add vanilla and mix. Add egg and mix. Add chocolate chips and mix. Gradually mix flour mixture into the sugar mixture.

For the caramel sauce, try Cara’s homemade recipe.

Now it’s time to bring it all together. If your caramel is thick, warm it just enough to make it easy to pour over the brownie mix. I warmed mine for about 35 seconds.

Pour caramel over brownie dough

Now let’s add the cookie dough. I took a handful of the dough and used my hands to gently pull and press it out (before adding it to the pan). Next I laid the dough throughout the pan, leaving caramel rivers here and there.

Lay cookie dough over caramel

Bake the bars for 30-40 minutes.

Let cool completely (or you will burn your mouth off like I did) then devour.