SRC: Fantastical Sharing’s Peanut Butter Chocolate Cookie Bars

For March’s Secret Recipe Club, I was paired with Sarah of Fantastical Sharing. Sarah also happens to be the powerhouse behind Secret Recipe Club, plus she has a newborn and manages to post multiple times each week. Say what? (I have none of those things and struggle greatly with posting on a regular basis. haha) Not only is she a champion at life, she has tons of delicious recipes *and* is going to school to become a teacher (did I mention she has three kids!?). Sarah, you truly are an amazing, talented person!

Sarah has tons (and tons!) of delicious recipes like her: Fruit Nachos, Strawberry Coconut Baked Oatmeal, Cookie Dough Billionare Bars, and Peanut Butter Lover’s Rice Krispie Treats.

I really had a difficult time choosing what to make, but I ended up making a version of her Reese’s Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookie Bars. I made them gluten & egg free, mostly dairy free (I couldn’t find any dairy-free peanut butter cups) and reduced the sugar to 1 c.

I don’t like the Reese’s peanut butter baking chips (I find them too sweet and they sit weird in my stomach), so I wanted to substitute them with something else peanut butter-y. I thought that if I froze peanut butter in small chunks then it would stick together and not mix into the dough, but that totally did not work. Just an FYI – don’t expect peanut butter to freeze and stay as chunks. It literally melts two seconds after it was removed from the freezer. Perhaps non-natural peanut butter would have worked better? In the end I used extra chocolate chips.

The original recipe also said to use a 9″x13″ dish, but I think my dough was too stiff to try to spread it out that much, so I made it in a 9″ x 9″ pan. It turned out almost more like a cookie-cake instead of a bar, but it was still definitely tasty. Or should I say amazing? I had to keep them out of sight to prevent myself from eating them all!

Gluten & Egg Free Chocolate Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookie Bars

3/4 c. Margarine (I used Fleischman’s Dairy Free)
1 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. peanut butter + and extra spoonful (I used crunchy natural peanut butter)
2 eggs/egg replacers
1 tbsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. lemon juice
3/4 c. each of tapioca starch and sorghum flour
1/2 c. white rice flour
1 c. oatmeal
1 tsp. xanthan gum
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tbsp. baking powder
1 c. chocolate chips (I used Camino Bittersweet)
2 c. chopped peanut butter chocolates  (I used a mixture of chopped peanut butter chocolate bars & more chocolate chips, but feel free to use chopped Reese’s Peanut Butter cups)

1.  Line a 9″ x 9″ pan with parchment paper and preheat oven to 350F.
   
2. In a large bowl, whisk together flours, xathan gum, oatmeal, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
3. Cream butter and sugar together until fluffy. Cream in peanut butter.
4. Add egg replacer (or eggs one at a time) and beat until incorporated. Beat in vanilla extract and lemon juice
5. Mix in flour mixture on low speed. Add ~2/3 of chocolate chips.
6. Spread 2/3 of dough into the pan. Top with peanut butter chocolate/peanut butter cups.
7. Spread remainder of batter on top and smooth out. Sprinkle remainder of chocolate chips on top.
8. Bake for ~40 – 45 minutes until the edges are brown and the bars feel firm to the touch.
9. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack.
10. Cool completely before cutting. (I put mine in the freezer for a bit).
11. Enjoy!

Thanks for all your recipes and all you do for the SRC Sarah!!

Please check out the rest of Group D’s recipes by clicking below!