{Recipe Recap} Double Peanut Butter Cookie Bars with Caramel Bits

I had an extra day in my weekend and STILL didn’t have time before Monday night to sit down and do some blogging.  I really miss my B.C. (that’d be “Before Connor) days sometimes…

I know we already started the week off on a high note by having Monday off, but it still sucks to have to be back at work at all so here’s your spoonful of sugar.

I made these cookie bars on Saturday because a group of us went out to dinner that night to celebrate Vanessa’s birthday and, well, any time the group gathers, that’s reason enough to bake up a little something.  Throw a birthday – two, actually, because Laura’s birthday is today – in the mix, and of course I had to show up with some treats.

Sometimes peanut butter treats can be disappointing.  Either there isn’t enough peanut butter flavor, or the flavor that is there is just a little bit off.  These bars had neither of those issues.

I opted to leave the chocolate out of these and used peanut butter chips and caramel bits as my mix-ins.  I think you could pretty much use whatever you wanted: white chocolate chips, Heath Bits, butterscotch chips…

I thought the texture of these was pretty close to an actual peanut butter cookie.  You know how those can sometimes be a little crumbly but not dry?  It’s kinda hard to explain but I think some of you peanut butter cookie-lovers know what I’m talking about. 

Anyway, these cookie bars weren’t cakey nor did they bake up too much like a blondie.

I sprinkled some sea salt over mine before baking because you can’t go wrong with salty and sweet as far as I’m concerned.  Vanessa picked up on the extra salt right away and was a big fan.

If you need something that’s easy to throw together using pantry staples, I recommend these cookie bars.

{Recipe adapted from here}