Peanut Butter Blondies

A friend of mine brought by a cupcake for me the other day that was so prettily set in a black box, I was almost certain there was jewelry inside. It was better. A chocolate cupcake, topped with chocolate meringue and peanut butter frosting somewhere in between. My heart literally stopped for a few seconds as my own little PB and chocolate world collided and my tongue and tummy settled into ecstasy.

The next day I went searching for peanut butter and chocolate dessert combinations. La dee da there they were: peanut butter chocolate blondies. There wasn't much of a squabble to get me baking those babies up. They taste like a giant pan of peanut butter cookie with chocolate chips, essentially. Duh, no brainer there!

And the real nice thing with these are- they are nearly instantaneous! Remember those NY Chocolate Chip Cookies recently?? No waiting around for the dough to chill, no pacing back and forth for that silly butter to come to room temperature... face the facts: most of us have PB in our pantry. Most of us hopefully have chocolate chips (cmon, do you??) and it doesn't matter what state of solidification your butter is in: frozen or refrigerated, it doesn't.matter.at.all. The butter is combined in a pot with sugar and you allow it all to melt anyways.

Like I say, they can be made in a zip!

I like zip.

Well. Here's to these amazing bars and a mighty hefty good luck trying not to consume the entire pan (which you shouldn't feel guilty about anyway).

Peanut Butter Blondies

{Two Peas and Their Pod}

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter

2 cups light brown sugar

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup chocolate chips (Kate note: I used semi-sweet)

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease a 9-inch by 13-inch pan and set aside.

In a saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter and brown sugar, stirring constantly until smooth. Remove from the heat, and stir in the peanut butter, until creamy and combined. Set mixture aside to cool. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add the eggs, one at a time, to the peanut butter mixture, mixing well after each addition. Add the vanilla extract and stir to combine. Pour the mixture into the prepared dry ingredients, and stir until batter is smooth. Fold in 1/2 cup of the chocolate chips, reserving the rest for sprinkling on top.

Transfer the batter to the prepared pan, spreading the batter evenly to the edges of the pan. Sprinkle with the remaining 1/4 cup chocolate chips and lightly press them into the batter.

Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the top is golden and the edges are slightly browned. Remove blondies from oven and place them on a wire rack to cool. Once cooled, cut into squares and serve.