Peanut Butter Cookie Bars

Easy Peanut Butter Cookie Bars with peanut butter cups are soft and chewy bar cookies baked in an 8×8 square pan. They’re sweet, salty, and delicious!

Why does life have to be so complicated?

Every thought we think, every decision we make, there is always a long list of what ifs and why nots, of benefits and consequences.

When do we think smart and when do we trust our heart? When do we hold back and when do we jump? When is it ok to keep going and when have we had enough?

I can’t make these complicated decisions go away, but I can bring you one of the easiest bar cookies to make: Peanut Butter Cookie Bars!

They’re soft and chewy peanut butter bars that are nutty, sweet, and salty. Ideally they’re peanut butter chocolate chip cookie bars but instead of chocolate chips, I used chopped up peanut butter cups.

Not to be confused with my peanut butter blondies because you cream the butter together with the sugar instead of melting it, creating a more tender cookie texture.

These peanut butter bar cookies are super easy to bake from scratch when you don’t want to do any rolling, chilling, cutting, or decorating.

Just make your cookie dough like with my small batch peanut butter cookies but instead of rolling, just pat into the bottom of your 8×8 pan.

Ingredients For Peanut Butter Cookie Bars

Here’s what you need to make your peanut butter bar cookies:

• All-purpose flour: Standard baking flour to balance the liquid ingredients
• Baking soda: Leavening agent so your bars rise and have that soft cookie texture
• Salt: Brings out the flavor of the cookie
• Peanut butter: These peanut butter bars have been tested with your typical processed peanut butter because it has the most consistent result. Natural peanut butter can vary in results.
• Butter: Helps the dough spread and rise while baking.
• Brown sugar: Use fresh, soft brown sugar as dry brown sugar will result in a crumbly dough. It also reacts with the baking soda due to its acidity from the molasses.
• Granulated Sugar: Adding white sugar with brown sugar contributes to the cookie’s chewy texture.
• Egg: Helps bind the dough together
• Vanilla: Really brings out the peanut butter flavor
• Peanut butter cups: Adds extra peanut butter flavor, but you can easily substitute chocolate chips

How To Make Peanut Butter Cookie Bars

Here’s how to make your peanut butter chocolate chip cookie bars:

1. Cream together your peanut butter, butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar.
2. Beat in egg and vanilla.
3. Add flour, baking soda, and salt until a dough forms then add peanut butter cups.
4. Bake at 350F for 20 minutes or until golden brown and toothpick comes out clean.

Store leftovers in an airtight container for up 1 week.

Do peanut butter bars need frosting?

Your cookie bars will be absolutely delicious as is but if you really want to take them one step further, add frosting on top!

Chocolate frosting would be the ultimate pairing, but you can also double the nuttiness with peanut butter frosting.

Why are my peanut butter cookie bars crumbly?

Nothing is as sad as a crumbly cookie! Here’s what may have gone wrong:

1. Too much flour: It’s important to measure your flour using the spoon and level method rather than the scoop and pack method. Learn more about how to measure flour.
2. Dry brown sugar: Sometimes brown sugar dries out and becomes really crumbly. Rehydrate it using a brown sugar softener or adding a slice of bread to your container.
3. Overbaked: Keep an eye on your baking time and ensure your oven temperature is accurate using an oven thermometer.
4. Wrong peanut butter: Using natural peanut butter is oiler and less sweet, which will make your cookie bars a bit crumblier.

More Peanut Butter Dessert Recipes

If you enjoyed making your peanut butter cookie bars, check out my other peanut butter desserts:

• No Bake Peanut Butter Bars
• Peanut Butter Brownies
• Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies
• Peanut Butter Stuffed Cookies
• Microwave Peanut Butter Cookie

First published March 19, 2013