Peanut Butter Bars

Oh so satisfying. These came from another one of my very favorite cookbooks, Jackson Hole Cooks. I spied it at a gift shop in Teton National Park, browsed through it, put it down, walked out, regretted it, and went back in to purchase it. Most cookbooks I find only 2 or 3 keepers in the whole book that I consistently go back to, but this one has given me several gems. A friend gave me a recipe for her peanut butter bars a while back that were very delicious but I was appalled to find that they had FIVE sticks of butter in them...holy hannah! Granted, that was for a jelly roll size pan, but still! So I was pleased to find this version that uses only ONE stick. While that doesn't quite qualify them as diet food, it's a lot more reasonable. These are delicious the first day, and slightly softer and even tastier the second day.

Peanut Butter Bars

1/2 cup each butter, sugar, brown sugar
1 egg
1/3 plus 1/4 cup peanut butter (divided)
1/4 t. salt
1/2 t. soda
1 cup flour
1 cup rolled oats
1/2 t. vanilla

1 cup chocolate chips

4 T. milk

1/2 cup powdered sugar

Cream the butter and sugars. Blend in egg, 1/3 cup peanut butter, soda, salt and vanilla. Add flour and oats and mix well. Spread in a greased 9 x 13 pan.

Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes. Remove from the oven and sprinkle immediately with chocolate chips. After about 5 minutes when the chips are softened, spread them evenly on top of bars.

In a small bowl, combine powdered sugar, 1/4 cup peanut butter and milk until smooth. Pour into a ziplock bag, snip the corner off, and drizzle over the bars. Allow to set up, then cut into 2" squares.

Yield 24 bars