BB Bars

As I think I said in my welcome post to this blog, my cooking and baking styles are pretty different.  When cooking, I generally throw a bunch of stuff together and hope for the best.  I rarely follow a recipe, except if I'm making something elaborate or something new.  In baking, it's the opposite.  I follow recipes, even the ones I have memorized, and I rarely make up something new.  This recipe, though, is something I made up a few years ago when I wanted to satisfy my simultaneous cravings for peanut butter cookies, chocolate chip cookies, and oatmeal cookies all at once.  Clearly I was in graduate school at the time.  My roommates served as guinea pigs as I tinkered with this recipe over and over again until I finally came up with a version that is the ultimate comfort cookie.  And there's oatmeal in them, so you know they're good for you.

These cookies are practically health food!

I've never been good at coming up with clever and interesting titles for things, so I called these "peanut butter - oatmeal - chocolate chip cookies."  The first time I made them for Matt, he thought that name was too clunky (what??) so he re-named them Beautiful Becky Bars - BB Bars for short.  He's a keeper.  They've become something of a favorite around these parts, which is just fine with me because they're super quick to make, and I generally have all of the ingredients on hand.

The worst thing about peanut butter is cleaning it off utensils. 

I usually use the more processed peanut butter, not the natural kind, though when not baking I prefer the natural kind.  I suppose if you stirred it up enough the natural kind would work, too.  This time, I used the Skippy Natural brand because it was on sale at the store.  It strikes me as the more processed end of the naturals, but I think that's okay here.  Taste the peanut butter first, though, because if it's really sweet, you may want to decrease the amount of sugar in the recipe.  Told you these were practically health food.  And I prefer chunky to creamy, but to each their own.

Stir in chocolate and oatmeal!

Originally, I stirred in a scant cup of flour before adding the oatmeal and chocolate.  And it was good that way, but I decided to try it flour-less one time and have not looked back.  They're a little more moist this way, and there's no flour to distract you from the oatmeal-y, peanut butter goodness.  I think that was my problem with it originally - stirring in the flour seems to dilute the peanut butter flavor (if that makes sense.  This could all be in my head) - so leaving it out keeps the bars moister and more peanut buttery.  Yum. 

Just out of the oven - hands off!

I also like to underbake these just a smidge, like with brownies.  You want brown edges and a little bit of browning in the center, but not much.  Once I created my own version, I realized that other people had come up with similar recipes.  Ahh, independent invention.  I haven't tried anyone else's recipes for similar cookies, so I guess I can't claim that this one leaves them all in the dust. 

BB Bars

1/2 cup shortening
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup brown sugar (Decrease this if the peanut butter you're using is especially sweet.)
2 eggs
1 tsp baking soda
1 Tbsp milk
3 scant cups quick oats (I tried with the old fashioned, they don't cook as well in this recipe so the bars end up a lot chewier.)
1 cup chocolate chips

Cream shortening and peanut butter.  Add sugar, beat well.  Add eggs, beat until fluffy.  Dissolve baking soda in milk and add, mixing well.  Stir in oats and chocolate chips.  Spread into ungreased 13x9 pan and bake in a 375 oven for about 12 minutes.