These strawberry peanut butter bars will take you straight back to childhood. Chewy peanut butter oat cookie layered with fresh strawberries and topped with more peanut butter cookie crumbles.
When it bakes, the strawberries become gooey, mirroring a jelly. Sooo, basically these are the adult version of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. If that doesn't make you happy then, well, I tried.
I personally wasn't huge on peanut butter and jelly sandwiches as a kid; but if they tasted half as good as these I probably would have been eating two a day. I basically ate two of these strawberry peanut butter bars for a few days until they were all eaten up, so that says something.
These are also great because you can make them even when strawberries aren't at their peak. This is because when you bake strawberries, their natural sweetness comes out, so they're still fantastic.
If you're in a strawberry groove, I also highly recommend my fresh biscuit strawberry shortcakes.
Enjoy! H.
Strawberry Peanut Butter Bars
INGREDIENTS
For the base + crumble:
- 1 cup old fashioned oats
- ½ cup light brown sugar
- 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup creamy peanut butter room temp
- 2 sticks salted butter melted
For the filling:
- 1 lb fresh strawberries chopped
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- zest from 1 lemon
- 1 tablespoon corn starch
INSTRUCTIONS
- Preheat your oven to 350℉
- In a large bowl, combine all ingredients for the base + crumble (oats, brown sugar, flour, granulated sugar, peanut butter, and melted butter). Mix to combine until a dough (soft and sort of crumbly) forms.
- In a medium bowl, combine the chopped strawberries, granulated sugar, lemon zest and corn starch.
- In a 9x13 pan, press down about ⅔ of the peanut butter mixture - using your hands or a rubber spatula is easiest.
- Layer the strawberry mixture on top, then sprinkle with the remaining ⅓ of the peanut butter mixture.
- Bake for about 50 minutes. Let cool completely, then cut into 24 squares.
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