Peanut Butter and Jam and Chocolate Bars: Crowd Pleasers.

As I’ve mentioned before, cooking to request is one of my favourite things, and so I was most pleased when, one day last week, I left work under strict instruction to bake something peanut buttery and chocolatey. I already had half a plan to make these as Peanut Butter and Jam Bars, and so a bit of doubling up and swapping for Nutella seemed easypeasy and the perfect way to fulfil said demand.

And Wowzas...I have not baked something in a while that has gone down as well as these bad boys. Even after they’d endured half an hour of walking, a squished hour on the train and 3 flights of stairs. Aaaaaand even with people who nibbled first thing in the morning at a time that I assumed normal people deemed the consumption of baked goods inappropriate (YeY to cake for breakfast).

Turns out, they don’t and they kept nibbling all day long. And loved it.

So if you’ve got to bake for a crown, and want something universally pleasing, which will stand a bumpy ride...HERE, bake theeeeese. Just make sure you snaffle a few away for you, somewhere secret, so you can give with a glow of generosity, safe in the knowledge that there’s treats waiting for you at home. With Love and Cake.

Peanut Butter and Jam/Chocolate Bars

Original recipe by My Baking Addiction

A few notes:

• So I'll give you the recipe I used to make 2 rounds; one jam and one chocolate. Of course if you only want to make one or the other, just halve the amounts.
• My preferred J-as in-am, to go with the PB, is strawberry but most berry-ey ones go well...blueberry is divIIINe, as is cherry.

Makes lots and lots of bars

You will need

2x18cm loose bottomed tins, greased and bases lined

225g butter, at room temperature

330g caster sugar

2 eggs

4 heaped tbsps peanut butter

375g plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

3 heaped tbsp each of jam and Nutella

90g salted peanuts

• First things first...get that oven on to 180°c.
• Now to cream the butter and sugar until pale and smooth.
• Beat in the eggs and peanut butter until you had a lovely light coffee coloured paste.
• Sift in the flour and baking powder and fold in so everything gets well combined.
• Split 2/3 of the mixture between the 2 tins and press down into the base of each.
• Now for the yum factor...spread the jam of the top of the mixture in one tin and Nutella in the other.
• Split the remaining peanut butter mix between the 2 tins. It wont spread over the slippy jam or chocolate easily so just go for a blobbing method and it'll spread out in the oven.
• Sprinkle the peanuts over the top of both sets of mixture.
• Pop the tins on a baking sheet to prevent any sugary spillages and bake in your preheated oven for 45 minutes.
• When you've got 2 lovely golden and firm discs, remove from the oven and allow to cool for a while before removing them from their tins, slicing and sharing (just remember to snaffle).