 |
Chocolate
Chip Peanut Butter Bars, by Dennis Weaver
This cookie was designed to be a road warrior. We wanted
a fairly tough, chewy cookie so we added lots of oats to
make it non-gooey. The oats also makes it hearty and wholesome.
With a lower glycemic index, the kids won't go through the
roof with a sugar burst and if you're hiking up a trail,
these bars will stick with you. Without high sugar content,
they rely on the chocolate for part of the sweetness. The
peanut butter adds protein and taste.
With engineering like this, you might expect a bland, boring
cookie; it's not. It's really quite good.
| Ingredients |
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
1 cup real peanut butter (without added hydrogenated
oil)
¾ cup granulated sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 large eggs
1 cup buttermilk
2 2/3 cup quick cooking oats
1 ½ cups semi-sweet chocolate chips |
Directions |
|
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease
or grease and line with parchment paper an 8½
x 13-inch baking pan.
1. Mix the flour, baking soda, and
salt together. Set aside.
2. Cream the peanut butter and sugars
together. Add the vanilla and eggs and beat until
light and fluffy.
3. Add the flour mixture and then
the buttermilk, beating after each addition. Add
the oats and combine. Add the chocolate chips. Spread
the batter in the pan.
4. Bake for 35 minutes or until
done. Cool for about ten minutes in the pan. While
still warm, cut the cake into bars.
If you use parchment paper, when you
are ready to cut the cake into bars, grab the edges
of the paper and lift the cake from the pan and set
it on a large cutting board. Use a ruler and a sharp,
serrated knife to cut uniformly-sized bars.
|
Bar cookies usually travel best when individually wrapped
in plastic wrap. You can even make them ahead of time and
freeze them. Wrap them in plastic and then store them in
a heavy zipper-type plastic bag.
 Dennis
Weaver -- having burnt food from Miami, Florida
to Point Barrow, Alaska -- is RTA's road food expert.
He has logged thousands of hours on the roads, trails,
and waterways of America including many of Alaska's
wilderness rivers and has consistently been elected
the trips' "chief cook and bottle washer."
Dennis is currently general manager at The
Prepared Pantry, a company in Rigby, Idaho, that
produces ready-to-eat meals and baking mixes packaged
in Mylar. Weatherproof, bug-proof, and critter resistant,
they're ideal for both roadtrips and back woods camping.
Dennis may be reached at dweaver@preparedpantry.com. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
