Lunch Lady Peanut Butter Bars
These layered Lunch Lady Peanut Butter Bars start with a soft, chewy peanut butter oatmeal cookie base, then it's topped with a creamy peanut butter, followed with a yummy chocolate buttercream.
Servings: 24 Servings
Calories:
Ingredients
Lunch Lady Peanut Butter Bars
- 1 cup butter softened
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup brown sugar firmly packed
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup creamy peanut butter
- 2 cups old fashioned oats for gluten free option, use gluten free oats
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
Peanut Butter Layer
- 1 ½ cups creamy peanut butter
Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
- ½ cup butter softened
- ¼ cup milk of choice
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 4 Tablespoons cocoa powder
- 3 cups powdered sugar
Instructions
Lunch Lady Peanut Butter Bars
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray or line a baking sheet (half sheet jelly roll pan that is approximately 17.8 x 12.8 x 1 inch) with parchment paper/non-stick cooking spray OR 2 9x13 pans can also be used. Divide recipe in half for one 9x13 pan of bars.
- In a large bowl, using mixer, cream together softened butter, sugar and brown sugar together for 2-3 minutes.
- Add vanilla, eggs, and 1 cup of the peanut butter and mix together well.
- Add oats, flour, baking soda and salt and mix until well combined.
- Spread mixture out in an even layer.
- Bake for 15 minutes and remove from oven.
Peanut Butter Layer
- Drop small spoonfuls of peanut butter (1 ½ cups) all over on top of warm bars. Let peanut butter set for about 5-6 minutes and gently spread when peanut butter has begun to melt for easy spreading the layer of peanut butter. Don't try to spread it while still thick.
- Let the bars cool until peanut butter has set up. For faster results, put pan in fridge to help peanut butter layer set up firmly.
Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
- While cooling, mix together butter, chocolate, vanilla, powdered sugar and milk with a hand mixer until smooth and spread on top of bars. Place bars in fridge to help chocolate layer set up.
- Cut into bars and serve.
Notes
Pan Sizes for Lunch Lady Peanut Butter Bars
Before you start, what size pan do you want to use?- Our lunch lady peanut butter bar recipe is baked in an 18 x 13 sheet pan
or half pan so you can cut them into as many bars as you need. I like the bigger bars, which makes 24 bars, but you could easily cut them into 48 bars for smaller servings.
- Want to bake these in a 9x13 pan
for a smaller batch? You can divide the recipe in half easily for this size of pan to get 12 nice-sized bars. Another option is to make the whole recipe and divide in two 9x13 pans. That way you can freeze one of the pan batches to serve later when the peanut butter chocolate craving strikes.
- These bars also freeze great in a freezer bag or freezer container, so by making a big batch, you can pull them out of the freezer as needed. Just let them thaw in the fridge and then serve them the next day or snack on them as you see fit!