That's What Bob's Cooking: Peanutbutter & Jam Bars

Friday, June 10, 2011

Peanutbutter & Jam Bars

As described from wikipedia: The peanut butter and jelly sandwich (PB&J or peanut butter and jam sandwich in Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom) is a sandwich, popular in North America, that includes a layer of peanut butter and either jam or jelly on bread, commonly between two slices, but sometimes eaten open-faced.

For almost all of us this was a staple in our lives, growing up. For my family, is was ONLY crunchy Skippy and mom's homemade freezer jam (usually raspberry, but I grew up in Oregon, so we had strawberry, blackberry, marionberry, boisenberry, just to name a few). Now there are many variations on the classic, crunchy, creamy, organic, all natural, freshly ground, almond, and the list goes on. And that's just the peanut butter! As for jam (I prefer jam to jelly!!) you name it. I work in a grocery store and we have a 4 foot section dedicated to preserves. Local, imported, regular, no sugar added, pure cane sugar, it'd make your head spin. So for me, crunchy with blackberry jam is my fav!

Whether it was for lunch, afternoon snack or even breakfast, I'm sure it's pretty near and dear to your heart. Few people I've talked to dislike the PB&J!

So when I came across the recipe for Peanutbutter and Jelly Bars, I just knew I had to make them. After making the recipe, I've made a few adjustments that I know is just what this recipe needs to go from wow, to amazing!

Check it out, and let me know what you think.

Peanut Butter and Jelly Bars
Adapted from Baked Perfection

Ingredients

½ pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 ½ cups sugar

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

2 large eggs, at room temperature

2 cup (about 18 ounces) chunky peanut butter

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 ½ teaspoons kosher salt

2 cups blackberry jam or other jam (Don't skimp...the more the better!)

½ cups salted peanuts, coarsely chopped

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Grease a 9 by 13 by 2-inch cake pan.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar on medium speed until light yellow, about 2 minutes. With the mixer on low speed, add the vanilla, eggs, and peanut butter and mix until all ingredients are combined.

In a small bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the flour mixture to the peanut butter mixture. Mix just until combined.

Spread. slightly more than 1/2 of the dough into the prepared cake pan and spread over the bottom with a knife or offset spatula. Spread the jam evenly over the dough. Drop small globs of the remaining dough evenly over the jam.

Don’t worry if all the jam isn’t covered; it will spread in the oven. Sprinkle with chopped peanuts and bake for 45 minutes, until golden brown. Cool and cut into squares.

Serve up with a big glass of ice cold milk.

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My Complete Profile

I was born and raised on the East side of Portland Oregon, by two native and second generation, Oregonians, my Mom and Dad (Jack and Joan). Oregon, and the Northwest are deep in my blood. That being said, I have always had an interest in cooking. I would love to add a warm loving story here about how my Mom nurtured my love of cooking by setting me up on or near the counter top to help with whatever she was cooking. Well, that's not exactly the case.

Being a child of the 70's and 80's, I had a great exposure to classic foods like Spam, Tang, Rice-a-Roni and Hamburger Helper. While many of these premade, sodium roller coaster, treats where regulars on our table, my Mom would have to hold the title as "casserole queen". Casseroles are her favorite and her specialty. Whereas, my Dad was more of a spur of the moment kind of cook. His creations included many of the items from our makeshift pantry. Sometimes, i think he was thinking, "the more ingredients, the better it'll be!". I think my first attempt at cooking would have to have been making cookies, either peanut butter (with the criss-cross fork tine print on top), or chocolate chip cookies. Over the years I have made so many of both of these recipes, I have surely lost count.

During middle school, my Mom encouraged me to take Home Economics, thinking that all kids, boy or girl, should know how to cook out in this world. This sparked a growing interest in cooking. So when I entered my junior year of High School, at David Douglas, I enrolled in the culinary arts program, we called it Food Services I. This was a class that had been offered many years before, where the students ran a restaurant, The Kilt, during the lunch periods. Unfortunately, since the class had not been offered in several years, so we didn’t have enough students to open the restaurant, that year. Within the first few weeks of this class, my instructor asked if I'd like to be involved in an outside "club" (kind of like a version of Eagle Scouts) that was mentored by local business owners. It sounded interesting so I joined (not to mention it got me out of the first 2 periods of the day).

At our first meeting I was approached by Sylvia Poesdel, the owner of the Portland landmark restaurant, Sylvia's Italian Restaurant & Dinner Theatre. She asked me if I would be interested in an afterschool job, coming to work for her to learn the cooking/chef trade on the job. I jumped at the chance and started in October of 1985. During my senior year I rejoined the culinary arts program (Food Services II) and this year we were able to reopened the restaurant, which the rest of the students voted me to manage. I just absolutely loved it! I worked at Sylvia's until after I graduated, in 1989. I learned a lot about the restaurant industry, and I would have to say it would be one of just a few life altering jobs I have had throughout my career.

After high school, while I was working at Sylvia's, I applied to culinary arts school. The Two things kept me from continuing my career in culinary arts, were financial and having worked out in the field, I saw so many negative attributes to being a chef, I decided that since I love to cook, I wanted it to be a hobby, and not a drag to go work each day.

When I left Sylvia's, I worked at a hotel, then Safeway. From there I joined Fred Meyer in the Service Deli, and was quickly promoted to a manager. During the next 8 years, I worked throughout the Portland and Southern Oregon areas. In 1998, I earned a promotion to the regional specialist position (District Manager) in Seattle. During this career move, I learned so much about the Food Service industry. I was charged to develop a new service salad case program, as well as work on a new catering program. I had the opportunity to work with manufacturers to develop these new programs.

In 2000, I met the love of my life, Craig. I also, moved from the food service program to the grocery department as an assistant manager. In the capacity I learned to develop my management skills as well as managing inventory. By being the best in my category, I earned the position of manager, where I moved from store to store cleaning up and reorganizing as I went. I also was entrusted with training future Food managers for the region. At which point I was pursued by another company to run a store for them, and enter back into the restaurant industry. During these 3 years, I learned the Restaurant Supplier side of the business. While I enjoyed the time I spent in this opportunity, I yearned to go back to the Grocery industry, and spend more time with my first love, cooking, and writing about my adventures….in the kitchen!