Fresh Strawberry Bars

Andrew saw this picture on the cover of Better Homes and Gardens, a magazine Renee gave me to look at while we were in Texas - I added some pictures that Renee sent us to my post about our trip. Anyways, back to BH&G! Andrew saw this picture and said very enthusiastically "Mom! Can you make this?!" I thought the picture looked pretty tasty too! So I told him I would.

I was surprised when reading the ingredients that the bars called for peanut butter. My first thought was peanut butter and strawberries?! But then I thought about peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and decided that it would taste good. PB & J is a big hit with the four of us!!

It was pretty yummy! The bars reminded me of a peanut butter cookie.

Fresh Strawberry Bars

3/4 cup butter, softened

3/4 cup peanut butter

1 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. salt

2 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour

1/2 cup strawberry jam

4 cups small whole strawberries, halved or quartered

1. Heat oven to 350. Line 13x9x2 baking pan with foil, extending beyond edges. Set aside.

2. In large mixing bowl beat butter and peanut butter on medium to high for 30 seconds. Beat in sugars, baking powder, and salt until combined. Add eggs and vanilla; beat until combined. Beat in as much flour as you can with mixer. Stir in remaining flour.

3. Spread dough in prepared pan. Bake 25 minutes or until top is lightly browned and toothpick inserted near center comes out clean.

4. Cool completely on rack. Remove from pan by lifting foil. Spread jam and top with berries. Cut into bars. Serve at once or refrigerate up to 6 hours.

Make ahead. Wrap the peanut butter base in foil; store at room temperature up to 24 hours. Before serving, top with jam and berries. Or freeze the peanut butter base in a freezer container up to 3 months.

We just put the jam and berries on the bars that we cut to eat and left the remaining bars in the pan, covered; until the next time we were in the mood for something sweet!