Peanut Butter & Jelly Bars

Did you miss me last night? I had a girl's night out with some friends. We went to Dream Dinners with our MOPS group. I think if I was a working mom, I'd probably use their service somewhat often, but it seemed pretty expensive when I'm fully capable of making my own dinners everything. If you haven't heard of these type of places, you go and pick out a few different entrees you want to make, the provide all the ingredients, you mix up the stuff, and put it in freezable containers. Then you take it all home and just pull a dinner out of the freezer when you need it. My friends I went with are thinking we can do this on our own on a regular basis. It really didn't take very long, maybe 10 minutes. None of us had eaten before we went, so we headed to Z Tejas for some margaritas and appetizers. It was way more fun than Dream Dinners had been!

We're going to Jen B's for dinner tonight, and I'm taking dessert. She and I both heart Barefoot Contessa, so I pulled out my trusty Barefoot Contessa at Home cookbook and saw this. I had everything on hand to make them, so my dessert was chosen! The boy just went down for his nap, so I'm off to bake.

Peanut Butter and Jelly Bars
1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
2 cups (18 ounces) creamy peanut butter (recommended: Skippy)
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 1/2 cups (18 ounces) raspberry jam or other jam
2/3 cups salted peanuts, coarsely chopped

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Grease a 9 by 13 by 2-inch cake pan. Line it with parchment paper, then grease and flour the 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 2/3 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.

*****

Don't they sound yummy?! Ina has never done me wrong with any of her other recipes, so my hopes are high for this. I better get going on it...I want to be able to enjoy some nap time laying out in the beautiful weather we're having reading my book!