Peanut Butter and Pepper Jelly Bars
 
Makes About 16
Ingredients
  • 1 cup creamy peanut butter, divided
  • ½ cup unsalted butter, softened
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1½ cups all-purpose flour
  • ¾ cup firmly packed light brown sugar
  • ¾ cup salted cocktail peanuts, chopped and divided
  • ½ cup old-fashioned oats
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1 (10.5-ounce) jar red pepper jelly*
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350°. Line an 8-inch square baking pan with parchment paper or foil, letting excess extend over sides of pan. Spray with baking spray with flour.
  2. In a large bowl, beat ¾ cup peanut butter and butter with a mixer at medium speed until creamy. Beat in egg and vanilla.
  3. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, brown sugar, ½ cup peanuts, oats, baking powder, and salt. Gradually add flour mixture to peanut butter mixture, beating until combined. (Dough will be thick.) Reserve 1 cup dough. Press remaining dough into bottom of prepared pan. Spread pepper jelly onto dough. Drop remaining ¼ cup peanut butter by teaspoonfuls over jelly. Crumble reserved 1 cup dough over jelly and peanut butter. Sprinkle with remaining ¼ cup peanuts.
  4. Bake until golden brown, about 30 minutes. Let cool completely on a wire rack, about 6 hours. Using excess parchment or foil as handles, remove from pan, and cut into bars.
Notes
*We used Braswell's Red Pepper Jelly.
Recipe by Taste of the South at https://tasteofthesouthmagazine.com/peanut-butter-pepper-jelly-bars/