Tasy Tuesday: Lunch Lady Peanut Butter Bars

Friends, I get peanut butter cravings quite a bit. Sometimes its for the good ole PBJ, sometimes for reeses cups, and sometimes I just want something sweet with peanut butter in it. One night, I was googling for inspiration and ideas, because buckeyes and fudge can just be difficult to make.

I came across various posts and recipes of the Lunch Lady Peanut Bar. I am not sure if I've ever dived into this delicacy before, but after looking at a couple different recipes, I knew I had to test it out.

Reddit claims that these are old fashioned desserts often found in school cafeterias, particularly in the 60's & 70's. They were easy and cheap to make, and often didn't require an oven. Of course, with all the food allergies today, we don't see them in schools at all, or hardly anywhere now!

Simple ingredients with things I already keep at home, made this recipe super easy to make!

Grab your favorite 9X13 pan (other sizes will do) but I suggest whichever one you have that already has a seal, so that you can keep your goodies covered!

Ingredients list includes: 1/2 cup melted butter, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 2.5 cups powdered sugar, 2 cups peanut butter, and vanilla. For the top layer, 1 cup chocolate chips and 1/4 cup butter.

Steps include:

Melt Butter
Combine Butter, Sugars, PB, and Vanilla
Create a thick dough, much like a cookie dough
take your pan (use a liner/ parchment paper, or something to make it easier to get the bars out)and spread out the goodness.
Grab your chocolate chips and 1/4 c butter, melt in microwave, stirring consistently. If you are into the method, you can temper your chocolate, but if you are like me, chocolate is chocolate and this isn't The Great British Bakeoff.
Pour chocolate mixture over PB mixture
Let it set in the fridge if your place's humidity is high (like mine in the summer).

Some recipes encourage the melting on the stove, but my microwave suffices just as well, especially if in a time crunch.

You can also modify the amounts if you don't want a whole 9X13 pan (such as 8X8, 9X9, etc.. which I often do when its just me, because let's be real..while I CAN eat an entire pan by myself, I probably shouldn't). In fact, for this one, I only used about half of all the ingredients to make myself a smaller pan.

Enjoy.. and try to not eat the entire pan at once! It satisfies my sweet, peanut butter, and chocolate cravings all in one setting.

It's very simple to make, and usually you already have the ingredients in your home if you are a baker.

For those of you with peanut butter allergies, I bet this would still taste dandy with sunflower butter, almond butter, and maybe even tahini.

What's your favorite "go-to" recipe for your chocolate/ sweet cravings?