20111105 Peanut Butter Cake Bars

(SOURCE: Taste of Home - Peanut Butter Cake Bars)

For some reasons, I really wanted to bake these days but am not really up to eating loads of baked goods. As my friend loves peanut butter cookies, I looked for peanut butter baked good recipes so I can satisfy my need to bake and hopefully her stomach. I read a lot of reviews saying peanut butter cakes tend to be a little dry, but this recipe got a lot of good reviews so I gave it a go. As I could only find mixed chocolate chips here and couldn't be bothered to pick out the milk chocolate ones, I simply threw in 200g of a mix of white/milk/dark chocolate chips, instead of 300g of milk ones. The cake bars were finished by my friend and family yesterday - all family members ate 2 to 3 bars yesterday, so they bars must be okay. I wonder if I could replace the chocolate chips with Smarties or peanut M&M's next time...

INGREDIENTS
150g butter, softened
2/3 cup peanut butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
4 eggs
2tsp vanilla extract
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
200g mixed chocolate chips

METHOD
1. Heat the oven to 175 degree C. Grease a 13x9 inch baking pan.
2. In a large bowl, cream the butter, peanut butter, sugar, and brown sugar. Add eggs, one at a time. Beat in vanilla. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt. Then gradually add to the creamed mixture. Stir in chocolate chips.
3. Spread the mixture into the baking pan. Bake for 40 to 50 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack, then cut into bars.