Sometimes you just need to spoil yourself. Especially at the end of a hard weekend of Christmas Market Crafting.
I love these traybake bars. Love, love, love.
They're just too sweet. They're the perfect combination of peanut butter and chocolate. They're oh-so-small bite-sized chunks of coconut happiness.
Also, they're easy to make. What more could you want?
The recipe for these Peanut Butter Nanaimo Bars is from the Food Network's website, where they have infinitely better photographs and inspirational collections of traybake recipes. Yum.
I've copied their recipe below, just in case the site is overloaded with delicious-recipe-seekers.
Enjoy!
For the biscuit:
110g unsalted butter
55g sugar
30g cocoa
1 large egg, beaten
175g digestive biscuit cumbs
100g desiccated coconut
50g finely chopped blanched almonds
For the peanut butter filling:
40g unsalted butter, softened
100g peanut butter
55g icing sugar
For the chocolate glaze:
115g plain chocolate, chopped
2 tbsp. unsalted butter
Use imperial measurements
Method
How to make Peanut Butter Nanaimo Bars
1) Line a 20 by 20cm baking pan or casserole with aluminum foil, with long flaps hanging over each edge.
2) For the cookie: Put the butter in a heatproof medium bowl. Bring a saucepan filled with 3cm or so of water to a very slow simmer over medium-low heat. Set the bowl over, but not touching, the water. Once the butter is melted, add the sugar and cocoa, and stir to combine. Add the egg and cook, stirring constantly with a whisk, until warm to the touch and slightly thickened (it should be about the consistency of hot fudge), about 6 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in digestive biscuit crumbs, coconut and nuts. Press the dough firmly into the prepared pan. (Save the pan of water for melting the chocolate.)
3) For the filling: Beat the butter, peanut butter and icing sugar together in a medium bowl with an electric mixer until light. Spread over the cookie and freeze while you prepare the chocolate glaze.
4) For the glaze: Put the chocolate and butter in a medium heatproof bowl, and set over the barely simmering water. Stir occasionally until melted and smooth. Remove from the heat and let cool slightly. (Alternatively, put the chocolate and butter in a medium microwave-safe bowl. Melt at 50 percent power in the microwave until soft, about 1 minute. Stir, and continue to heat until completely melted, about 1 minute more.). When cool but still runny, pour the chocolate layer over the chilled peanut butter layer and carefully smooth out with an offset spatula. Freeze 30 minutes.
5) To serve, remove from the freezer and let sit at room temperature for 5 minutes. Pull out of the pan using the foil flaps and transfer to a cutting board. Cut into 2.5cm with a sharp knife. Serve cool or at room temperature.
*Busy baker's tips: Finished bars can be wrapped in the pan in plastic wrap, then aluminum foil and frozen for up to 1 month.
