Even though I love peanut butter, this is something I wasn’t super interested in trying from Baked Explorations. I think it has something to do with the fact that it’s one of the recipes in the book without a picture. I love to have a visual of something before I make it, which is why I love cooking and baking from blogs so much.

When I saw this recipe on our Baked Sunday Mornings schedule, I read it through to see if I wanted to make it. And then I read it again. And again. You have to roll out a pastry dough and fit it into a 9×13 pan? A pound of butter? Two full cups of peanut butter? Since I was in charge of treats for my friend’s daughter’s 1st birthday party yesterday, I added this to my list. 

Let’s break this down layer by layer, from the bottom up.

1. Sweet Tart Dough – I could already predict my inability to roll out this dough into a rectangle, so I switched it up a little bit and right after mixing I just dumped it into the pan and pressed it in. This worked *perfectly*.
2. Peanut Butter Filling – I mean what’s wrong with two sticks of butter, two cups of peanut butter and some icing sugar? NOTHING.
3. Strawberry Jam – The Baked boys make this treat with grape jelly, but I’m not a fan. Since strawberries have been on sale the past few weeks at my grocery store, I made some Skillet Strawberry Jam and used that.
4. Crumble Topping – Yummy finish on top with oats and cinnamon.

Do I even need to testify as to how fantastic these are? My only note is that I only used one cup of jam instead of the recommended two cups and I was fine with that. I also felt that these are better served chilled, or shortly after coming out of the fridge. By the end of the birthday party, they were looking a little soggy/melty.

My final brainstorm came this afternoon when I thought about swapping out the strawberry jam for a layer of chocolate chips. My goodness.

You can find the recipe here!