Ah, this recipe brings back memories of baking with my "babies." I used to love our little kitchen adventures, and this one turned out tasty.
🥪 The Amish and Peanut Butter
Peanut butter is a staple in Amish kitchens. Peanuts are often found in Amish gardens and Amish cooks will often grind their own peanut butter which is likely more liquidy and less sweet than the jar of Jif you are used to. But it is still good. Some favorite Amish uses for peanut butter:
- PB&J sandwiches
- Church peanut butter spread
- Bird food
- Sweetner in cakes and cookies
Step-by-Step Peanut Butter Bars
When you have a 19-month old and you want to bake something, "stir and bake" is pretty much the only option. The other night I thought baby Beatrice and I would try making some "Amish peanut butter bars" with "peanut butter frosting."
📋 Step-by-Step Peanut Butter Bars
The problem with this 19-month-old, and I suspect most, is you have a very narrow window of time to accomplish anything before they lose interest and want to move on. While these bars turned out well, they'll turn out even better when you make them. SIGH, first the recipe said "shortening"...well, geez, liquid vegetable oil? Butter? Crisco? What kind of shortening....You use a solid it'll bake up fluffier like cake, use a liquid shortening and you get a denser bar. I like a denser bar and all I had was liquid shortening,but it would have been nice for the recipe to clarify. The baking time on my copy of the recipe was wrong. It said 6 - 7 minutes. Definitely wrong. And, DOUBLE SIGH, this was my fault, in my haste to get started, I checked the fridge and saw we had no eggs. I've heard ¼ cup of unsweetened applesauce will sub for an egg. I did have that, so I used unsweetened applesauce only for me to discover later that we actually did have eggs. So this might have turned out differently if I had used eggs. So with all these strikes against us, a squalling baby, applesauce for eggs, a wrong baking time, and uncertain shortening and they still turned out good, think what these could be like for if you leisurely made them in your kitchen.
Oh, another thing to keep in mind, the original recipe says do them in a 10 X 15 pan, but I did a 9 X 13....I didn't have a 10 X 15.
Again, if you do the recipe right and use the proper shortening, eggs, etc, it'll look a little different.
The frosting part is my favorite. You can tinker with it by adding in some more vanilla, maybe some cinnamon or nutmeg, whatever you like.
The bars look nice coming out of the oven. Let them cool before frosting and cutting. And, yes, you can sprinkle some chocolate chips on top for more of a Reese's Cup taste.
🥜 More Amish Recipes With Peanut Butter
Four other Amish peanut butter favorites!
PEANUT BUTTER CAKE: Perfect!
PEANUT BUTTER PIE: Really, there are few better confections than a silky, smooth, peanut buttery peanut butter pie....just amazing....best peanut butter pie is at Yoder's Restaurant in Sarasota, Florida or the Home Place, Mennonite bakery in Georgetown, Ohio. Click here!
PEANUT BUTTER PUDDING: Mmmmm, this may be the best-sounding dessert of all time, if you are like me and love peanut butter. Amazing pudding!
PEANUT BUTTER CUP CAKE: Holy cow! Click here.
🖨️ Full Recipe
Amish Peanut Butter Bars
Ingredients
- 1 cup of brown sugar
- ½ cup shortening
- ½ cup peanut butter
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp. vanilla
- 1 ½ cups flour
- 1 tsp. baking soda
- ½ cup oatmeal
- Frosting:
- 2 tbsp. butter
- 2 tbsp. peanut butter
- 1 ½ cup powdered sugar
- dash salt
- 2 ½ tbsp. milk
Instructions
- Mix ingredients together. Press into a 10x15 pan. Bake at 375 for 20 minutes. Mix frosting in a saucepan, cook until thick and creamy. Frost bars while still hot. Cool and serve
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