Lunch Lady Peanut Butter Bars
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- 63 Comments
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1 cup butter
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
2 1/2 cups peanut butter (divided)
2 cups oatmeal (not quick)
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
Cream first 3 ingredients together. Add the vanilla, eggs, and 1 cup peanut butter and combine. Add the remaining ingredients and mix together. Spread dough on a greased jelly roll pan (18x13x1″). Make at 350 degrees for 15 minutes (until golden brown). While hot spread the other 1 1/2 cups peanut butter on top. Drop all over top by little spoonfuls. It will soften (melt) and make it easier to spread. Then let cool so that the peanut butter has become solid again (I usually throw them in the fridge so they set up faster and so I can eat them sooner!). Spread your favorite chocolate frosting on top and cut into bars.
Here is my favorite frosting recipe for these bars:
1/4 cup milk
1-2 tsp vanilla (depending on your taste)
3 Tablespoons cocoa (I have never really exactly measured)
2-3 cups of powdered sugar
Yum! I’m a sucker for anything with Peanut Butter and I can’t wait to try these.
New follower!
Betina
http://www.mommyladyclub.com
Those look great! I’m going to try them.
~ Mona : )
http://moremilestones.blogspot.com
Looks great! Thanks for stopping by and commenting and following! I’m following you back!
Aimee
Oh my, these bars look so good! I love anything with peanut butter. Camille, thanks for stopping by my blog and following. I’m so glad you found some recipes to try. I’m enjoying browsing through your blog and am a new follower. It must be amazing to be a group of 6 sisters. I have 3 daughters and they are the best of friends
Have a great day!
Rhondi
http://bigmamashomekitchen.blogspot.com/
Okay…so my mouth is watering as I read this! I loved these too!
saved this recipe… yummo! thanks for sharing!
Dang…now I’m going to have to try those and apparently, I’m going to have to try the cookies and cream cheesecake bars that are looking at my right now too! =P
I guess that means I’m a new follower. lol! (Followed you over from This Week’s Cravings.)
My blog is http://imitationbydesign.blogspot.com if you’d like to visit.
oh my ever since I went to Savannah I’ve hankering for one of those…
Do not forget to add our linking it this party here http://www.passionatelyartistic.com/2011/06/beautiful-furniture-redo-pop-up-cards.html
Maggie
http://passionatelyartistic.com
Oh my yumminess! This looks delish! I am a new follower and would love it if you follow back! Have a great day!
They do look tasty!
Thanks for linking to a Round Tuit!
Hope you have a great week!
Jill @ Creating my way to Success
http://www.jembellish.blogspot.com/
Looks like you had a good school. These days its all prepackaged fast food. Kids would love to have lunch ladies like the one you had. Thank you for participating in my linky party at Joy of Desserts.
This looks FAN-TASTIC! I can’t wait to try these, they look so yummy!
This looks good. Would come over and share some of your recipes at my link party Cast Party Wednesday tomorrow? I guess I went to the wrong school I don’t remember “good” desserts. HA!
Thanks,
I hope to see you there!
These look delish!
I am featuring these on my blog on Saturday! Feel free to stop by and grab a button!!
Ashley
http://www.simplydesigning.blogspot.com
okay, if these are anything like what my lunch ladies served I will be so happy! They were seriously the best! I am going to have to try these out! I would love for you to come and share these at my Fantastic Friday link party. http://ironvioletdesigns.blogspot.com
These sound divine!!
New follower from Wow Me Wednesday,
Please pop by Craft and Cupcakes
Thanks for the great recipe.
New follower from What’s cooking Wednesday.
Hope you follow back.
http://grandmabonniescloset.blogspot.com/
I am a newish follower. This looks like a great recipe. I am the cookie monster’s grandmother and am always looking for new cookie recipes to try. This one looks scrumptious. I am looking forward to exploring your blog further.
that sounds so yummy I can almost smell them! Wow, great post, MAria http://caribbeanmissionarywife.blogspot.com/
I have opened this website up two separate times. I am drawn to the deliciousness. I a a follower.
If I enjoyed PB, I’d be all over these! lol They still look good though. Thanks for linking up to this week’s Catch a Glimpse party.
YUM!!! I want to make these RIGHT NOW. I wish I had the oatmeal! Saving this one for sure!
I just found these via Pintrest. They looked so good I had to click over and have a look. Lucky for me I have everything I need to make them.
thank you i have been looking for this recipe for a long time. my grandma was a lunch lady and made these all the time.
Absolutely wicked!! These are not something MY lunch lady would ever make.=) bellesbazaar-heather.blogspot.com
Wow, thanks for this!I made them & everyone loved them & then I couldn’t find the recipe again but I did just now, Yeah!
Wow! These are great! Never heard of them before..my boyfriend loves anything Peanut Butter and Chocolate..so I gave it a try. The only thing i did different was to use DH canned Milk Chocolate frosting. Will be making these again and again ! thanks girls
They look yum but omg 2 cups sugar and 1 cup butter. It’s far too unhealthy for me to make
Ooo, I have this recipe from Gooseberry Patch. Good!!!
Made these for 5th Sunday potluck and they were spot on! We all reminisced about these from the Old Lunchroom Days.
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They are in the fridge setting up – ack – it’s so hard to wait! I can’t wait to eat them! I love that they have chocolate frosting on top and not just melted chocolate chips. I was really fighting the peanut butter trying to spread it on top – ha ha ha – I tried to plop it all on at once and it just sunk straight down and made a hole, ack! quickly scooped it back up – what a mess! it took a lot of fineness to finally get that peanut butter to spread and not smush the bars.
You must have gone to a better school than I did or just had a better Lunch Lady, I don’t remember any of our desserts being so yummy, going to have to give these a try, nothing better than Peanut butter and chocolate!
Anyone have that school lunch chocolate cake recipe?
I can get it for you on Monday. But it is for 600 servings!
I need clarification before I make these. There are 1&1/2 cups of Peanut Butter listed in the instructions that I don’t find in the list of ingredients. Is this an additional 1&1/2 cups of PB?
Hi Diane,
You add 1 cup of peanut butter to the dough and the other 1/2 cup goes on top of the peanut butter bars after they come out of the oven.
I needed that clarification as well. The instruction still say to “spread
Growing up in small Utah community, We had super loving lunch ladies who knew and loved us,(one of which was my own Grandma) and we always had delicious school lunches, including desserts and these peanut butter bars were one of my favorite! My kids don’t get this kind of yumminess now days. SO HAPPY to have come across this recipe! Thanks for sharing!! 
1 1/2 cups of peanut butter on the top of bars”.
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There are 2 1/2 c. of peanut butter listed in the ingredients, and the instructions say 1 c. goes in the dough and 1 1/2 c. goes on top, but your comments say 1 c. for the dough and 1/2 c. for on top…clarification?
Sorry I’ll delete that. 1 cup goes into the dough. The 1 1/2 cups goes on top. Just like the recipe states. Sorry about that!
I have looked everywhere for this! I’m so excited! I had the recipe when I took the cooking class in high school, straight from the lunch ladies but lost it. Instead of spreading the peanut butter we just combined it with the chocolate frosting. Mmmm.. I’m going to make it this weekend!
I made these today and they are so so so yummy! However, they are not the same bars from my cafeteria growing up! Dang! This is NOT a complaint though! This recipe makes a million bars and is awesome so I’ll definitely be bringing these to potlucks! A new keeper recipe!
Nixandnoli.blogspot.com
Really great recipe thanks. My 2nd batch of these I added 1 tbsp instead of tsp of vanilla extract by mistake to my frosting but hey they tasted even better than the first batch. So now I’m going to keep doing that it bumps them up a whole lot try it & see.
THESE. ARE. SOO. GOOD! Enough said. Thanks for this recipe, definately a keeper!!!!
THESE. ARE. SOO. GOOD! Enough said. Thanks for this recipe, definately a keeper!!!!
Yep….amazing!!! Loved these!
turned out great all except the final 1/2 C. of peanut butter trying to spread that on while it was still hot was a challenge. It was dragging the peanut butter crust right along with it. EEK! Nothing a little bit of your famous choc. icing can’t cover up.
Thank you for this post. Definitely a keeper.
Double Yum! Love Peanut butter!
I’ve been looking for a Lunch Lady bread spread for years. It had honey, peanut butter and (I think) raisins. It must have been mixed in a blender, cause it was smooth. OMGosh, I used to trade with my hot lunch friends for stuff out of my lunch sack for that all the time!!
Making these now, but why not quick oats? I am loving your stuff!
Hi Mandy!
I have never tried them with quick oats, so I am not sure how they would turn out! I hope you liked them! Let us know if the quick oats worked!
I always use quick oats when I make these and they taste great!
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These look amazing! Thank you for the recipe will be trying them soon!
I am a new follower, and glad I found your blog!
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These were absolutely delicious! I find that if you take the 1/2 C of peanut butter that goes on the top and whip it with a mixer until lighter in color and creamy, it has a great texture and spreads very nicely. Thanks for the recipe!
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Is there a difference between a jelly roll sheet and a cookie sheet?
Yes there is a difference. I made mine in a 1/2 sheet pan. A jelly roll pan is smaller; so they would be thicker.
Hi Jamie, We use a cookie sheet with a rim all the way around it. The dimensions are 12 x 17 inches.
Made these yesterday. They were great. To me the icing was a bit too sweet. I thought perhaps melting chocolate over the top instead of icing like I do for my Tandy Takes would be better. Just my opinion.
OMG they are coming out of the oven right now….your right…i think i will refrigerate them so i can eat sooner…YUMMMY!!
thanks for sharing
YUM. I can taste them now…just looking at that picture. NO, our poor kids do not get such deliciousness! thanks for sharing this. I may ruin my diet with this.