Do you remember those old Reese’s commercials where people collide and someone’s chocolate ends up in someone else’s peanut butter?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJLDF6qZUX0
This is kind of the way it is with people sometimes. We know people that love peanut butter and they love chocolate, but they hate them together. We also know people that love peanut butter and chocolate combined, but hate them separately. My husband finds this endlessly fascinating. I find it more interesting when applied to people.
I know people that are nuts…er..um…peanut butter. There are times I want to relive my childhood and I want to just relish the weird lumpy, pasty goodness of plain peanut butter. (Always crunchy. Creamy peanut butter is like eating paste.) But after a while, I get to the point where I remember that childhood is over and I have stuff that I have to get done and I don’t really have time to be cleaning up a goopy mess on my fingers and unsticking my mouth. And I really hate the smell of wet peanut butter. I know that there are people out there that subsist on nothing but peanut butter, but I am not one of them any longer.
Then there are those people that are chocolate. Some people like them, some people don’t. Some prefer them darker, richer, sweeter, or more bitter. Each of them are great in their own way. They can be nuanced and interesting, but even if you want to, you can’t really eat nothing but chocolate without getting a stomachache.
Together they create something special. And not just in the sense of peanut butter cups. You may add peanuts and chocolate to your mole sauce and I can even see adding them to your chili. In savory dishes, they add depth and interest to the other ingredients. They harmoniously blend to enhance the flavor of whatever is being prepared.
However, unless perfectly balanced, either of these two ingredients can take over a sweet dish, especially the peanut butter. I’ve had a few chocolate peanut butter pies where I’ve lost all sense of the chocolate because I just can’t get past the overwhelming peanut butter flavor. Sometimes I eat chocolate and wonder where the peanut butter is. If something is supposed to have peanut flavor and chocolate flavor, I want to experience and enjoy both. I like them both equally and want them to play nicely together in certain situations. It doesn’t mean that I always need them together, but sometimes it’s exactly what I need.
Chocolate and peanuts balance each other perfectly in these Ribbon Candy Bars. I originally made these for our friend’s 41st birthday party. I knew I had to make something special that wasn’t cake. Ribbon Candy Bars looked like an interesting recipe to try out. I read a book about making your own candy bars a few years ago and didn’t have time to practice the skills I’d learned. To be honest, nothing in the book helped with the preparation of these candy bars. This recipe is amazingly simple, although a bit time consuming. And when we say “candy bar” think more bar cookies and less Snickers.
Adding butterscotch chips as the third party to the peanut butter and chocolate chips allows them to harmonize more perfectly than if left to their own devices. Filling the chocolate mixture with a salty sweet layer means every bite is a little different. Some nibbles are a little crunchy and hard to bite into as the salt from the peanuts hits your tongue. Other bites melt in your mouth so quickly, you almost wish the moment would last longer. Our overall impression was that these candy bars are best in small doses, but are completely addictive.
Regardless of how you feel about chocolate or peanut butter or the combination of the two, this is a recipe worth trying.
The Recipe:
*Recipe should say spread half of the chip and peanut butter mixture in pan, but make sure it’s a decently thick layer.
If you like this recipe you should check out Darned Good Candy, Peanut Brittle, and Seaside Candy Rolls.
The first time I heard about Church Windows cookies (are they cookies or are they candy?) was after our tree fell on our neighbor’s fence. It might be the biggest event this neighborhood has seen in a while. It was such a big event that as we were cutting it down, neighbors from the senior housing facility put out their chairs, plugged in their crockpots, and sat outside to watch. I treated them to some 
No matter what the recipe says about double boiler, melt the chocolate in the microwave. It’s so much easier. Put it in for a minute, stir it after a minute, it might need another 15 or 30 seconds, but it won’t need much more. Stirring these bad boys is hard. It’s messy and involved. 
Ok, so flavor…think something like rocky road. But vaguely fruity with coconut. They aren’t bad, but probably best in small doses.
Growing up we went to a church that had a phenomenal Christmas bazaar every year. There were certain things that could not be missed. In the tearoom, you could sit and drink hot cider and eat a selection of Christmas cookies and cream puffs stuffed with chicken salad. There were the baked beans. Sadly that recipe didn’t make it into the church cookbook. I’ve been attempted to recreate the beans. My mom had the recipe at one point, but it might’ve gotten lost in a move. The beans were that good. 
You could tell it was time for the bazaar weeks ahead of time. The familiar fragrances of the church, the incense, Murphy’s oil soap, old wood, and beeswax, would start to become entwined with the smell of sugar and anise. 
At the bazaar, a cut glass punch bowl would be piled high with baggies full of jewel-like red and green candies. My siblings and I would always make sure that my mom bought at least one bag. There were a few years where I would bring my own money to secure my own bag. Anise is one of those flavors that not everyone likes. I get it. But it takes me back to those days of helping in the tearoom, exploring all the goodies, conversations in the kitchen with the “old” church ladies. And the color is so pretty and this anise flavor isn’t very strong. It’s more of the suggestion of anise than a powerful anise flavor. 
Since those days I have helped 2 churches start their Christmas bazaars. One turned into an event with a fancy wine and cheese night and silent auction. The other is an amalgamation of sewn crafts, canned food, lefsa, fresh bread, herb butters. I was the official bread maker for years. 
Ok, enough of the sentimental drivel and let’s get to cookies.
My husband is a chocolate peanut butter freak. When we go out for milkshakes, it is almost certain that his will be chocolate peanut butter. I used to be crazy about peanut butter, but hate the smell of wet peanut butter, so I hesitate to ever use it because I don’t want to smell the peanut butter as the dishes are being cleaned. When I saw the recipe for Easy Bars, I knew that making these bars would make up for some of my past cooking missteps. 
First of all, I substituted wheat flakes for oats because I am allergic to oats, however Easy Bars should be made with oats. Wheat flakes are a sub par substitute. It’s not that the recipe failed or that they were bad or anything, but the wheat flakes I had were thicker than oats would’ve been, so they didn’t hold their shape as well as I would’ve liked. I am sure that I could figure out some adjustments if I were to make these again, but since the recipe calls for oats, use those. If someone knows of a great substitution, let me know. 
Easy bars are easy. They require very little work and yield delicious results. 
