Most peanut butter bar recipes come out dry or cakey. This one goes the other way, and the reason is a cup and a half of peanut butter against only a cup and a half of flour.

That ratio is unusual. Most bars have twice as much flour as fat, and reversing it is what keeps these fudgy.

Conventional peanut butter, not natural

Creamy no-stir, and this is the one substitution that will change the outcome.

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Natural peanut butter separates and the oil sits on top. Stirred back in it is looser and considerably oilier, and in a bar recipe that oil has nowhere to go. The bars spread more in the pan and come out greasy at the edges.

Conventional peanut butter is stabilised with a small amount of hydrogenated oil, which keeps it emulsified and firm. That stability is what gives these bars their structure.

This is the opposite of what most no-bake recipes want, where the loose drippiness of natural peanut butter is the point. Baked bars want the stable kind.

Room temperature eggs and butter

Two eggs and a quarter cup of salted butter, both at room temperature.

Cold eggs added to a mixture of peanut butter and softened butter cause the fat to seize into small firm lumps. Those lumps do not redistribute, and the finished bars come out dense in patches.

Twenty minutes on the counter is enough for both. If you forget, eggs in a bowl of warm water for five minutes gets you there.

Stop mixing when the flour disappears

Flour and baking soda added directly into the same bowl, stirred just until incorporated.

Same instruction as always and the same reason. There is enough flour here to develop gluten, and gluten is what makes a bar chewy in the wrong way, tough rather than fudgy.

Do not pack the flour when measuring either. Scooping straight from the bag compresses it and you can end up with twenty percent more than intended, which is the other common route to dry bars.

Spoon it into the cup and level it off.

A 7 by 11 pan, not 9 by 13

The pan size is doing real work here.

A 7 by 11 gives you thick bars. Spread the same batter across a 9 by 13 and the layer is noticeably thinner, it bakes faster, and the centre sets firm rather than staying soft.

If a 7 by 11 is what you have, use it. If not, an 8 by 8 gets you closer than a 9 by 13 does, with a few extra minutes of baking.

Eighteen to twenty two minutes at 375F

Edges lightly golden, centre still soft and with a slight jiggle.

Underdone is correct at this stage. The bars keep setting as they cool, and pulling them when the centre looks fully baked gives you dry bars an hour later.

375F is on the higher side for a bar, which sets the edges quickly and leaves less time for the middle to dry out.

Chips on top while it is hot

A small handful reserved from the two thirds cup, scattered over the moment the pan comes out and pressed in gently.

The residual heat softens them just enough to anchor without fully melting. They keep their shape and sit on the surface, which is why the bars look finished rather than plain.

Wait until the bars have cooled and the chips will not stick at all.

Forty five to sixty minutes of cooling

Completely cool in the pan before slicing.

These are soft by design and warm bars tear into pieces rather than cutting into squares. The full hour is what gives you clean edges.

Twelve squares from a 7 by 11.

About the nutrition

The published figures list 3 grams of protein per bar.

A cup and a half of peanut butter and two eggs across twelve servings puts the real number closer to eight grams. The panel appears to have miscalculated, so it is not reproduced here.

Keeping them

Airtight at room temperature, up to four days. They stay soft over that time. <p>They freeze well for three to four months. Wrap individually if you want to pull one out at a time. ## Why salted butter The recipe specifies salted rather than unsalted, and there is no separate salt in the ingredient list. The butter is carrying it.

If you only have unsalted, add a quarter teaspoon of salt with the flour. Peanut butter bars without any salt taste flat, since there is a cup and a half of brown sugar in there.

Swaps

White chocolate or peanut butter chips work in place of the semi-sweet. Chopped peanuts folded in alongside add crunch to something otherwise entirely soft.