Tagalong Bars

Apparently I didn't have enough recipes bookmarked for baking projects because I found this one at Crazy for Crust to bake for my husband to take to work instead of any of the dozens already flagged. Tomorrow is his 2nd anniversary, so he wanted treats. I settled on this new recipe and a tried-and-true one, Cookie Dough Brownies. (Of course, that's really not my favorite brownie recipe, so I used this one instead. That's my favorite, simple recipe for brownies.)

Tagalongs were always my favorite Girl Scout Cookie, although I came from more of a Thin Mint family. Trust me, I love Thin Mints as much as the next person (frozen, of course), but there's something about the peanut butter. Speaking of which, we are almost completely out of peanut butter in our house. Hell might be freezing over ...

P.S. I went to the store this afternoon. I bought peanut butter before we ran out. Hell apparently just had a touch of frost, not an actual freeze warning.

P.P.S. The flavors on these are pretty accurate. Quite tasty bars, although my husband says they can't stand up to the cookie dough brownies.

Tagalong Bars

1/2 cup butter, softened
1/3 + 1/2 cup powdered sugar, divided
2 tsp. vanilla, divided
1 1/4 cups flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup creamy peanut butter
1 cup chocolate chips (Use milk for more authentic, but I used semi-sweet since I rarely have milk chocolate chips on hand.)
2 tsp. shortening

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a 9 x 9 pan with foil.

Cream butter and 1/3 cup powdered sugar. Add 1 tsp. vanilla, and mix thoroughly. Mix in salt and flour until combined. It will take a few moments to turn from crumbly into an actual dough. Just keep mixing until it does. Press dough into the prepared pan. Bake 14-18 minutes, until the shortbread is no longer shiny or translucent. It won’t brown much, if at all. Let cool completely.

Mix peanut butter, 1/2 cup powdered sugar and 1 tsp. vanilla. Spread evenly over the top of the cooled shortbread.

Melt chocolate chips and shortening in a microwave-safe bowl. Spread over the top of the peanut butter layer. Allow chocolate to harden before cutting bars, but cut bars at room temperature to minimize smashing the peanut butter layer. Makes 9 x 9 pan of bars.