What do you make when your pantry is close to bare, and your grocery store is short on supplies because of a storm? Well, first, maybe you make a margarita? Then, you make cookie bars from a cake mix!
With only FIVE ingredients (six if you want to be fancy), you can whip of a batch of chocolate peanut butter cookie bars that'll taste like you spent your afternoon in the kitchen! Not soft like cake, but not crunchy either - the texture is just what you'd expect from a cookie bar.
I've seen cake mix cookie bars made with yellow cake and chocolate chips, but I was craving that classic combination of peanut butter and chocolate. While I don't like peanut butter straight from the jar, do I ever love it with chocolate in a dessert! Case in point: cookies, and ice cream pie, and bars, and cakes, and no-bakes, and brownies, and more cookies. To, uh, name a few recipes.
Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake Mix Cookie Bar Ingredients
You'll need a chocolate cake mix (Devil's Food is great), peanut butter, eggs, oil, chocolate and peanut butter chips. You don't have to use both types of chips. I just love melty chocolate chips. Use only peanut butter chips if that's what you have.
I've really been loving these Ghirardelli Grands Chips lately. (Especially for snacking!)
Whisk up the eggs. Then, whisk in the oil and peanut butter.
Stir in the cake mix. The dough will be very thick and a little hard to stir at first. Keep stirring until all of the cake mix is moistened. Stirring in the chips will help.
How to press a thick dough evenly into a pan
Don't freak out, but you'll need to use wet hands to press the dough into the pan. It's thick and sticky and virtually unspreadable with a knife or offset spatula.
With wet hands, you can easily press thick doughs evenly into the pan. Dollop dough into the prepared pan. It's good to dollop it all over rather than making a big pile in the center of the pan. Run your hands under water and shake or lightly dry the excess. Press the dough into the pan evenly.
Don't worry about adding moisture to the bars. Any water will evaporate almost immediately after going into the oven.
A note on lining the pan with foil...
Lining the baking pan with foil isn't strictly necessary, but it makes it easy to lift the bars out of the pan for cutting and serving. I like to lightly grease the pan first to ensure that foil pops right out. Once the foil is in place, I grease that as well.
Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake Mix Cookie Bars
2 eggs
1/3 cup oil (vegetable or canola)
2 tablespoons creamy peanut butter
1 (approx 15-ounce) box Devil's Food cake mix
1 cup peanut butter chips
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 350. Lightly grease a 12 x 9" pan. (Use a 13 x 9" pan if you don't have a 12-inch.) Line pan with foil. Grease the foil.
Whisk the eggs. Add oil and peanut butter; whisk until smooth and thick. Stir in the cake mix. The dough will become quite thick; continue stirring until all of the mix is moistened. Stir in the chips.
Dollop dough into the pan. Wet hands, shaking or toweling off excess water, and press evenly into the pan.
Bake for 22-25 minutes, or until baked through. Cool completely before cutting and serving.
Cake mix cookie bars for the win!