Chocolate Peanut Butter Oat Bars

I'm sure many people would be hard pressed to name something they truly miss from their school's lunch menu. Ours was standard cafeteria fare (which I usually passed on in favor of a pb & j from the snack bar) but the desserts were pretty decent. My sister and I were talking recently and since I have been on this baking kick, she suggested I try to make Roadrunner Bars - easily the tastiest thing to come out of Chaparral High School, if my memory serves me right (it has been over 10 years, you know - christ, I feel old now). A peanut buttery cookie base with chocolate peanut butter frosting couldn't be that hard to recreate, but not surprisingly, googling didn't get me far. I finally found the official recipe in an alumni facebook group, so I present to you the sugar-laden goodness that is the Roadrunner Bar.

Nom nom nom

Chocolate Peanut Butter Oat Bars (Roadrunner Bars)

slightly adapted from the original recipe from the kitchen of CHS

Cookie ingredients:

1 c (2 sticks) butter, softened
3/4 c sugar
1 c brown sugar
2 eggs
1 cup peanut butter
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 tsp vanilla extract
1 c flour
1 c rolled oats


Topping Ingredients:
1 pkg semi-sweet chocolate chips
3/4 c peanut butter
2/3 c sugar
1/2 c milk

Preheat oven to 350. Grease a half-sheet cake pan or large cookie sheet (make sure you choose one with raised edges).

In a large bowl, cream together butter, sugars, eggs, and peanut butter until smooth and fluffy. Add in baking soda, salt, and vanilla, and mix well. Mix in flour and oats a little at a time until fully incorporated. Batter will feel sticky and loose. Spread into prepared pan and bake for 15-20 minutes, or until light golden brown. Cookie will still feel soft when done but will firm up as it cools.

While cookie bakes, bring the topping ingredients (minus the chocolate chips) to a boil in a heavy-bottomed saucepan. When cookie is done, remove it from the oven and immediately sprinkle chocolate chips evenly over the top. Carefully pour the peanut butter mixture over the chocolate chips and spread with a spatula to cover the entire cookie. Let cool at room temperature until the topping is firm, then cut into squares. Enjoy!

A few notes - as usual, I reduced the white sugar by 1/4 cup and the results were still incredibly sweet, so I'm sure you could play with the amounts even more to suit your taste. I accidentally bought quick-cooking oats and the bars turned out fine, albeit softer than the original - I do recommend going with rolled oats for a better texture. Also, I used a cookie sheet that was a little bit on the small side and the cookie tried to escape a bit during baking, so err on the side of caution and use a larger cookie sheet or a tall-sided 9 x 13 cake pan or you'll be chipping burned cookie bits off the bottom of your oven like me.

My team of taste-testers (family and my husband's spoiled coworkers) confirmed what I already knew - this recipe is a keeper. It's just about the least fiddly cookie recipe ever and yields a huge pan of super rich bars that can easily be cut into small, craving-satisfying squares.

As for the screamy one, I'm afraid I don't have any new pictures of Stella to share. It becomes increasingly difficult to capture a picture that isn't one big blur, as she is about as mobile as one can be without full-on crawling, which I suspect she will be doing any day now. She is saying "dada" (the little turd!) and seems to connect the word with Kevin. I guess old mama is chopped liver.

Next time, I hope to have a savory recipe for you. I'm going to try out Pretzel Rolls and pray they aren't a complete disaster, as the recipe is a bit involved and Stella won't stand for receiving half my attention for very long, you know.