Peanut Buttery Chocolatey Goodness Bars

A few Sundays ago was one of those days where I needed to bake something. After being in Hawaii for a week (which was fabulous) and pinning to my heart's content at the beach, I was itching to bake something I had drooled over. While scrapbooking and watching Friends in sweats for a large part of my Sunday, I was not up to drive into town for any ingredients I did not have on hand - hence, deciding on this recipe for Peanut Buttery Chocolatey Goodness Bars.

I originally found these on pinterest, however the link lead me to where else, but my favorite food blogger, Christy aka The Girl Who Ate Everything. I shamelessly and repeatedly share the recipes she posts because she seriously only posts the best of the best.
 
Here we go.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Bars
by Greta White via The Girl Who Ate Everything

1 (18.25oz) package plain yellow cake mix

1/2 cup butter, melted

1 cup creamy peanut butter

2 eggs

1 (12 oz) package semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
2 Tablespoons butter
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup coconut (optional - I sprinkled some onto half of the pan)

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees. Add the cake mix, melted butter, peanut butter and eggs into a bowl and mix together. It will be more cookie dough like than cake batter. 

Reserve about 1 1/2 cups of the mixture for crumbling on the top. Press the remaining mixture into a 9x13 pan.

Melt the chocolate chips, sweetened condensed milk and butter together. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla and coconut (if you choose). Pour this mixture across the top of the peanut butter mixture in your pan, spreading it around evenly. 

Crumble the 1 1/2 cups of reserved peanut butter mixture across the top of the chocolate.

Bake for 20-25 minutes. Cool completely (30+ minutes, longer is better) before cutting into bars.

These are super duper rich and super duper not considered a health food. You have been warned.

This post was originally a guest post for The Crafty Scientist. If you haven't, go check out Mel's awesome blog. Thanks a million for having me, Mel! Congrats on rocking your dissertation. I don't know how you do it all!

This post is linked up to some of the parties listed under my Show & Tell tab at the top of the page.