Chocolate, peanut butter & pretzel cookie bars

A sweet and salty traybake with dollops of crunchy peanut butter and a drizzle of dark chocolate – leave to cool, slice into bars and serve with salted caramel ice cream

Prep:20 mins
Cook:50 mins

Easy

Nutrition per serving

kcal 328
fat 17g
saturates 9g
carbs 38g
sugars 22g
fibre 2g
protein 5g
salt 0.8g

Ingredients

175g butter, softened, plus extra for greasing
200g soft light brown sugar
100g golden caster sugar
1 tbsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs, beaten
250g plain flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
2 tbsp full-fat milk
150g dark chocolate, chopped into chunks
100g chunky peanut butter
50g small salted pretzels
½ tsp sea salt flakes

Method

Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Grease and line a 20cm square baking tin with baking parchment. Tip the butter, sugars and vanilla extract into a bowl and beat with an electric hand whisk until smooth and creamy. Add the eggs bit by bit, beating well between each addition. Stir in the flour, bicarb and 1/4 tsp salt until the mixture forms a dough, then add the milk and 100g chocolate chunks.
Spoon half the mixture into the tin, add the peanut butter in dollops to cover the surface, then top with the remaining dough. Use your fingers to press everything down, but don’t worry about it looking too neat. Arrange the pretzels on top and bake for 50 mins until the dough is set and crisp on the surface. Leave to cool in the tin to room temperature before cutting.
Melt the remaining chocolate in a bowl over a small pan of gently simmering water, or in short bursts in the microwave. Remove the bars from the tin and drizzle with the chocolate, then sprinkle with the sea salt. Leave to set, then cut into bars. Will keep in an airtight container for up to 3 days.