Cookies and Cranberries

My Kraft What's Cooking Magazine came this week - I love that magazine!  Easy recipes and so, so, so good.  So this afternoon I got to trying one of the new cookie recipes.  This new recipe combined two of my favourite things - chocolate and cranberries!  These things start to make it feel like the holidays I find.  Of course, it also helped that I had a Starbucks Gingerbread Latte in one of their Red cups today - yes holiday time is definitely coming...

So today I tried the Chewy Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars, here is the recipe:

Chewy Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars (Kraft What's Cooking)

Makes 32 servings (yeah right!!)

1 cup flour

3/4 cup quick-cooking oats

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 cup butter, softened

3/4 cup Kraft Peanut Butter with Honey

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

5 oz Baker's Semi-Sweet Chocolate, chopped

1/2 cup dried cranberries

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Line 13x9 inch pan with foil, with ends of foil extending over sides; spray with cooking spray.  Mix flour, oats and baking soda until blended.

Beat butter, peanut better and sugars in large bowl with mixer until light and fluffy.  Add egg and vanilla; mix well.  Gradually add flour mixture, mixing well after each addition.  Stir in chocolate and cranberries; gently press onto bottom of prepared pan.

Bake 20-22 minutes or until centre is set.  Cool completely.  Use foil handles to lift dessert from pan before cutting into bars.  

Substitute: Substitute dried cherries for the cranberries.

As you are stirring in the chocolate and the cranberries, you may think there is too much, but let's be honest, there can never be too much chocolate!  And I like cranberries so I don't think there's too much of those either.  It really actually turned out to be the perfect mix!

They came out almost like a large chocolate chip cookie - I think they would be awesome served warm with some French Vanilla ice cream!

The one thing I would say about this recipe is that I'm not sure that the Peanut Butter with Honey actually makes a difference for the price you have to pay for it.  I would try it without next time and may throw in a tsp or two or honey if I felt it really needed it.

Overall, these are really good and would be a great addition to any holiday party!

Thanks for stopping by!