Peanut Butter Pretzel M&M Crumb Bars

The holiday baking has been in full swing around here for what seems like weeks now. And it's been mostly gingerbread and other ginger and cinnamon spiced delights. I love those holiday flavors but, um, after the umpteenth spiced cake and gingerbread men cookies were baked and packed up for gifts, I was kind of a little over it. Time to switch it up and use some of those fun holiday candies in something.

 

When I think of incorporating candies in a baked good I usually think of cookies. But I've turned out so many gingerbread men this past week that I couldn't face that prospect. But crumb bars are easy to make and can be sliced like logs to create the perfect treat portion. Done.
 

Choosing the flavor wasn't hard because I'm pretty much always in the mood for peanut butter and I'm also a die hard sweet and salty fan. You can use pretzel pieces here but the bag of pretzel M&M's spoke to me when I passed it in the store. It said buy two of me because you will snack on one before it even makes it into the crumb bars. Very wise, that bag was. Enjoy!

Yield: 8 Servings

Author: Anita Schecter

Peanut Butter Pretzel M&M Crumb Bars

Prep time: 30 MinCook time: 45 MinTotal time: 1 H & 15 M

Recipe for crumb bars filled with peanut butter and topped with pretzel M&M's.

Ingredients

For the Crust:

• 3 Cups all purpose flour
• 1 Teaspoon salt
• 1 Teaspoon baking powder
• 3/4 Cup sugar
• 2 Sticks unsalted butter, chilled and cut into 1" pieces
• 1 Teaspoon vanilla
• 1 Egg

For the Filling:

• 16 oz. Cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 Cup sugar
• 1 Cup peanut butter
• 1 Egg
• 1 Teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 Cup peanut butter chips
• Pinch of salt

For the Topping:

• 1 Cup pretzel M&M's
• 1/4 Cup peanut butter chips

Instructions

1. Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Add the flour, salt, baking powder and sugar to a food processor along with the butter. Pulse a few times until the mixture resembles course crumbs. Add the vanilla and egg and continue pulsing until a dough ball forms.
3. Take 2/3 of the dough and press it down into an 8" baking dish that you've lined with parchment paper.
4. To make the filling, tap out the bowl of the food processor but no need to wash it. Add the cream cheese, sugar, peanut butter, egg, vanilla and salt to the bowl and puree until fully combined. Add the peanut butter chips and pulse a couple of times just to incorporate.
5. Spoon the filling out onto the dough in the baking dish. Crumble the remaining 1/3 of the dough over the top and sprinkle on the M&M's and the peanut butter chips.
6. Bake for 45 minutes and allow to cool before removing from the pan. Slice in half and then, lengthwise, into slices, if desired.

Created using The Recipes Generator