Santa's Cookie Bars

Santa's Cookie Bars are perfect for Christmas Eve on the cookie plate! A soft, thick, and chewy peanut butter cookie bar loaded with oats, chocolate, peanut butter m&m's, and festive red and green sprinkles.

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Keyword christmas recipe, peanut butter cookie bars, santa cookie bars, santa cookies

Prep Time 10

Cook Time 15

Total Time 25

Servings squares

Calories 222kcal

Author Jessica

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup old-fashioned oats
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter softened
1/3 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 cup mini chocolate chips
1 cup Christmas mix peanut butter m&m's
3 tablespoons Christmas sprinkles

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 9X13-inch baking pan and set aside. Or you can line with parchment paper or foil, and use the overhang to lift the bars out so they're easier to slice.
In a small bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt and oats. Set aside.
In a large bowl, or in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter, peanut butter, brown sugar, and sugar until fluffy looking and light in color. About 2 minutes.
Add in the vanilla, egg and egg yolk. Blend together and scrape down the sides of the bowl.
Add the dry ingredients into the wet and mix just until combined. Add chocolate chips and the peant butter m&m's and blend together until mixed in.
Press the batter into the prepared pan. Top with the sprinkles and gently press them onto the dough.
* I reserve some of the chocolate chips and m&m's and press those on top of the dough as well (before baking). This gives the bars a pretty presentation.
Bake for 14-16 minutes or until lightly browned on the edges. The bars will still look pale and slightly underdone in the middle. That's ok. Don't over bake or the bars will be dry!
Let the bars cool in the baking pan for 20-30 minutes. Cut into squares and enjoy!

Notes

It's best to use regular creamy peanut butter (Jif, Peter Pan, etc). The "natural" and reduced-fat peanut butters are much drier which will yield a very dense, dry cookie bar. Of course, you can always experiment and maybe it will be fine for you.

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