My Favorite Peanut Butter Bars

I know it sounds crazy for a school lunch menu to contain the "best" anything, but when I was in high school, the cafeteria made the best peanut butter bars (sidebar: always, always served on Pizza day, for some reason)...and somehow, shortly before graduation, Levi talked the cooks into giving him the recipe. I generally remember to make them about once a year, and just made a batch this morning to munch on during the football game.

And after keeping it my little secret for more than 10 years...I'm sharing it with you.

The ingredients:

• 3 1/3 c flour (that's three-and-one-third)
  
• 1 1/3 c sugar
• 1 1/2 c brown sugar
• 1 Tbsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 Tbsp baking powder
• 2 jumbo or 3 large eggs
• 1 1/3 c shortening
• 1 Tbsp vanilla
• 2 c peanut butter

Preheat oven to 325. Spray a 9x13 cake pan (or two, if you have them) with nonstick spray.

Combine all ingredients except flour in a large mixing bowl. (Personally, I like to use half creamy and half crunchy peanut butter, but I rarely have both on hand.)

Stir in flour, one cup at a time. Mixture will be stiff and almost crumbly.

Press half the dough into 9x13 pan. I find it easiest to use my hands. You want to really press the mixture together into a solid sheet, eliminating as many cracks and crumbles as possible.

Bake in preheated oven 10 minutes - no more. Remove from oven before appearing fully cooked. Cut into bars with a sharp knife while still warm. Cut slowly, or they'll crumble!

Allow to cool before serving. Cover pan with lid or foil, or transfer to airtight container.

Makes TWO 9x13 pans, 18-24 bars each. Yum!