Georgia Cookie Candy

It is no secret that I love the combination of peanut butter and chocolate.  I have a rather embarrassing list of recipes that I either have made or want to make involving these two ingredients.  One day when my peanut butter and chocolate craving hit (no surprise :). I began scrolling through my 'want to try' peanut butter and chocolate recipes and realized that I had two very similar recipes bookmarked.  Unable to decide from the photos and ingredients alone I knew that I would just have to make them both and decide which was the better recipe.

Today's recipe is Georgia Cookie Candy from Pass the Peas Please, adapted from Paula Deen.  I really liked the darker chocolate flavor in these bars.  I used to be a milk chocolate only gal, but with this pregnancy have preferred semi-sweet and dark chocolate most of the time.  Another bonus with this recipe is that it is super duper simple!  Crushing the graham crackers into crumbs was probably the hardest thing but I am sure if you used a food processor this "hard" task would be super duper easy too!  The drawbacks to this recipe compared to the other one was the presentation (I didn't think they looked as pretty) and that they had a slightly grainy texture.  I used the same bag of crushed graham crackers for both recipes so I am not sure why this one had a more grainy feeling. Even with those two things this is still a fantastic recipe and I loved how easy it was to make.

Georgia Cookie Candy  Source:  Pass the Peas Please

Ingredients:

1 cup butter
1 cup crunchy peanut butter (I used smooth peanut butter)

2 3/4 cup confectioners' sugar
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Line a 13x9x2 pan with foil.

2. Combine the butter, peanut butter, sugar and graham cracker crumbs in a large bowl.

3. Press into the foil-lined pan using your hands or a spatula.
4. Melt the chocolate chips in the microwave for 1 minute on high. Stir. If the chocolate has not completely melted, microwave for 10 seconds more, then stir.

5. Spread evenly over the cookie layer with a spatula. Chill for several hours.

When ready to serve, allow the candy to come to room temperature before cutting into pieces. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator. Makes 36 to 40 pieces. (I didn't get nearly that many :)

You can see the texture a little better in this picture