OUR SHOWSTOPPER

Sweet meets salty in this heavenly mash-up of cookies and pretzels

Make this month’s seasonal dish

Chocolate, peanut butter & pretzel cookie bars Serves 15 Prep 20 mins Cook 50 mins

175g butter, softened, plus extra for the tin

200g soft light brown sugar

100g golden caster sugar

1 tbsp vanilla extract

2 large eggs, beaten

250g plain flour

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

2 tbsp full-fat milk

150g dark chocolate, chopped into chunks

100g chunky peanut butter

50g small salted pretzels ½ tsp sea salt flakes

1 Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Butter and line a 20cm square baking tin with baking parchment. Tip the butter, sugars and vanilla extract into a bowl and beat with an electric hand whisk until smooth and creamy. Add the eggs bit by bit, beating well between each addition. Stir in the flour, bicarb and ¼ tsp salt until it forms a dough. Pour in the milk and 100g chocolate.

2 Spoon half the mixture into the tin, add the peanut butter in dollops to cover the surface, then top with the remaining dough. Use your fingers to press everything down, but don’t worry about it looking too neat. Arrange the pretzels on top and bake for 50 mins until the dough is set and crisp on the surface. Leave to cool in the tin to room temperature before cutting.

3 Melt the remaining chocolate in a bowl over a small pan of gently simmering water, or in short bursts in the microwave. Remove the bars from the tin and drizzle with the chocolate, then sprinkle with the sea salt. Leave to set, then cut into bars. Will keep in an airtight container for up to three days. PER SERVING 328 kcals, fat 17g, saturates 9g, carbs 38g, sugars 22g, fibre 2g, protein 5g, salt 0.8g