Hello Bakers,
I love the week before New Year's. Typically, I use it to de clutter the house and organize for the upcoming year. Well this year was no exception - but the difference is that I was ruthless. Seven boxes and the deep fryer went to Goodwill. It is ok about the deep fryer. It was terrible to clean.
By far, paper was the worst of my clutter. it was stuffed in binders and file folders, cluttering up the bookcase and many available surfaces.
99% of all that paper were all the recipes I have collected over the years (since I was 12) - it was so much paper and I really had to ask myself "are you ever going to make that someday?" As we all know (intellectually) someday really means never.
In addition, I have (had) a substantial collection of little recipe booklets. Yes, you know the ones. They are at the checkout and they are very hard to resist. I used to be a real sucker for these.
This recipe comes from one of those books. It is modernized, updated and awesome. Recipes that we can put together with ingredients already in our pantries and refrigerators are really useful - and this is one of those. Having to go out and get an ingredient or two, when you are psyched to start baking is no fun - we have all been there.
This will be on your "A" list If you are a Streusel or Crumb Topping lover, Streusel lovers -you can never have enough and this recipe has a lot.
From here on in, I will refer to it as streusel as that is what I have been calling it my whole life. Streusel and crumb topping are the same thing.
Streusel is delicious and I have yet to meet anyone who didn't like it. Seriously, how could you not? Streusel is mainly butter and sugar.
I have one friend who loves Streusel so much that I gift her with a quart container of it for her birthday and Christmas. Just the streusel, nothing with it and it makes her so happy.
For these bars, I added cocoa - giving it a little chocolate twist to pair with the chocolate crust and filling. I hope you try this recipe and add it (electronically) to your "BakingwithColette" recipe repertoire. Make these next time you need a treat for the office, a pot luck, game day or the school bake sale.
What are you Baking Resolutions for 2017?
Happy Baking!
Colette
Nutty Chocolate Streusel Bars
Yield 12 2”x3” bars
Equipment
Stand Mixer with paddle attachment
Quarter sheet pan or 13’x9” pan – brushed with pan spread or sprayed with non-stick spray
Parchment paper to line bottom and sides of pan
Spatula
Sauce pan and heatproof bowl for melting chocolate
Medium sized mixing bowl
Scale
Measuring spoons
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Spread the pan with pan spread**,melted butter or spray with pan spray
Line the long side of the pan with parchment paper, leaving an overhang of 1” at the top of the pan.
This parchment “sling” will make it easier to remove the bars from the pan
Ingredients
9 ounces, (255g), 2 cups All Purpose flour
I ounce, (28g), 2 Tablespoons Cocoa powder, can be Dutch process or natural cocoa, like Hershey’s
3.5 ounces, (99g), ½ cup Granulated sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
8 ounces, (227g), 1 cup Butter, cubed and chilled
9 ounces, (255g), 1 1/2 cups Semisweet chocolate chips
3 ounces (85g) ½ cups Semisweet chocolate chips (used in topping)
14 ounces, (397g), 1 ¼ cups or 1 can Sweetened condensed milk
1 teaspoon Vanilla
4 ounces, (113g), 1 cup Pecans, walnuts, macadamia or almonds, chop into small pieces.
Nutty Chocolate Streusel Bars Mise en place
1. In the mixer fitted with the paddle attachment combine flour, cocoa, sugar, salt and vanilla. Mix on low speed 30 seconds to combine.
Dry mix
2. Add butter and mix on speed two until the mixture looks like crumbs and the raw bits of butter are no longer visible. Do not overmix – it should not form a ball.
Take out 2 cups of the crumb mixture and press it into the bottom of the prepared pan. This mixture forms the crust. Reserve the rest for the topping.
Topping and Crust - the topping has the chocolate chips and nuts added to it
3. Bake crust for 10 minutes. Crust does not need to cool before proceeding with the rest of the recipe.
4. Place the 1 ½ cups chocolate and condensed milk in a heatproof bowl.
5. Bring 2-3” of water to a boil in the saucepan. Turn off heat once the water is boiling and stir chocolate and condensed milk until smooth. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Spread over crust.
Nutty Chocolate Streusel Bars Components
6. Add walnuts and ½ cup of chocolate chips to reserved topping. Sprinkle over chocolate layer.
Nutty streusel bars half topped
Ready to bake
7. Bake at 350 degrees. Start checking in 20-25 minutes. The topping should be a beautiful golden brown and the chocolate layer will appear “set”.
Cool before cutting.
Bars keep in an airtight container for 4-5 days. Freeze for up to one month.