Category Archives: Bars

Raspberry and dark chocolate blondies

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Raspberry and dark chocolate blondies

I’ve never really been that much of a fan of pairing raspberries and dark chocolate – I’ve always felt the tartness of raspberries is much better complemented by the sweetness of white chocolate.

With that in mind, I’m not entirely sure why a couple of weeks ago I became fixated with making dark chocolate and raspberry blondies, but I’m glad I did as this recipe has totally converted me.

I did a quick search on Google and Pinterest for recipes but nothing that came up was really what I wanted, so I ended up using this recipe as the basic blondie mix, swapping the white chocolate for dark and adding a small punnet of raspberries.

The bars were just dense and fudgy enough to be blondie-ish rather than cakey; the raspberries added bursts of fruity tartness, and the chunks of dark chocolate were a great contrast both in flavour and texture.

The blondies were sweet enough to balance the dark chocolate and raspberries, and I think that’s why I liked these so much – I still think I wouldn’t be a huge fan of raspberries in a brownie, but maybe I should give it a go and maybe be pleasantly surprised…

Raspberry and dark chocolate blondies (blondie recipe adapted from Baking Bites)

  • 115g butter
  • 200g caster sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 120g plain flour
  • 100g dark chocolate, chopped
  • 100g fresh raspberries

Beat the butter and sugar together until well mixed, then add the egg and vanilla and beat again. Fold in the flour and white chocolate chips, then gently fold in the raspberries – don’t over-mix or they will stain the batter pink. Spread the mixture into a greased and lined 8×8″ square baking tin and bake at 180 degrees for about 25 minutes, or until golden and set. Leave to cool completely before cutting into squares otherwise they’ll be far too gooey to cut neatly!

Apple, maple and pecan bars

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When I had to make cakes for a work meeting the other week, I knew straight away that coffee and caramelised white chocolate cupcakes would be on the menu, but choosing a second bake proved a little trickier.

The pony thought I should stick with something simple (read: chocolate) and a straw poll in the office put cheesecake in with a shout, but in the end I was swayed by the incredible looking maple, pear and pecan treacle tarts posted by the Little Loaf, and ended up adapting that recipe to make these bars.

I turned it into a traybake as I was a bit short on time and didn’t want to faff around lining individual tart tins,  slightly altered the ratio of maple to golden syrup to keep the cost down, and swapped pear for apple, just because.

These bars actually made me quite nervous – I thought they were great but I really didn’t know how well they would go down with everyone else.

Luckily I needn’t have worried as they were a winner – the lunchers loved them and my boss even said they would be in his top 3 pick of everything I’ve ever baked, which is a pretty good endorsement!

I served them at room temperature, which was good as it was actually a rare sunny day, but I can only imagine how amazing they would be warm with a scoop of ice cream on a chilly autumn or winter evening… Definitely worth revisiting the recipe to try!

Apple, maple and pecan bars (adapted from The Little Loaf)

For the pastry:

  • 65g butter
  • 100g plain flour
  • 30g icing sugar
  • 1 medium egg yolk

For the filling:

  • 35g butter
  • 150g maple syrup
  • 200g golden syrup
  • 150g fresh breadcrumbs
  • 1 granny smith apple (115g) grated
  • 50g pecan nuts, roughly chopped

To make the pastry, beat the butter and sugar until well mixed, add the egg yolk and beat again, then finally add the flour and mix until just combined. Tip the mixture into a greased and lined 8×8″ square tin and press down with your fingertips – this is loads easier than rolling it out and a method I will definitely use more in the future!

Prick the base with a fork and chill in the freezer for 10 minutes while the oven pre-heats to 180 degrees, then bake for around 15 minutes or until lightly golden. Leave to cool while you make the filling.

Heat the butter, maple syrup and golden syrup until melted (you don’t need to bring it to the boil, just get everything nice and liquidy). Stir in the breadcrumbs, grated apple and chopped pecans, then spread in an even layer on top of the base.

Return to the oven and bake at 180 degrees for 20-25 minutes, or until set and just crisping up around the edges. Leave to cool before slicing into bars.

Ginger chocolate shortbread bars

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Ginger chocolate shortbread bars

Ginger is one of my favourite flavours and when I hosted We Should Cocoa back in October I came very close to choosing it before settling on pumpkin instead, so I was more than a bit happy that birthday girl Jen at Blue Kitchen Bakes chose it for this month – the only difficulty was deciding what to bake!

I was toying with a few recipe ideas that used chunks of either stem or crystallised ginger, but the pony and I are attempting to have a bit of a money saving month (although he is doing a bit better than me!) so I ended up using what I already had on hand, in the form of ground ginger.

Inspired by these ginger crunch bars at Technicolour Kitchen, I set about making a sort of ginger version of millionaire’s shortbread, which is one of the pony’s favourites.

I used my own shortbread recipe, the icing from Technicolour Kitchen, and finished it with a layer of dark chocolate. If you are a ginger lover like me, then these bars beat millionaire’s shortbread hands down – the icing is so so good and the ginger really cuts through the sweetness.

I made quite a large batch of these, so I’m really hoping the pony devours them quickly or I can see myself heading back to the tub again, and again, and again…

These bars are my entry to We Should Cocoa, founded by Choclette and Chele and this month hosted over at Blue Kitchen Bakes. Be sure to check out all the other ginger goodies at the end of the month!

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Ginger chocolate shortbread bars

Makes 18 bars

For the base:

  • 250g butter
  • 330g plain flour
  • 2 tsp ground ginger
  • 110g caster sugar

For the topping:

  • 150g butter
  • 80g golden syrup
  • 1 1/2 tbsp ground ginger
  • 225g icing sugar
  • 200g dark chocolate

To make the base, stir the ginger into the flour and rub in the butter until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar then press into the base of a greased and lined 9×11″ shallow rectangular tin. Bake at 180 degrees for about 20 minutes, or until just starting to go golden, then leave to cool in the tin.

For the ginger layer, heat the butter, golden syrup and ginger in a saucepan over a medium heat, stirring until the butter has melted. Sift in the icing sugar then whisk until no lumps remain. Pour over the base and leave to set at room temperature.

Melt the chocolate over a low heat, don’t let it get too hot, then spread over the set ginger layer. Leave at room temperature until the chocolate has just hardened then cut into bars.

Grasshopper squares

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These grasshopper squares have been on my to-bake list for an incredibly long time, but I think I’ve always been a bit put off by the ingredients list – 250g dark chocolate, 200g white chocolate, peppermint extract, green food colouring all bought in one go would be a bit expensive for one batch of brownies!

This week I found myself with a bar each of dark chocolate and milk chocolate that had gone unused the week before, I had peppermint extract leftover from making homemade after eights as Christmas gifts, and green food colouring going back to the crocodile cake I made ages ago, so it seemed fated that it was finally time to give grasshopper squares a go.

I adapted the recipe a bit, more to keep the calorie count down than the cost, and reduced the amounts of chocolate – these are still incredibly rich even when cut into smaller squares than the recipe suggests so I definitely don’t think you miss out on any of the chocolatey goodness by using less!

I though 2 tsp of mint extract would be too overpowering so I added it bit by bit, but actually it was fine and I think I even added a little extra. I changed the top layer to be pure chocolate so it would have a bit of bite to it rather than having three soft layers and I think that worked well too, although it does make them a bit harder to cut neatly.

The pony loves these, and I have to admit I do too – I don’t normally go for things this chocolatey but the mint pulls it all together and makes them rather addictive!

I’m glad I finally got around to making them, and I have a feeling they will be made again…

Grasshopper squares (adapted from BBC Good Food)

For the brownies:

  • 100g dark chocolate
  • 50g butter
  • 2 medium eggs
  • 125g caster sugar
  • 50g plain flour
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 15g cocoa powder

For the topping:

  • 150g white chocolate
  • 50ml single cream
  • 2 tsp peppermint extract
  • green gel food colouring
  • 125g dark chocolate

Start by melting the dark chocolate and butter for the brownies together and set aside to cool. Whisk the eggs and sugar until pale and fluffy, then pour in the chocolate mixture. Fold in the flour, baking powder and cocoa powder and spread into a greased and lined 8×8″ square tin. Bake at 170 degrees for about 15 minutes, or until cracking at the edges but just set in the middle. Leave to cool in the tin while you make the topping.

Heat the cream until just starting to simmer, then pour over the white chocolate. Stir until all the chocolate has melted and then add in the peppermint extract to taste and enough green food colouring to turn it a pale minty green (I thought I’d added too much green but once it was sandwiched between two dark chocolate layers it was toned down a bit). When the mixture has thickened but it still pourable spread over the brownie base and chill in the fridge to firm up.

Melt the dark chocolate, stirring regularly and checking to make sure it doesn’t get too hot. Working quickly, spread over the mint layer – because it’s been in the fridge it will make the dark chocolate set really fast. Cut into squares using a hot knife then store in the fridge. If they last long enough that is!

Wheat, dairy and (almost) sugar free chocolate oat bars

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Wheat, dairy and (almost) sugar free chocolate oat bars

When Choclette at Chocolate Log Blog picked ‘sugar free’ as the health-conscious theme for this month’s We Should Cocoa, I had a fairly good idea of what I would make – something similar to the chocolate fudge bites I made last year, but in a bar form that the pony could take to work.

It worked out quite well, as for the past three weeks I haven’t had a working oven, so no-bake treats are about all I’ve been able to make (don’t worry, the oven issue has now been sorted, so no more moaning I promise!)

I adapted this recipe from Love Veggies and Yoga, switching the cinnamon and vanilla for cocoa powder for added chocolatey-ness. I also forgot to add the milk, and wondered why the mixture didn’t seem to be sticking together – oops! But luckily adding extra honey sorted it out, and had the benefit of turning them into a dairy-free treat as well.

Technically speaking, these aren’t 100% sugar free, as the dark chocolate I used wasn’t 100% pure, but they definitely needed the extra chocolate on top in order to be acceptable to the pony, so hopefully Choclette will let me off!

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I’m really looking forward to seeing the round up and all the ingenious ways WSC-ers manage to go sugar free – although I do kind of hope I’m not the only person to cheat a bit…

Wheat, dairy and (almost) sugar free chocolate oat bars (adapted from Love Veggies and Yoga)

  • 300g rolled oats
  • 200g smooth peanut butter (I used a 25% less fat version)
  • 120g pitted dates
  • 20g cocoa powder
  • between 100-200g clear honey
  • 120g dark chocolate, melted
  • 40g dark chocolate, chopped

Add the oats, dates, peanut butter, cocoa powder and 100g honey to a food processor and blitz until everything is finely chopped and the mixture starts to come together. It needs to stick together if you press it into clumps with your fingers, so if it’s not doing that keep adding more honey until it gets to the right consistency. Press very firmly into the base of an 8×8″ square cake tin and leave to set in the fridge.

Melt the 120g dark chocolate and spread in a layer over the oat bars. Sprinkle the 40g chopped chocolate on top white the melted chocolate is still runny so the bits stick, then leave to set before slicing into squares.

Oat base brownies

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Oat based brownies

These brownies are absolutely nothing like what they should have been.

The recipe I was following, from Brown Eyed Baker, should have resulted in a triple layer bar, with an oat base, fudgy chocolate middle and oaty crumble topping.

Sadly as soon as I poured the melted butter into the oat mix, I knew it wasn’t to be, as there was no way it ever would have made a crumble, there was just too much liquid and it came together into more of a cookie dough, which is why I ended up pressing all of it into the base and just baking the fudgy brownie layer on top.

I don’t doubt that the original recipe works, I think perhaps something got lost in translation from cup sizes to grams, but if I were to make them again I think using the traditional method of rubbing butter into flour, rather than melting it, would get a result much closer to a crumble.

In the end it didn’t really matter, they still tasted great and went down well both with the pony and with people at work – the crunchy base adds a nice texture contrast to the super fudgy brownie, and chocolate and brown sugar can never really be a bad combination!

Oat base brownies (adapted from Brown Eyed Baker)

For the base

  • 100g oats
  • 200g light brown sugar
  • 90g plain flour
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 110g butter, melted

For the brownie

  • 50g brown sugar
  • 30g plain flour
  • 2 tsp instant coffee
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 30g butter
  • 250g dark chocolate
  • 1 egg

To make the base, mix the oats, flour, baking powder and sugar in a bowl then pour in the melted butter and stir to combine. Press the mixture into the base of an 8×8″ square tin lined with baking paper and bake at 180 degrees for 20-25 minutes, or until golden and starting to crisp up. Leave to cool completely.

To make the brownie layer, melt the chocolate and butter together over a pan of simmering water, then remove from the heat and whisk in the egg. Fold in the  sugar, flour, coffee and salt, then spread on top of the oat base and bake for a further 25 minutes, until just set with a crisp papery top. Leave to cool before removing from the tin and slicing into squares.

Chilli chocolate brownies (GF)

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The other weekend, my next door neighbour Jo invited me around for a chocolate tasting session. I have the best neighbours!

One of the selection of chocolate bars, from the Eden Project, was a dark chilli chocolate. I quite liked it, but Jo thought the chilli was a bit too strong, so very kindly donated the rest of the bar for me to bake with.

The idea was that the chilli would be toned down a bit if it was used in baking, and it worked – these chilli chocolate brownies have just enough chilli to give a nice kick, but definitely not too much to be overwhelming.

The brownie recipe itself was also a great success – it’s wheat and gluten free, and has a very high proportion of chocolate to all the other ingredients which is bound to be good!

I adapted the original from David Lebovitz a little, by swapping chopped nuts for chopped chocolate, but otherwise followed the recipe to the letter – especially heeding David’s warning to beat the mixture for at least a minute or risk crumbly brownies!

Chilli Chocolate Brownies (adapted from David Lebovitz)

  • 75g chilli flavoured dark chocolate
  • 225g dark chocolate
  • 85g butter
  • 120g caster sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 tbsp cocoa powder
  • 3tbsp cornflour
  • Optional – 1 tsp chilli powder (depending on how strong your chocolate is and how strong you want the brownies to taste)

Roughly chop the chilli and normal chocolate and mix the two together, then set aside 75g of it. Heat the remaining 225g of chocolate with the butter in a saucepan over a low heat, then remove from the hob and beat in the sugar. Add the eggs one at a time, beating until well mixed. Sift together the cocoa and cornflour (and chilli powder if using), then add to the chocolate mixture. Beat for at least a minute so the mixture is smooth and shiny – this is apparently a very important stage!

Fold in the remaining chopped chocolate, then spread the mixture into an 8×8″ square greased and lined tin. Bake at 180 degrees for about 25 minutes, or until just set. Leave until completely cool to remove from the tin and cut into squares.

Snickers flapjacks (GF)

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I’ve been at it again – buying reduced price chocolate that’s going out of date, with the vague idea that I’ll bake it into something…

Following the success of minstrel cookies and a mars bar loaf cake, this time around it’s snickers flapjacks – and dare I say it, I think it’s my best chocolate bar creation to date!

Peanut butter flapjack with chunks of snickers mixed in, topped with a layer of caramel and a layer of chocolate on top… what’s not to like!

I’ve been experimenting with quite a few flapjack recipes recently, and I think if you take away all the bells and whistles the basic flapjack bit of this is actually a pretty good go-to recipe, that could be changed up with whatever add-ins or toppings you like, and you could easily swap the peanut butter for more regular butter if you’re not a fan.

If you’re watching your weight then click away now, but otherwise keep reading and make these as soon as you can – they were a big hit with everyone who tried them and I’ll definitely be making them again.

Snickers flapjacks (basic recipe adapted from the Guardian)

  • 300g rolled oats
  • 100g butter
  • 100g peanut butter
  • 50g light brown sugar
  • 90g golden syrup
  • 1 medium snickers bar, chopped
  • 200g caster sugar
  • 90ml water
  • 60g butter
  • 60ml double cream
  • 200g milk chocolate

Heat the butter, peanut butter, brown sugar and golden syrup in a heavy-based saucepan until everything has melted and mixed together. Put the oats in a large mixing bowl and pour the liquid over them, stirring until all the oats are coated. Add in the chopped snickers then spread into an 8×8″ square tin, lined with foil, and bake at 160 degrees for 20-25 minutes, or until golden.

To make the caramel, heat the caster sugar and water in a large pan, stirring until all the sugar has dissolved. Bring the mixture to the boil, not stirring at all, but brushing the sides of the pan with water if any sugar crystals form. Wait until the caramel turns a deep amber colour, then remove from the heat and quickly whisk in the butter and cream (ignoring the angry spitting) until you have a lovely smooth caramel.

Leave the caramel to cool until thicker but still pourable, then pour on top of the flapjacks and spread to cover evenly. Leave to chill in the fridge while you melt the chocolate over a pan of simmering water, then once the caramel has set spread the chocolate on top. The chocolate should set quite quickly on top of the cold caramel without going back in the fridge so just leave until hard enough to lift out of the tin and cut into bars or squares.

They can be pretty tricky to cut if the chocolate has set too hard, so I cheated a bit and put the tin under the grill for a few seconds, just long enough to soften the chocolate – if you try this be careful not to leave it too long in case you end up with a big melty mess!

Crunchy ‘Nature Valley’ style chocolate chip granola bars

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Nature Valley bars have that horrible combination of being absolutely delicious, but ridiculously highly priced, so when I saw a homemade version that claimed to be every bit as good as the original on Chocolate Covered Katie, I knew I had to give it a try.

As with most of the things I’ve been baking recently, I added chocolate to keep the pony happy, but otherwise followed it to the letter, even using Truvia rather than sugar to keep them healthy(ish).

I took my eye off them when they were in the oven and probably baked them for about a minute too long, as they were definitely ‘golden’ in appearance, but I am pleased to report it didn’t affect the taste or texture, and they were indeed just like Nature Valley bars!

I would definitely make these again, but maybe change up the ingredients to recreate some of the other Nature Valley flavours – I’m especially fond of the ginger one which I’m sure can be easily done…

Crunchy ‘Nature Valley’ style chocolate chip granola bars (recipe adapted from Chocolate Covered Katie)

  • 100g rolled oats
  • 10g rice krispies
  • 3 tbsp ground oats or oat flour
  • 100g dark chocolate, chopped
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 2 tbsp sunflower oil
  • 3 tbsp maple syrup
  • 1 tbsp Truvia or other sweetener

Mix together all the dry ingredients in a bowl, then stir in the wet ingredients until everything is well combined. Press down as hard as you can into an 8×8″ square tin, lined with baking paper, then bake at 180 degrees for 15-20 minutes, keeping an eye out for when they are nicely golden and crisp. Leave to cool before cutting into bars.

Pumpkin spiced chocolate chip flapjacks (GF)

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As the host of this month’s We Should Cocoa, I am taking the liberty of entering twice – no one can stop me! Mwahahaha…

The pony’s new job involves quite a lot of physical work meaning he needs to eat EVEN MORE than before, so I’ve been trying out quite a few recipes for various bars that are easily transportable and can snacked on whenever he has a spare minute.

I found this recipe for pumpkin chocolate chip granola bars at Two Peas and Their Pod that seemed to fit the bill, as well as tying in nicely with my selection of pumpkin for We Should Cocoa.

In my mind, granola bars implies more add-ins, clumps and crunchy bits, which is why I’ve renamed these flapjacks, but really the name isn’t that important – the incredible smell of them baking is!

I have absolutely fallen in love with my pumpkin pie spice and am using it wherever I can. I don’t think I’ll be getting bored of it for a while, so apologies to any spice-haters – normal non-spice service will be resumed eventually…

I made a few substitutions to make the recipe fit what I had on hand, including swapping apple sauce for a mashed over-ripe banana and honey for golden syrup, but they turned out fine, and I think this recipe could probably be adapted a lot further if you wanted to.

Added bonus is that these bars are both gluten and dairy free (and vegan) with the pumpkin and banana taking the place of butter. If you wanted to make them healthier, you could probably swap the sugar for calorie-free sweetener – something I will be trying soon…

Pumpkin spiced chocolate chip flapjacks (GF) (recipe adapted from Two Peas and Their Pod)

  • 325g rolled oats
  • 1 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
  • 100g dark chocolate, chopped
  • 125g fresh pumpkin puree
  • 70g (1 small) ripe banana, mashed
  • 65g golden syrup
  • 150g light brown sugar

Add the oats, spice and chocolate to a large bowl and stir to mix together. In another bowl, whisk together the pumpkin, banana, golden syrup and sugar until no lumps remain, then add this to the oat mixture, stirring in until all the oats are covered. Press down firmly into an 8×8″ square baking tin, lined with baking paper, then bake at 180 degrees for around 35 minutes, or until golden and crisp on top. The bars will stay chewy because of the pumpkin, but undercooking could make them soggy so be warned!

This is my second entry for We Should Cocoa - thanks again to Choclette and Chele for letting me host!

I’m also going to enter these flapjacks to the One Ingredient Challenge, hosted by Laura at How To Cook Good Food and Nazima at Franglais Kitchen, who chose pumpkin as this month’s ingredient.