As fall approaches, it is the season for pies. This year, I decided to see if I could turn pie into a bar recipe. Bars are super easy to make, portable, and they’re grab-and-go. I discovered that you can make endless variations of bars, sweet, savory, healthy, etc. Try out this recipe and leave a comment, let me know how it turned out!
Ingredients:
Crust:
- 1 1/2 cups flour
- 1 stick (1/2 cup) butter, unsalted, cold, cubed
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 tsp salt
- ice water (as needed)
Filling:
- 6 tbsp butter
- 1/4 cup chocolate chips
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 tsp instant espresso powder
- pinch salt
- 2 eggs
- powdered sugar, for dusting (optional)
Notes:
- This recipe can also be made without eggs, etc, although I haven’t tried it myself.
Directions:
- Preheat the oven to 350, and grease an 8X8″ square pan
- In a food processor, pulse together the flour, sugar, brown sugar, and salt. Add in the cold butter and continue to pulse until the consistency is a course meal with some pieces of butter.
- Turn it out in the pan and even it out with a spatula and your hands.
- Cover with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for 15 min.
- Once it’s cold, place parchment paper inside with pie weights. Bake for 20 min, and then let it cool for at least an hour.
Filling:
- Preheat the oven to 325
- While the crust is chilling, melt the butter and chocolate chips in a kind of bain-marie setup.
- Heat a small pot/saucepan of boiling water with a bowl on top and stir the butter with the chocolate chips until it melts smooth (about 3 min)
- Off the heat, whisk in the vanilla, sugar, espresso, and salt.
- Add the eggs, and pour on the crust.
- Even it out with the spatula and tap to get out any air bubbles.
- Bake at 325 for 45 min.
- Cool for at least 2 hours before cutting, dust with powdered sugar.
