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Marianne’s Butterscotch Chocolate Bars

This story goes something like this:

Girl accepts dinner invitation. Girl makes last minute decision to whip up a double batch of her cousin’s Butterscotch Brownies to take to dinner, thinking there will be plenty leftover. Girl takes the whole tray to dinner and returns home with about 1/3 of the bars left.

Then the kids, the husband and the girl herself eat … um, many. Girl realizes she still needs to photograph said brownies, and finds the one and only perfect one left. It’s an edge piece, which a tempting ridge around one side. Bars are gone by the end of the day — about 48 hours after they were made.

True story.

When I decided to make this recipe out of the family cookbook (yes, our family has our own private cookbook), I did so because it’s a recipe I’ve had earmarked for a long, long time. But while I’ve wanted to try it, I wasn’t sure anyone else would enjoy it as much. Ha! I should have known better.

Of course, it was only later that I reread the recipe and realized that I had taken some liberties that transformed the Butterscotch Brownies into Butterscotch Chocolate Cookie Bars. But whatever we call them, this happy accident yielded a cookie bar that everyone loved enough to go back for seconds.

These bars are irresistibly buttery and chocolatey — a combination that you can’t go wrong with. See, what happens when you make these is the chocolate settles on the bottom creating a dual-layered bar. While the bottom is all rich chocolate, the top is a buttery, sweet, salt-infused butterscotch layer. Amazing.

A friend, who visited this weekend, tried one of the few leftover bars and said they were somewhere between a blondie and a cookie bar — and really good.  Try them.

Also, this is a perfect recipe to make with children. There are so many kid-friendly steps, especially since it’s all hand stirred and whatnot. Will and Paige practically did all the making with me just supervising and measuring. It’s that simple and easy.

Marianne's Butterscotch Chocolate Bars

Marianne's Butterscotch Chocolate Bars

Yield: 24 servings

adapted from a family recipe

Ingredients

  • 1 cup unsalted butter
  • 2 cups packed light brown sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp kosher salt
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x13-inch baking pan with butter. Set aside.
  2. Melt the butter. Then, transfer to a large mixing bowl. Stir in the light brown sugar until well blended. Let cool slightly and then stir in the eggs. Set aside.
  3. In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Add to the wet ingredients and stir well to combine. Add the vanilla and chocolate chips. Stir.
  4. Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Spread out into one even layer.
  5. Bake for 30-35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out cleanly. Let cool and then cut into squares.
  6. Enjoy!

Maureen

Thursday 8th of March 2012

I make a similar bar that I love but I'm going to try yours because they look better than mine :)

sarah

Saturday 10th of March 2012

Let me know how you like it! I made these for a school fundraiser yesterday (a half-batch) and was so sad to give them all away (but I hope they went like hotcakes).

Yoko

Wednesday 7th of March 2012

Definetly adding these to my recipie book..mmm

Kate

Wednesday 7th of March 2012

I'm a sucker for butterscotch

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