Congo Bars

Last week, Bakerella posted about Congo bars, and ever since I have wanted to make these. They look like a chocolate chip cookie and a brownie married and had a baby together. hehe. I didn't have a pound of brown sugar, so I had to improvise. Thanks to Pioneer Woman and Tasty Kitchen, I found a good substitute. For every cup of brown sugar, I used 1 cup of white sugar and 1 tablespoon of molasses. I baked it for about 25 minutes at 325 degrees because the oven gets hot pretty quickly. Overall it turned out fine, a little underbaked, but the edges were starting to turn brown. They are a little sweet and I think it's because I used a little too much molasses or because I used semi sweet chocolate chips instead of milk chocolate chips. When I first poured it out onto the pan, I thought I didn't have enough batter. The batter was less than inch thick, but after baking it rose to a little over an inch thick. Texture wise, these are really good. The outside has a crunch, like a brownie, and the inside is nice and chewy. I think this needed pecans or walnuts, and I think I'll add this the next time I bake it.

Before

After

Warm, gooey and straight from the oven. Yummy! This was delicious with a glass of milk!

Congo Bars

adapted from Bakerella.com

Ingredients

2 2/3 cups all purpose flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2/3 cup butter, softened
2 1/4cups white sugar
2 Tablespoons molasses
3 eggs, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups semi sweet chocolate chips
1 cup chopped pecans (optional)

Directions

- Preheat oven 350 degrees. Grease 9 x 13 in. pan
- In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking powder and salt, and set aside.
- Stir brown sugar into softened butter until butter disappears.
- Add one egg into butter mixture and stir well. Repeat with remaining eggs.
- Add vanilla, chocolate chips and nuts. Mix well together.
- Add flour mixture to butter mixture and stir until well combined.
- Bake for 30 min or until top is golden brown.