Chocolate Streusel Bars

Crispy and deliciously chewy chocolate bars with a struesel topping…

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We are already on day 3 of the Bakethon for this year after starting off with the Kerala Plum Cake and then the ABC Muffins. Did you get hold of the theme I mentioned about in the first post? I guess you did… But if this post confuses you a bit, then I don’t blame you. Hehe… I guess I will keep off the suspense. The theme I chose for this year’s Bakeathon is “Fruit and Nut”. I love baking with both of them just like I love baking with chocolate, so thought I should go ahead and do some posts related to it. It just happened very implusively while I was going through my list of drafts and then decided to go with this theme, because I had a lot of posts which had either one or both of them. So yes, if the muffin post had only fruit in it, this one has only nuts in it… 😉

I did mention I baked a lot when I was at my sister’s. She was hell bent at wanting me to bake. Apart from trying a few new bakes, we baked some easy fudge brownies, blondies, brownie cookie bars, and then those ones that already appeared on the blog – this peach cobbler and the raspberry tarts. The whole idea was to make in bulk. If we were going to meet someone or someone was coming over, we would bake something and that too in a huge batch. The majority would go to them and the rest we would eat on. That way, she made sure she tasted everything but didn’t over indulge in any of them. 😀 Ah, as I type this, I miss her, her kitchen, our grocery runs just to get butter and flour so that we could bake… 🙂

So early August, Meena messaged that she would like to come over. I was totally over the moon. I have already mentioned about her visit in this cherry muffin post – another bake in her kitchen. I really wanted to bake her something so that she could take it with her, but I wasn’t sure what. While browsing over my pinterest boards, I came across this recipe. It felt like the perfect gifting idea and also one that would stay on for sometime without making much fuss. Since I had already tried these magic bars before, I knew this would be amazing as well. The only difference was in this recipe, the shortbread is made from scratch.

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We went through her pantry and she had everything available – a few cans of condensed milk waiting to be used, that big Costco pack of mixed nuts that Rasha and I would munch on each time we walked in and out of the kitchen, butter, flour, that huge pack of Kirkland chocolate chips… I have to say, she has a well equipped kitchen. When I would ask her, it would come out from the darkest, deepest corners of her kitchen.

OK, jokes apart, I pulled out her Kitchenaid food processor that she had used just once – ah, I vouch she is my sister, we both have inertia when it comes to using gadgets! – and whizzed the shortbread dough. I pressed half the dough in, made the kids sprinkle the nuts and chocolate, drizzled the condensed milk all over and topped with the rest of the dough. The oven did rest of the work. Once it baked and came out, we couldn’t resist pinching from the sides. It was “mwah”! All the beautiful peices went to Meena and we kept all the corners. We ate it over like medicine three times a day till it got over. Hehe…

One word of caution though – this dessert is heavy, so better not to have more than one small peice. However, it is so addictive that you would wait for the sugar high to come down to go ahead and pick another bite. I really can’t wait to bake these again, may when the girls are having a get together or hopefully a gathering, InShaAllah… Off to this recipe…

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5 from 3 votes

Chocolate Streusel Bars

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time 45 minutes minutes

Servings 16

Author Rafeeda AR

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup sugar increase for more sweetness
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup butter cold, cubed
• 1 large egg room temperature
• 1 can condensed milk 397 gm can
• 1 cup chopped nuts of choice I used cashews, almonds, pistachios and pecans
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Grease a 13x9 pan and line with parchment paper.
• In a food processor, add all the dry ingredients and cold butter. Blitz till it represents bread crumps.
• Add the egg and blitz again.
• Add half of the mixture into the prepared pan. Pour the condensed milk all over. Sprinkle the chocolate chips and the nuts.
• Spread the rest of the mixture on top and flatten with a spatula.
• Bake for 20-25 minutes till the bars look set.
• Take off from the pan and cool on a rack for the bars to settle. Slice in 16 bars and enjoy.

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