Bar Cookie

I was so excited when Enjoy Life came out with their new line of chocolate bars, I literally jumped for joy. I was already a huge fan of their chocolate chips, and now they’ve given me a whole new genre of chocolate to bake with. These chocolate chunk cookie bars are an old-fashioned picnic or school function favorite. So easy and yet sooooo good!

Often called “dream bars,” these double-layered bar cookies have a crunchy graham cracker base and a chewy, caramelized top. My friend Ben Duke says, “The only problem with these cookies is that there aren’t more of them!”

Up until I created this recipe, allergen-free, gluten-free brownies were a bit like the Holy Grail. I kept searching, but to no avail. I worked on my own recipe, but making brownies without dairy, soy, gluten, and, most of all, eggs is not easy! Granted, there were recipes out there that called themselves brownies, but they were really just mini cupcakes. A chewy, moist brownie with a nice crusty, glossy top remained elusive. Until now, that is. Yup, that’s right, after years of trying, I’ve finally baked it—an honest-to-goodness allergen-free, gluten-free, vegan tray of real brownies. Go ahead, I dare you, try eating just one.

There is a plum tree on Interstate Highway 35 in Austin, Texas. My uncle Jon keeps an eye on this poor little tree growing in the median. After its showy blooms fade he watches for the red plums. When they look ripe he pulls over with his hazards blinking and picks every last plum and brings them home to make jelly.

Brownie mixes are easy, I know, but what you gain in time you lose in flavor. This recipe comes together quickly and yields fudgy brownies with more chocolate taste than you’ll ever get from a mix.

This recipe’s dynamic is hard to explain, and I really like that. This is the charm of the blondie. The vanilla and chocolate have a subtle repartee, with neither really dominating nor giving way to the other. Initially, the vanilla seems to cede center stage to the chocolate, but if you pay close attention, you’ll notice how the vanilla rounds out the chocolate with a seductive mellowness, ultimately creating balance. Making them bite-size gives a great crunchy texture, but you can also bake them in a cake pan and serve them as squares. Either way, blondies are best served warm.

In order to get the same melty chocolate sensation that comes with the basic brownie without evaporated cane juice, I rely on a simple method of denting the agave brownies in the center and filling them with a puddle of rich, silky chocolate sauce (page 93). The sauce seeps out when bitten into and is so gratifying I wasn’t surprised when they began to move off the shelves faster than their sweeter counterpart. You can mix it up a bit by adding vanilla sauce to the center if there happens to be some, you know, lying around. Be sure to keep a special eye on the agave with this recipe. It’ll dictate whether you end up with a dry chocolate roll or a luscious fudgelike brownie.

I used to make from-the-box brownies on Friday nights to keep me busy during commercials for Miami Vice, in my opinion the premiere television drama behind Degrassi High. My sister Bridget taught me that if you take the brownies out of the oven about five minutes early, you will have a perfect gooey texture. At BabyCakes NYC, I developed a recipe to replicate that consistency but with a full cooking time, mostly to avoid the retching stomachache I’d have for the second half of the Don Johnson fashion parade. Initially these brownies were made in a square casserole pan and each batch yielded twelve brownies. Because they are so rich, however, I decided to bake them in mini-muffin trays and serve them as bite-size morsels. Now these tiny little flavor agents are nearly impossible to keep in the case. If you’re whipping up a batch, be warned: You may want to double the recipe.

No apologies here. These are dense and decadent. You’ll want to use a strong dark chocolate—something that stands up to the richness of great butter, fresh eggs, and a lot of sugar.

You’ll be happy to eat veggies for dessert when you taste these cakelike brownies. Zucchini is the surprise ingredient.

The exquisite aroma of cinnamon, apples, and brown sugar baking will make it hard to wait for this treat to come out of the oven.

Ever since I created my Chocolate Chocolate Brownie cups, which are an even easier version of my brownies that Jenna Fischer from The Office raved about on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, saying, “They played no small part in my recovery [speaking of her back injury],” I’ve been particular about eating only a select few varieties of brownies. Because mine taste like they are full of fat, I don’t see a reason to eat actual fatty ones that don’t taste any better. I will say, however, that when prepared as suggested as part of this recipe, the No Pudge! Brownies are definitely worth the calories. This recipe even shocked my team—it’s truly delicious, not to mention fun! To crush the peppermints, place the unwrapped candies in a resealable zip-top bag. Using the flat end of a meat mallet or the bottom of a heavy skillet, pound them until they are crushed into fine shavings. If you really want to save time, look for peppermint sprinkles near ice cream cones and ice cream toppings (brands such as Ken Craft and Wilton make them). They’re more expensive than buying the peppermints and crushing them yourself, but they’re a timesaver! If you’re not serving this pizza to your guests immediately, add the toppings to the brownie just before serving. If made too far ahead, the peppermints tend to run slightly on the whipped topping so it won’t look quite as pretty (though it will still taste delicious!).

Pat: We all have our vices, and mine is brownies—particularly these brownies, which have candy bars and crunchy pecans baked right in. They are some of the most decadent brownies you will ever eat. When I have one of these at two in the morning, I’m tempted to let out a loud moan, but then Gina would probably throw me out. Gina used to make them for me when we were courting hence the seductive additions. They say that chocolate is an aphrodisiac, so if you’re looking for a sweet deal to spark a little romance in your house, take my advice: Light a fire, add the Whipped Cream, fresh raspberries, and silky chocolate shavings, and you’ll be well on your way to a blissful ending!

Gina: These tart-sweet bar cookies are a variation on traditional lemon bars, and, girl, they are a vacation in a pan! The tender cookie base holds a puckery lime filling that gets a little extra kick from grated lime zest. You can use fresh limes or that bottled Key-lime juice you brought back from your last trip to the Gulf Coast. These bars need nothing more than a dusting of confectioners’ sugar, and they make an ideal dessert for barbecues, picnics, and slumber parties.

When researching this book, I talked about Jewish food with Pierre Dreyfus, a greatgrandson of Captain Alfred Dreyfus, the Jewish officer on the French General Staff who was falsely accused of being a German spy. The one recipe that Pierre remembered from his childhood was for butter, or butterkuchen, simple shortbread butter cookies sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar. A century ago, butterkuchen, similar to sablés in Brittany, were made by using equal weights of eggs in their shells, butter, sugar, and flour. Sometimes cooks would add a little kirsch or vanilla sugar. Some used a glass to cut round pieces from the cookie dough; others pressed the dough into pans and cut it into tiny squares or rectangles after baking. One elderly lady I interviewed told me how her grandmother would make butter in the summer from the fresh, unpasteurized cream of their cows and store it in a stone jar on a ledge outside their house all winter long. Then, when she wanted to use the butter for butter, it was right there. One day when I was visiting Sandrine Weil (see page 181), she and her daughters showed me how to make a tender butter. This is her take on the butterkuchen, made with rich French butter, which has a low water and high fat content, and is cut after baking into the traditional 1-inch squares.

These brownies turn out moist and fudgy. They bake in the convection oven at 25 degrees lower and for 10 minutes less baking time.

I'm surprised and delighted by the number of sweets and desserts that I have been able to come up with sans flour and dairy. With this one I had help. Our good friend Dr. Nersessian—a very good cook—came up with the first version of this to give me a dessert without the bad things. I have fiddled with it a bit. It has been a great success with all who have tasted it. A chocolate version follows.

Without exception, this was the most sought-after recipe at my restaurant and bakery. You would never believe these incredibly fudgy brownies are made with beans but no flour. The beans provide great body and fiber without a "beany" taste. Keep the brownies in the refrigerator. They will slice much better if refrigerated for several hours or overnight. Find natural coffee substitute at natural food stores.

Adding pretzels to the caramel gives these over-the-top bars a crunchy texture and salty-sweet finish.