Chocolate Crumb Bars

Soon after my daughter was born 5 years ago, we decided that our townhouse was too small and we should put it on the market.  So, we packed up a bunch of stuff to put into 2 storage lockers, trying to declutter the house, making it more attractive to sell.  Sadly, this included packing up some of my kitchen stuff and cookbooks that I don’t use often.  Well, the house was up for 1.5 years, and because of the economy, we couldn’t sell it.  We grew tired of keeping the house spotless with a toddler and a baby, so we finally gave in and took it off the market.  A few months ago, we realized that keeping 2 storage lockers is really expensive (I know, duh).  So we decided to go through them, selling and donating enough stuff to combine them into one.  In the process, I came across 4 boxes of cookbooks that I totally forgot about.  For me it was like Christmas!  I had a whole box of those little food magazines that they have at the grocery checkout that always seem to find their way into my cart.  I was looking through Nestle’s Very Best Baking cookbook and these chocolate crumb bars caught my attention.  The bars have a shortbread crust, a buttery crumb topping, sandwiched together with a creamy chocolate filling.  Shortbread and creamy chocolate?  Well, now there’s a winning combination to me!

Chocolate Crumb Bars

Yield: A 13 x 9 pan of bars, the number depends on the size you cut them.

1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine, softened

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 cups (12-oz. pkg.) Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels, divided

1 can (14 oz.) Sweetened Condensed Milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup chopped walnuts, optional         I omitted

Preheat the oven to 350° F. Grease a 13 x 9-inch baking pan.Beat butter in a large mixing bowl until creamy. Beat in flour, sugar and salt until crumbly. With floured fingers, press 2 cups crumb mixture onto bottom of prepared baking pan; reserve remainingmixture. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until edges are golden brown.Combine 1 cup morsels and sweetened condensed milk in a small, heavy-duty saucepan. Warm over low heat, stirring until smooth. Stir in vanilla extract. Spread over hot crust.Stir nuts and remaining morsels into reserved crumb mixture; sprinkle over chocolate filling. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until center is set. Cool in pan on wire rack.

Source: Very Best Baking

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Posted by Just Baked on June 1, 2012

http://justbakedbyme.wordpress.com/2012/06/01/chocolate-crumb-bars/