I don’t really like to cook much.
Honestly, like, at all.
It happens very rarely, because most of the time, I just simply can’t be bothered.
I’d prefer to go out for dinner. Or eat some scrambled eggs. Or something.
When I do cook, it’s either a huge pot of turkey chilli that I get a massive craving for once a year, or it’s what Mr Man calls “putting food together”. As in, it’s not really cooking – it’s just making a fancy looking salad, topping it with blue cheese and calling it a night.
But baking? Baking I love.
I baked a dutch baby for second dinner last night. And I call it second dinner because it wasn’t really dessert, it was more of a we’ve-just-had-dinner-but-we’re-still-hungy kind of moment.
And these bars? These bars, I love so much, I baked them for dinner three times in one week. Three times, people.
Now that’s saying something.
The first time I made them as the recipe originally intended – with peanut butter cups.
Then I got all these crazy version ideas and put Nutella all up in them.
The third time, I added coffee to the dough, and packed in even MORE Nutella.
Boy oh boy.
They’re SO gooey, all because of that condensed milk, which kind of caramelises, and mixes in with the Nutella, and the bars are super chewy, and just…
Please bake these for dinner, okay? You’ll thank me.
- 110g unsalted butter, melted (1/2 cup)
- 1 egg
- ¾ cup brown sugar, packed
- ¼ cup white sugar
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp instant espresso powder (optional)
- 1½ cups plain flour
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ½ - 1 tsp sea salt, to taste
- ½ - 1 cup Nutella, to taste
- ½ cup condensed milk (about half a can)
- Preheat the oven to 180 C (350 F) and line an 8x8 inch pan with baking paper.
- In a medium bowl, combine the melted butter, egg, both sugars, coffee and vanilla, stirring well.
- Mix in the flour, baking soda and salt until just incorporated.
- Reserve about half a cup of dough and press the remaining mixture into the base of the prepared tin.
- Drop spoonfuls of the Nutella evenly over the cookie dough base.
- Pour the condensed milk over the top.
- Crumble chunks of the reserved cookie dough on top, in an even layer.
- Bake for about 30 minutes, until golden and mostly set.
- If you can, allow to cool completely before cutting into pretty squares. Or just make like I did and dig in with a fork!
- Makes 9 - 12 bars.
- Happy baking!
Adapted from Averie Cooks – Averie, I love you for this recipe!!!