OMG! Bars

Rich triple chocolate chunk cookie crust layered with Snickers bits, a rich & fudgy brownie and even more Snickers! But wait,. there’s more! The whole thing is finished with a drizzle of chocolate ganache & caramel and a sprinkling of flake sea salt.  These are truly OMG! Bars

Oh people this recipe… Now I’ve been making these bars for decades and through out the years the name has changed.  At first they were known as the “Chocolate Chip Cookie Snickers Brownie Bars with Caramel and Ganache”.  Yeah, just totally rolls off the tongue, huh?  That’s how it was listed on my selection list however customers would call me with a “Hey Lor, can you make me a dozen of those Fudgy Chocolate Chip bar things?” to “I need those Sinfully Sexy bars” to some names that are so not appropriate for this blog.  We’re talking those names would make Fifty Shades of Grey blush.  Then finally, about 6 years ago I took a batch of these into work and one co-worker took a bite and said “OMG! These Bars!!!”  The name just hit me.. “OMG! Bars” – it made sense.  You get so many flavors and textures in every single bite that literally your taste buds are going to go berserk over this.

So last week we had our company Christmas party and of course yours truly forgot until the night before that she had to make something to take in.  Office Christmas parties are pretty awesome – people bring in foods, things are decorated and for once you get to take a break from the stress and just truly enjoy your co-workers.  I’m fortunate that the company I’m at now, everyone gets along.  There’s no drama or for me, no cows – remember that lady I worked with years ago that was the BIGGEST witch ever?  She hated me because well, I called her out numerous times for not doing her job.  She was vile and mean.  OMG I would not have it put it past her to be that person that would push a kid down in front of her to get to the front of the line.

Yeah, we don’t have any of those at my current place, thankfully.

Anyways back to these parties…  For me I love to see the food tables and what folks bring in.  Crockpots are abundant, trays of treats and sweets galore and tin trays of hot foods – chicken, pulled pork, mac ‘n cheese and so forth. Since some in my office know “who I am” (rolls her eyes as I hate saying that – I’m just me), they tend to look to me to help lead the set up and bring in deliciousness.  After our last party, I was instructed that whatever I make for our Christmas party, I need to make double.  Mine were gone in minutes and many missed out on what I brought in.

So anyway I whip up 3 trays of these and take 2 of them into work.  All morning I kept getting more than normal visitors at my desk.  “Hey Lor, how are you?  Oh what’s that?”  I’d explain what it was, we’d chat for a few and I’d go back to work.  Then the instant messages started coming “Hey what time are you heading down?  Do you need help carrying those trays?  I want to go down with you.  Ping me when you’re ready to go!” all morning long. Now I’d like to believe that I’m well liked at work however something tells me that morning these OMG! Bars had something do with it.  Now the food wasn’t starting until noon so I walked down around 11:30 with my one friend to help get set up.  As we were walking down to where it was being held I heard “HEY!  Lor are you heading down now?  Need help???” and even though I said no thanks folks decided to follow to “see if they could help”.  Now you and I both know they weren’t there to help well that is unless they were to help themselves to one of these bars. Needless to say the food and party got set up in 5 minutes thanks to the strays I attracted.  LOL

Finally when it was time to call people down I removed the lids from my trays and took 2 of these and set them on a plate.  You see one co-worker was going to be late as she was working on a critical task and asked if I would save her one. Folks the look I got when I turned around was priceless.  I said “What?  There’s a MIM issue and I was asked to save 2 since there’s a production issue.”  The one guy said “Tough, it’s critical I eat every one of them.  Back away toots.” LOL  I laughed so hard I got tears in my eyes.

So I put those on her desk and walked back down to grab my lunch.  And just as I suspected all of these were GONE.  I mean we’re talking not even a crumb on the tray.  Folks were coming back, looking at my empty tray and then at me to see if I could fix this issue.  And I did… <wicked grin> I set my food down, walked to my desk, grabbed my car keys and grabbed the “reserve” tray out of my trunk.  People when I walked back into that food room with another tray of these I thought for a second they were going to hoist me up on their shoulders and strut me around.  Trust me I was scared about this as that’s a lot of hurt people if they want to pick up my big butt.

Now the kicker?  I didn’t get a single one!  Which means no photo shoots, no recipe to post and more importantly nothing for Mr. Fantabulous.  I know, right! So for the house (and the USPS and UPS folks) I made another big batch of these.  For us I only saved 6 which Mr. Fantabulous said  “just not enough for him so don’t eat any Lori” and the rest got packaged up for the other folks.

So let’s talk about these bars – you get probably one of the best marriages of dessert treats – a triple chocolate chip cookie that is tender and truly a phenomenal cookie on its own. Since this incorporates Snickers I added a layer of chopped snickers. Next comes a layer of thick and fudgy chocolate brownies.  These are moist and fudgy without being gooey.  Lastly more larger chunks of Snickers are placed on top because, well, why not?  As these bake make up a batch of chocolate ganache and caramel.  Now you don’t have to add these two but for me, it takes these bars from YUM! to OMG!  Because the brownies are fudgy the sticky caramel drizzle and the richness of the ganache gives it that gooey factor when you bite into it.  And since you have that rich chocolate, sticky sweet caramel you need that backend flavor to truly balance it out.  The flake sea salt is a must to this dish!  It adds that final flavor note that makes this dish seriously delicious!

OMG! Bars

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• Author: The Kitchen Whisperer

Ingredients

Chocolate Chip Cookie Layer

• 8 tablespoon butter, unsalted and chilled
• 1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 large egg, room temperature
• 1 3/4 cups all purpose flour, sifted
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup milk chocolate chips
• 3/4 cup dark chocolate chips
• 1/2cup white chocolate chips
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Brownie Layer

• 1 stick (8 tablespoon) unsalted butter
• 4 ounces unsweetened chocolate
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• almost 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoon Chocolate Extract
• 1 large egg, at room temperature
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 2 tablespoon cocoa powder (not Dutch-processed)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon Espresso Powder

Toppings

• 1 bag Snickers baking bits (about 3–4 cups) – chop half of the pieces up into small bits (leave the other half whole)
• 1 cup chocolate Ganache, thickened but still pourable
• 1 cup Caramel Sauce,warmed (not ice cream topping)
• Flake sea salt

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Instructions

Make the cookie dough

1. In a bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment add in the butter.
2. Beat until smooth and creamy (~2-3 minutes).
3. Add in both sugars and beat until well blended.
4. Add in the egg and vanilla and beat until fully incorporated.
5. In a separate bowl add the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt; whisk to combine.
6. With the mixer on low, slowly add in the dry ingredients just until combined.
7. Turn the mixer off and add in the chocolate chips
8. Mix just until incorporated (no more than 10-15 seconds); set aside

Make the Brownie batter

1. In a double boiler, melt the butter and chocolate in a double boiler stirring occasionally. Essentially you want to bring about 1” of water to a simmer then place your bowl that has the butter and chocolate in it over top but NOT touching the water.
2. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly.
3. Stir in the sugar, salt, and chocolate extract.
4. With a sturdy mixing spoon, beat the egg in until blended.
5. Add flour, espresso, baking powder and cocoa and beat until the batter is just smooth. Don’t overmix.

Assemble

1. Preheat oven to 350F and line a jelly roll pan (10”x15”) with parchment paper leaving a 1” overhang. Spray lightly.
2. With slightly damp hands, pat out the cookie dough evenly onto the bottom of the pan.
3. On top of that sprinkle the chopped Snickers baking bites.
4. Next add the brownie batter and smooth out to the ends.
5. Next add the whole pieces of the Snickers baking bites (I went with 1 bit every 1 1/2 inches”) pressing slightly into the brownie batter
6. Bake for 28-30 minutes. Remove from the oven and place on a cooling rack. Allow to cool completely.
7. When cooled, cut into squares. Drizzle on the chocolate ganache, caramel and sprinkle with flake sea salt.
8. Store in air tight container once the toppings have cooled and set.

Notes

Now so you know me I’m not a boxed mix kinda girl HOWEVER if you’re in a rush you can totally take some shortcuts.
1. Store bought cookie dough. Just make sure you have enough to cover the entire bottom of the pan by 1/2″.
2. Brownie box – go with the fudgy type

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