German chocolate cake is my favorite cake. The textures. The sticky sweet frosting. The light chocolate cake. The bittersweet pecans. To me, it's a perfect bite.
I've never actually made magic bars, but as I worked to find a way to turn my favorite cake into a cookie, I noticed they share a lot of ingredients. I thought the two could deliciously coexist with the help of a chocolate, shortbread-esque crust instead of the traditional graham. If I must say so myself, I was right.
GERMAN CHOCOLATE MAGIC BARS
Makes 16 bars
1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
¾ cup dark brown sugar
1 egg
¾ cup all-purpose flour
¼ cup cocoa powder*
1 cup graham crumbs
½ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips, divided uses
1 cup chopped, toasted pecans
1 cup sweetened, shredded coconut
¾ cup sweetened condensed milk**
Flaky sea salt, optional garnish
*I should have said this earlier, because we’ve already used cocoa powder in this cookie chaos, but I have yet to find a brand of cocoa that doesn’t like to clump up. I’m not usually one to require sifting—a whisk usually works just fine—but it’s usually worth it to sift cocoa powder.
**This isn't a whole can, which is annoying. But the leftovers make great sweetener for your coffee! Or if you don't mind having more bars, you could bake this in a 9"x13" and double the recipe, using the whole can.
Preheat your oven to 325 degrees and line a 9” x 9” pan with parchment.
In a large mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, add the butter and brown sugar. My Kitchenaid is being overworked, so I went with a bowl and wooden spoon myself, but you could mix the two on low. You just want them to combine, no need to really whip this.
Once combined, add the egg and again on low, just mix until the egg mixes in. Now, add the flour, cocoa powder, graham crumbs, baking powder and salt and stir until a dough comes together and there are no dry streaks remaining.
Press the dough into the prepared pan. Now we’re going to layer this with our toppings. You can really go in any order you prefer, though I do think saving the sweetened condensed milk to pour over top is nice so that it settles into the toppings as it bakes. I layered the chocolate chips then pecans then coconut before drizzling the whole thing with sweetened condensed milk. I added a few pinches of flaky salt before sticking it in the oven.
Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the edges start to caramelize, but there are still gooey looking bits in the center. I left mine in for thirty minutes, and that was probably a hair too long—but they were still delicious. So don’t stress! See, baking isn’t stressful!
Allow the bars to cool completely before cutting them into squares or rectangles or whatever shape you choose. These keep well for five-ish days wrapped well at room temperature (although my friend, Heather, was still enjoying them a full week later, so take that for what you will). Or, you can freeze them for a couple of months—as always, wrap them really well!
Comments