As I mentioned earlier, we had a party last night and I am a big fan of bringing a little something over whenever we go to a party or get together. Whether it gets put out for the guests or the hosts get to enjoy it later, I just think it’s a nice way to say thank you for having people over and letting us make a mess of your house! It is also a great excuse for me to try out new recipes and try my hand at decorating.
After looking around at a few different ideas, I decided to give Courtney’s Chocolate Raspberry Bars a shot. They required little prep time and I had all of the ingredients except for one already on hand. For the crumbly crust layers, all you need is flour, brown sugar, butter, and salt.
The chocolate layer is just condensed milk melted on the stovetop with semisweet chocolate chips.
The surprise flavor that really made these bars for me was the layer of seedless raspberry jam. It really added moisture and made these treats stand apart from just standard brownies or bars.
Then you add another layer of the crumbly dry ingredients and top it off with the remaining chocolate chips.
Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the bars have set. An important step that I always struggle with is letting it cool before cutting in. I am just too impatient and only managed to wait about 20 minutes before taking a knife to the pan.
They still looked pretty awesome but I would definitely recommend waiting for them to cool so that you don’t end up with melted chocolate all over the place like I did.
I actually scored this cute snowflake plate from King Soopers for only a couple dollars since it’s so close to Christmas Day. I always like it when people bring stuff over and I get new platters and dishes for future occasions!
I would definitely recommend this recipe and for full details, check here! I usually tweak a few things when using other people’s recipes but I stuck to Courtney’s original and they came out perfectly.
Question:
What are your favorite Christmas baked goods?
Do you usually bring a host gift or is your presence the best gift?
So glad you liked the bars!! I hear you on having trouble waiting for them to cool off…it is not an easy task!
Hope everyone enjoys them
These look SO good!
Omg these look good! Condensed milk — love that stuff! My favorite holiday treat is buckeyes (probably not much of a surprise there), and white chocolate covered Oreos. Oh. Wow.