Chocolate Parfait Bars
Today's recipe comes courtesy of my maternal grandmother. My paternal grandmother was big into yeast baking (I've shared one of her recipes with you before!), but my maternal grandmother is more of a dessert baker.
She has a special fondness for bars and cookies, and today's bar recipe is from her.
These bars are almost no-bake (they require only 10 minutes in the oven), and unlike almost all of my other recipes, this one calls for a packaged ingredient (cake mix, to be specific). I keep meaning to do some research and figure out how to make my own alternative mix for this particular use, but I make these so rarely, it's not been a high priority.
I make them rarely not because they're lacking in deliciousness...no, it's just that the combination of fat, sugar, and flour is difficult for me to resist, so it's not good for me to have lots of cookies and bars around.
Ice cream I can resist, candy I can resist, and homemade bread doesn't even tempt me to overeat, but homemade cookies and bars are my nemesis.
So, I usually make this sort of thing when we have company or we go to a potluck, because then I can't possibly eat the whole pan.
To make the crust for these, combine a chocolate cake mix package with ½ cup (8 tablespoons, or 1 stick) softened butter and an egg. A mixer makes this an awful lot easier, but you can do it by hand.
Spread the mixture into a greased jelly roll pan. If you don't have a jelly roll pan, you can use a 9x13 inch pan, and your layers will just be a little thicker.
Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes. Don't overbake it, or the crust will be hard. Let the crust cool completely (it'll look puffy at first and will then flatten out as it cools).
After it's cooled, you'll make the white filling. First, dissolve a package of gelatin in ¼ cup boiling water. Make sure you stir it well so that there are no lumps.
Let the gelatin mixture cool for 5-10 minutes. Do NOT leave it for a long time because it will start to set up, and your filling will have icky lumps in it.
Ask me how I know.
Add butter, shortening, sugar, and vanilla and beat until smooth. You can add mint flavoring and green food coloring at this point, but I've not tried that myself. (Given my obsession with chocolate and mint, I'm not sure why!)
I'm guessing it would be possible to substitute more butter for the shortening, but I haven't tried it. I use shortening very rarely...so rarely, I bought a really small can of it!
Because remember? I think smaller quantities are sometimes a wiser purchase, even if the price per pound is higher.
Spread the fluffy white filling over the cooled chocolate crust, then cover and refrigerate until firm.
When the filling is firm (it should only take an hour or so), melt chocolate chips and butter together to make the chocolate frosting.
Spread evenly over the chilled white filling. This is a little more difficult than you might imagine because the cold filling makes the chocolate firm up alarmingly fast.
I'm never one to turn out beautiful frosting jobs, but under these circumstances, things are a little worse than usual.
Fortunately, you cut these into squares before serving them, so it's not manifestly obvious that the frosting job is less than gorgeous.
Cover the pan and refrigerate the bars until the chocolate frosting is firm. Cut into bars before serving (a bench knife is fantastic for this! You can see one in my little Amazon widget on the right side of my blog.). Store any leftovers in the fridge.
Chocolate Parfait Bars
Printable Chocolate Parfait Bars Recipe
Crust
1 package devils food cake mix
1 stick (8 tablespoons) butter
1 egg
Mix cake mix, butter, and egg together. Spread in greased jelly roll pan and bake at 350 F for
8-10 minutes. Let cool completely.
Filling
1 envelope gelatin
¼ cup boiling water
4 cups powdered sugar
1 stick (8 tablespoons) softened butter
½ cup shortening
½ teaspoon vanilla
Dissolve gelatin in boiling water; stir to remove lumps. Let cool 5-10 minutes. Mix in sugar, butter, shortening, and vanilla and beat until smooth. Spread evenly over cooled chocolate crust. Cover and refrigerate until firm.
Frosting
1 ½ cups chocolate chips
4 ½ tablespoons butter
Melt chocolate chips and butter together; stir until smooth. Spread evenly over filling. Cover and refrigerate until cool. Cut into bars before serving.
Your recipe really got my creative juices going. Here are some of things that occured to me to think or try.
1. How does the texture of the cake layer compare with an actual cake? It seems to me that mix + butter + egg = richer cake. Specifically, more butterfat and less water. If I were to play with it, my first attempt would be to use powdered milk in place of liquid milk, plus the extra butter.
2. I wonder if you could use flavored gelatin to flavor the filling?
3. Lessee, shortening vs butter. Shortening has more fat than butter, has a different mix of sat and unsat fats, and melts at a higher temp. The different mix of fats means that foods with shortening tend to be chewier. So I guess the shortening is for texture purposes - it makes the filling a bit firmer? This could be confirmed by making a batch with 100% shortening and another with 100% butter.
What fun!
The cake layer is REALLY dense....more like a super-dense brownie than a cake. I think this is because there's so little liquid added. When you make a cake mix the normal way, don't you add some liquid in the form or water or milk?
I'm thinking flavored gelatin wouldn't work because it has sugar. Plain gelatin is just gelatin with no sugar. I suppose one could experiment with leaving out some of the powdered sugar, but I'm guessing that the granulated sugar in Jello would make the filling runny.
And yes, I am totally going to try the filling with all butter. I'll report back on how that works. Since I store these in the fridge, I imagine that the filling would still be firm enough...room temp. would be a different story, though.
Yes, cakes usually have a liquid although often - now that I think of it - it's eggs. I'll have to ponder this one. Maybe make the bottom with a cake-like brownie recipe instead? The sugar in Jello mix isn't detectable in the Jello so I think using it would be alright, assuming one adjusted the sugar in the filling properly
You're going to have to do a lot of experimenting to get this right: homemade cake bottom, homemade brownie bottom, all butter filling, all shortening filling, jello, ... life's gonna be tough! Your poor kids.
Ooooo! I am a happy camper! I'm picking up a cake mix today to make these this afternoon!
These look fantastic! I usually make my own white cake mix, but I don't have a recipe for a devil's food mix, so I may just have to go out and buy one.
Yum! These sound a like like my Creme de Menthe brownies which start with a brownie mix, add a minty frosting layer, and then is topped with chocolate. I use Creme de Menthe liqueur, but have had good success with mint extract and green food coloring. I shared this recipe on St. Patrick's Day! Here's the link: http://theunemployedlibrarian.blogspot.com/2010/03/recipe-creme-de-menthe-brownies.html
Kristen you should definitely add the mint! Super yummy!
Those look good. AND somewhat "easy" for me to try. I'm not the baker in the family 😉
These look great. I'm thinking to maybe add orange juice or concentrate and rind to the filing for an orange milano twist. Thanks for your recipes and great blog; I enjoy it.
How much peppermint extract would you add if you were going to do this? I am also assuming you leave out the vanilla extract then? These look yummy but I looove mint and chocolate!
Thanks to your grandmother for a recipe I know my husband is going to love. It reminds me of a very fancy Oreo cookie, flavor-wise.
And yes, your knife must be fantastic because the bars came out so evenly.
I have a brownie recipe that I use - Bob's Red Mill with gluten-free AP Flour - that sounds like it would be a good base for this. They come out dense and slightly fudge-y. I'm also a sucker for mint. I do believe I'll be trying this soon.
i know you are health conscious so i'd like to let you know about organic shortening since crisco is so bad for you. i know you don't frequently use it but i don't either (which is good since the organic is expensive $5-$6) for tub. it's Spectrum Organic shortening made by expeller pressed oils w/ no hydrogenateds (which is about the worst thing for you). it works great. just a tip if you are interested. usually can be found in the health food section of your store. * id get it at Wegmans if you have one close by. Weis markets charges soo much money for their organics. sometimes double Wegmans prices.
Hmm, I'll keep an eye out for that. We don't have a Wegman's nearby, unfortunately!
I'm totally going to try this with an all-butter filling, though, so that might be my best bet.
Good points. Trans fats (which is what partially hydrogenated fat becomes, or is (the chemistry eludes me)) have no redeeming nutritional value. As it happens, Crisco has reformulated its product to have less than half a gram of trans fat per serving which means that, legally, the product is "trans fat free."
Oh my! I LOVE these! I had them when I visited you guys a long long long long time ago and snagged the recipe. Now I make them rarely because I could eat the whole pan in one sitting (which would be really un-healthy!). : )
Do you use a specific cake mix brand? With previous recipes it has made a difference for me.
As for a replacement crust try a cookie recipe. I know I've seen a recipe that uses a mix, oil, and egg before. It produced a rich dense cookie. If you have a recipe that would produce that maybe its worth a try.
I think mine was Betty Crocker, but I know I've used other brands before.
I definitely would try these with a brownie recipe base and all-butter filling. I bet they'd be great with almost any flavoring, mint, hazelnut, almond, orange, anything that does will with chocolate, which is just about everything. 😉
Anyone use coconut oil in baking? I'm wondering if that might be a good substitute for shortening as it is a solid at room temp. I've been meaning to buy some and start experimenting with it, but I haven't gotten around to it yet...
You read my mind! I have a jar here that I haven't used yet, and I was thinking it'd work well for the filling. A mild coconut-y flavor would probably be tasty.
I know of people who are happy with coconut oil instead of crisco. It has a lot more saturated fat than the reformulated Crisco, though: 12g sat fat per tablespoon, Crisco has 2 g.
Personally, I'm not afraid of saturated fat. In fact, the saturated fat is one of the reasons I'm intersted in using coconut oil. I don't want to hijack this wonderful recipe thread, so I'll just say that my own review of nutrition research has convinced me that there is NOTHING dangerous about saturated fats. Conversely, I think they are healthy and I actively try to ensure I include plenty in my diet. From what I've learned, grains and sugar are the "dangerous" foods, to be eaten sparingly.
ooooh this was one of my favourite treats from the bakery when I was little. Choclate mint bars! I never really liked nanaimo bars which are similar but vanailla.
Bookmarked this for later 🙂
You're quite the temptress with these little beauties!!!
My daughter and I made these tonight. They are chilling in the fridge so I haven't actually tried them yet, but they look wonderful. We made them as a thank-you gift for a neighbor...but I can see I will have to make another batch for us because the whole family is eyeing them! 🙂
I was completely unable to spread the first layer across the jelly roll pan. I have *no idea* how you do that! It's so thick (and smells delicious!), I just couldn't get it spread out in a thin enough layer. Finally we gave up and put the dough in a 9x13 pan. Any tips or tricks, Kristen?
My notes about our baking adventure:
http://1sentencediary.wordpress.com/2010/07/15/a-bit-of-baking/
I'm going to make these for a picnic I have in a few weeks. They sound perfect. My husband saw the picture and he thinks I should make a practice batch, just in case.