Chocolate Chip Dream Bars

Before we start today's post take a look at this article on Kongunadu cuisine by Ranjitha that appeared in Mighty 8, the Coimbatore special anniversary edition of The Times of India, dated February 23.

When we first moved into the farm couple of years ago, we had visitors who came bearing welcome gifts. It is one of those probably quaint customs to invite new neighbors into the area. It is small town living in a predominantly farming community and we did feel welcome.

Anyway one of the welcome gifts we got was these 'Chocolate Chip Dream Bars' and they were extremely tasty. DD2 was sick at that time, DD was off at college so most of them were shamelessly devoured by me. In my defense though when DD2 tasted one she said that she was not that crazy about them. DH as usual probably ate one or two. I have confessed several times that I am the sugar addict so none of this should be surprising. Finally when I ended up baking this DD2 devoured all of them. She did not know why she did not like it the first time.



I got the recipe from the neighbor while she was still our friend. Oh! why us and her are no longer our friends? That was a silly matter to do with our dog and how petty some people really are. It is a story for another day. We learnt quite a bit with the incident though about people, about appearances and how fear of different people (code word for racism) rears its ugliness in bucolic places.

It does not matter but these Bars are terrific and very easy to make if you have grape nuts cereal or flakes. I did not find grape nut flakes in my regular grocery store. So just picked up the Grape Nuts cereal box I found. The texture of the cookies I made were probably slightly denser than the ones she brought home. I used a 8 1/2 * 8 1/2 square pan. Ideal would have been a 13 * 9 pan which meant thicker than it should have been bars.


Here is the recipe in pictures,

Take the Grape Nuts cereal and blend to a slightly coarse powder.
Whisk the eggs. Heat the butter and let it melt.
Take all the dry ingredients and add the melted butter.
Add the chopped nuts. Add in the whisked eggs and mix it in.
Transfer the mixture to a greased pan and smooth out.
Spread the chocolate chops on top and bake in a preheated 350F oven for 30 minutes.
Cool and cut into desired size bars.

These bars are delicious. I did not realize how tasty grape nuts cereal was. If you have seen the long ingredient list on cereal boxes you will be kind of surprised to see the short list on this one.

The crunch in these cereal also adds to the texture and the slightly crunchy texture of these bars. Leave out the chocolate chips or just use a third of it, these could very well be good enough for breakfast bars.

Chocolate Chip Dream Bars
Preparation Time: 15 minutes
Baking Time: 25 minutes
Ingredients

1. 1 cup White Whole Wheat Flour
2. 1 1/2 Cups of Grape Nuts Cereal / Grape Nuts Flakes
3. 1/2 tsp baking powder
4. 3/4 cup melted butter (I used salted)
5. 1/2 tsp salt (if using unsalted butter)
6. 1 tsp vanilla
7. 1 cup raw sugar
8. 1 cup chopped nuts (I used roasted Pecans)
9. 1 cup chocolate chips - I used milk chocolate chips

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 350F.
2. If using grape nut flakes, crush them with your hands, if using grape nuts cereal and use a blender to get a coarse powder.
3. In a sauce pan melt the butter and set it aside to cool a little bit.
4. Whisk the eggs and keep them ready.
5. In a mixing bowl add the whole wheat flour, raw sugar, baking salt,powdered Grape Nuts cereal and whisk them together.
6. Add the vanilla and melted butter and mix it into the flour.
7. Add the chopped nuts and mix, add the whisked eggs and mix them all together to form a texture like wet sand.
8. Transfer mix to a greased 13 x 9 pan(I used a 8 1/2 x 8 1/2 pan)and spread the chocolate chips on top.
9. Bake in a preheated oven for 30 - 35 minutes. Cool and cut into desired sized shapes.

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