Congo Bars are soft and gooey chocolate chip cookie bars made with 2 kinds of chocolate. Using both light and dark brown sugar gives them an extra rich caramel flavor that sets them apart.
So Congo Bars…I have no idea where the name came from. They sound like they are super exotic and should maybe have some weird fruit ingredient that you could only buy online. Well folks, sorry to disappoint.
They’re actually just an extra special version of a chocolate chip cookie bar. This is a totally nostalgic recipe that I snagged out of my Grandma’s recipe box. Leave it to the 80s to take an everyday kind of recipe and give it a fancy name.
But What Are Congo Bars?
So like I said, they’re basically a chocolate chip cookie baked into a bar dessert…with a few minor tweaks:
- 2 kinds of chocolate! I mean why just use semi sweet chocolate when you can also use milk chocolate! AND I’m using chunk and chips too…we’re going big today!
- 2 kinds of brown sugar! Let’s up the richness and caramel favor by adding both dark and light brown sugar. No boring granulated today folks.
- An extra egg. Ok this is minor, but it’s important in this recipe, as it affects the texture and richness. And since we’re baking these as bars, the extra egg adds a little more chewiness that works!
Ingredients List:
- butter
- brown sugar: light and dark
- eggs
- vanilla extract
- kosher salt
- baking powder
- all purpose flour
- semi-sweet chocolate chunks (or even chopped chocolate)
- milk chocolate chips (or chopped milk chocolate)
Instructions:
- Line a 9×13 pan with parchment paper and coat with nonstick spray.
- Beat the butter and both light and dark brown sugar together in your stand or hand mixer. Add in the eggs, vanilla, salt and baking powder and mix for an additional minute and scrape the sides of the bowl as needed. Then add in the flour and mix until just combined.
- Stir in all the chocolate and spread the dough into the prepared pan. Bake for 30 minutes at 350°F or until the edges are set and lightly golden and the center appears slightly under-baked.
- Remove the pan from the oven and allow the bars to cool completely before cutting.
How Do You Know When They’re Done?
You might think I listed the bake time wrong because after 30 minutes they might not seem quite done in the centers. But trust me no this, they will seem a little gooey, but that’s ok. As they cool they will stay soft and delicious.
If you bake them until they look completely done in the centers they will end up a little dry, which is not what we want.
Congo Bars
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 24 bars 1x
- Category: Cookie Bar
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: Dessert
Description
Congo Bars are an amped up chocolate chip cookie bar with 2 types of chocolate to make them extra gooey!
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter, room temperature
- 1 cup dark brown sugar, packed
- 1 cup light brown sugar, packed
- 3 large eggs
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chunks, or chopped chocolate
- 1/2 cup milk chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a 9×13 pan with parchment paper and coat with nonstick spray. Set aside.
- In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment mix the butter and the light and dark brown sugars together for 2 minutes on medium speed. Add in the eggs, vanilla, salt and baking powder and mix for an additional minute on medium, scraping the sides of the bowl as necessary.
- Turn the mixer to low and add in the flour, mixing until just combined.
- Finally add in both kinds of chocolate and stir to incorporate.
- Spread the dough into the prepared pan and bake for 30 minutes or until the edges are set and lightly golden and the center appears slightly under-baked.
- Remove the pan from the oven and allow the bars to cool completely before cutting.
- Alternately you can chill the bars before cutting.
Notes
store at room temperature for up to 3 days or in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 bar
- Calories: 303
- Sugar: 29.5 g
- Sodium: 68 mg
- Fat: 14.8 g
- Carbohydrates: 41.5 g
- Protein: 3.8 g
- Cholesterol: 44.4 mg
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so maybe this sounds silly, but how do I know at what temperature to set the oven?
It’s the first step in the recipe… preheat your oven to 350°F 🙂
Yum! Yeah for finding delicious recipes in grandmothers’ recipe boxes!
They’re cooking in the iven as I’m typing this. It’s such a great alternative to cookies : they’re faster and they use fewer dishes *.* I shall send you a picture on instagram when they are done 🙂
Can’t wait to see them!
Underbaked should be my middle name. These look delicious!!!!
Congo Bars: “Don’t deny that jungle beat–congo bars are good to eat!”
Recipe by Margaret Fox in her 1984 cookbook: Cafe Beaujolais, p.206. The above recipe pretty close to Margaret’s recipe–she uses walnuts as well. But I always use pecans.(no coconut in original recipe)
You can read how they came to be called Congo Bars, too long to explain here. Doesn’t make much sense though, and we always called them Blondies in this household.
Cafe Beaujolais is in Mendocino, California. Her recipe has been one of the pillars of my family’s favorite sweets.
It’s because back in the day they had coconut in them. Coconut, jungle, Congo.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blondie_(confection)
A congo bar is a variation of a blondie apparently.
I love that desert rock look that the melts give them! And um, underbaked? Best kind of cookie, hands down. Pining. I meant, uh….I’m pinning them. 🙂
Super gooey and full of chocolate? I am SOLD. I totally won’t be thinking about the name when I shove these in my face.
Things I give zero cares about: calories, dieters, and how long a recipe takes if it is delicious. Well done, lady!