Brown Sugar Bars
Rich caramel flavor...in a bar!
Oh my gosh, these bars are AMAZING. I'm beginning to think the best recipes happen by accident. My mission this week was to create a snickerdoodle blondie. I created a delicious recipe that gave me cakey snickerdoodle blondies. Always the perfectionist, I decided to make a fudgy version to see how they compared. I tweaked a few things and a version of these glorious bars came out. Did they taste like snickerdoodles? No. They tasted like the most delicious buttery, caramel. I dropped all plans for snickerdoodles (for now!) and worked on these. The result: rich caramel flavor with a sweet crunch and spice from the cinnamon-sugar topping. I think I'm in love with them...can you tell?
Brown Sugar Bars
Bars with a rich caramel flavor and a sweet crunch and spice from the cinnamon-sugar topping
Makes: Serves 8
- 3/4 cup (150 grams) dark brown sugar
- 1/4 cup (50 grams) + 2 tablespoons (25 grams) granulated sugar, separated
- 1 large egg, room temperature
- 1/2 cup (113 grams) unsalted butter, melted
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2/3 cup (83 grams) all purpose flour
- 1/4 cup (24 grams) almond meal
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon, separated
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and line a 8 x 8 baking pan with parchment paper
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the brown sugar, 1/4 cup sugar and the egg
- Add the melted butter and vanilla and whisk until all the butter is incorporated
- In a large bowl, combine the flour, almond flour, salt and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- Combine the remaining 2 tablespoons sugar and 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon in a small bowl for topping the bars
- Add the butter mixture to the flour mixture and stir until combined
- Add the batter to the prepared pan and top with the cinnamon sugar
- Bake for 20 - 30 minutes. A toothpick test should show a moist crumb when finished baking. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes then transfer to a cooling rack
