Chocolate Almond Bars

We were invited to Dan and Fran’s for another lovely BBQ at the weekend and of course I couldn’t turn up empty handed. Dan had gone bit baking mad as usual and there was an amazing spread of cakes (of which everyone sampled all I think?!) There was a couple of guest contributions including mine.

I wasn’t that enamored with these bars to start with but they seemed to go down well and were not too sweet as Dan said.

I used a recipe from the fabulous Chocolate book I’d pilfered from my Mum’s. It’s actually for Chocolate Walnut Bars but said you could substitute those for ground almonds. I had none of the former and some of the latter luckily. If you were using walnuts you’d need to grind them in a food processor first with 1-2 tbsp of sugar.

For the base
50g of walnuts or ground almonds
50g caster sugar
115g plain flour
75g unsalted butter

For the topping
25g unsalted butter
5 tbsp water
25g cocoa powder
115g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
pinch salt
2 eggs
icing sugar for dusting

Preheat oven to 180 degrees, greasea 20cm square baking tin.
For the base: In a bowl combine the almonds (or ground walnuts), sugar and flour then rub in the butter until it resembles coarse breadcrumbs (be careful not to over mix when using the almonds – can become oily). Press into the base of the tin and bake for 25 minutes.

Meanwhile make the topping; heat the butter and water in a saucepan over a medium heat. When all hte butter has melted gradually whisk in the cocoa and caster sugar. Remove from the heat and stir in the the vanilla essence and salt and allow to cool for 5 minutes. Whisk in the eggs until blended.

Pour the topping over the baked base and return to the over for another 20 minutes or until set. Place tin on a wire rack and after 5 minutes mark it into bars. When completely cold separate and dust with icing sugar.
I think they’re best kept in the fridge to maintain some firmness.