Chocolate Mud Bars {Recipe}

This isn’t the kind of mud you step in when it’s raining outside! This chocolate mud bar recipe from The Old Farmer’s Almanac new Everyday Baking cookbook is called “mud” because of the moist, dark chocolate filling. It’s the best mud you’ll ever eat!

Everyday Baking features 118 original recipes by celebrated baker and longtime Almanac collaborator Ken Haedrich. A winner of the Julia Child Cookbook Award, Haedrich may be best known as the author of Pie: 300 Tried-and-True Recipes for Delicious Homemade Pie, which was recently named one of the best baking books of the past 25 years by Cooking Light magazine.

Everyday Baking, with its handy reference section and time-tested advice sprinkled throughout, demystifies the art of baking and will inspire home bakers of all skill levels to make delicious breakfast treats, after-school snacks, and impressive desserts. The easy-to-follow recipes in Everyday Baking don’t demand unusual ingredients or abstract cooking techniques, but rather just a desire to make delicious home-baked goods completely from scratch.

Everyday Baking is available online at Almanac.com or wherever books and magazines are sold.

Chocolate Mud Bars

From The Everyday Baking Cookbook, page 54

CRUST:

1 ¼ cups graham cracker crumbs

3 tablespoons packed light-brown sugar

¼ teaspoon cinnamon

Pinch of salt

5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

FILLING:

½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter

6 ounces semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped

¾ cup sugar

2 large eggs, at room temperature

½ teaspoon of vanilla extract

¼ cup cake flour

1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts

Butter an 8-inch square baking pan and set aside.

For crust: Combine the graham cracker crumbs, brown sugar, cinnamon and salt in a medium bowl. Mix well with your hands. Add the melted butter, stir well with a fork, then rub the ingredients together well with your fingers until thoroughly mixed. Press the mixture evenly in the prepared pan to form a level layer on the bottom with a lip extending about ¼ inch up the sides of the pan. (Do not prebake the crust).

For filling: Combine the butter and chocolate in the top of a double boiler over not-quite-simmering water. When melted, whisk to smooth, then remove the pan from the heat. Scrape the chocolate into a medium bowl and cool to lukewarm. Preheat the oven to 325oF. Whisk the sugar, eggs, and vanilla into the lukewarm chocolate. Stir in the cake flour, mixing until smooth. Stir in the walnuts. Scrape the batter over the crust and smooth with a spoon. Bake on the center oven rack for 35 minutes only – no longer. Cool on a rack. Refrigerate an hour or so before slicing. Serve at room temperature. Makes 16 bars

(Content courtesy of The Old Farmer’s Almanac Everyday Baking.)