I had an email from the nice folk at All in Good Food for Chess Bars. I didn’t grow up with the concept, but I have dabbled in chess desserts a bit, so thought I might could dabble again.
With a few wee, tiny little changes.
The recipe called for starting with a yellow cake, but I was in the mood for chocolate. And, since I was gonna go chocolate, I figured I might as well add orange and espresso, just because.
Nice chess bars!
INGREDIENTS
Bar:
•1 devil’s food cake mix
•1 stick salted butter, melted
•1 egg
•1 tsp pure orange extract
•1 tsp instant espresso powder
Topping:
•8 oz cream cheese, softened
•3 eggs
•4 cups powdered sugar
Note: these were tasty, but next time I make ’em, I think I’m gonna go for two teaspoons of instant espresso powder.
Heat your oven to 350º.
Combine the cake mix together with the melted butter, egg, orange extract, and espresso powder with the paddle attachment until well blended and you have a very thick ‘batter.’
Press the batter into the bottom of an ungreased 13×9 baking pan, scraping the mixing bowl to get as much of the chocolate layer out as possible (there is a method to my madness).
In the same – now mostly clean – mixing bowl, but now using the whisk attachment, whip the cream cheese together with the eggs, then add the powdered sugar, about 1/2 cup at a time, until smooth and creamy.
Spread this over the chocolate layer in the pan – you’ll note a speck or two of chocolate, but I count that small beans in the face of only using one bowl and only washing it once.
Pop into the preheated oven and bake for 40 minutes, until the top is lightly puffed and golden brown.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely before slicing.
The nice folk at All In Good Food suggest sprinkling with a bit more confectioners’ sugar on the top, but, to me, that is just crazy talk.
I would be far more likely to mebbe make a chocolate and espresso glaze to drizzle over the top, with mebbe some shaved orange zest.
Hmmm. I guess I’m making these again sooner than I thought.