These insanely fudgy Gingersnap Fudge bars combine a homemade gingersnap cookie base with a rich, chocolatey fudge layer. All topped off with more gingersnap dough for good measure! Spicy, chewy, rich – an easy and satisfying bar recipe!
My blog has been entered into the Blog Awards 2015 – I’d be so grateful if you could take a minute to vote for me!
And now for another recipe from my creative mood swing last week!
But first. Can we talk about this weather. I mean, a food blogger’s worst nightmare is happening in the UK.
Apparently, we’re going to have 3 months of rain. 3 MONTHS. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!
I’m normally a pretty well organised individual. I like to make a couple recipes, then shoot them and have them ready to go. I have other work going on too, but that’s mostly dinner recipes. However, this weekend was a complete wash out. It was so unbelievably dark we had the lights on all day. I had 5 recipes to shoot and I only shot one.
And I was expecting them to be the worst photos in the world. They weren’t – I was pleasantly surprised, but thank god for tripods because I could not stand still long enough for that shutter speed…
To be honest, I’m dreading the middle of winter. It already gets dark about 15:30, so on a normal, non-rainy day, I have about 4 hours where it’s light enough to shoot.
This week I have 10 recipes to shoot and as I sit here writing this (8am) – I still have all the lights on and it’s so dark it’s just ridiculous.
So, I’ve been making dinner for breakfast. Then it’s ready to go for whenever I get 5 minutes of light. Not quite sure what I’ll do if we get absolutely no light all day… :/
Stroganoff for breakfast anyone?
Anyway… these bars.
These are. INSANE.
And I had 15 whole minutes of light to shoot them! 😀
I started with an ultra ginger-y homemade cookie base (no packet stuff here!) then topped it with the most glorious fudgy, rich, sweet, chocolatey filling.
This filling. Man. Condensed milk is literally a miracle ingredient.
It turned plain old melted chocolate into thick, glossy fudge.
I may have put one of these bars in the microwave yesterday for lunch. It was ooey-gooey heaven.
JUST LOOK AT THAT FUDGY GOODNESS!
The ginger and chocolate is such a winning combination. The sweet chocolate mix and spicy ginger are the perfect contrast. I put almost 1tbsp of ginger into this recipe, so you really get that ginger hit – we loved these!
I’m going to have to make this cookie dough again and actually bake it into cookies. They are so chewy it’s crazy – they’d make the perfect treat to go with your morning coffee.
Who am I kidding? They’d make the perfect treat any time. It’s a special day for someone somewhere in the world.
This is how I justify my addiction to eating cakes.
Do you know the best thing about these bars?
Because I based the cookie dough on my base recipe – with the use of 3 flours – they stay soft for days.
Once the fudge has “set” it stays nice and chewy – and it just melts in your mouth. I didn’t want a fudge which properly set and became hard, it would have ruined all that I wanted these bars to be.
To make the filling, I melted some chocolate chips into condensed milk, with a splash of vanilla extract and only cooked it until all the chocolate had melted. There was no added sugar and I didn’t need a candy thermometer. I also poured it on as it was without whipping it up – this helped make a smooth, velvety filling.
I baked the cookie base for 10 minutes before pouring the filling on. To top it all off I saved 1/4 of the cookie dough and then crumbled it on top before baking them for 15-20 minutes.
It’s important to let them cool properly before trying to remove them from the pan for slicing – when they’re warm the fudge filling is ultra soft and gooey, so trying to cut them will make a mess – a tasty mess, but still… 🙂
I obviously ignored my own advice and just dug straight in with a spoon as soon as they came out of the oven – what’s that saying? Do as I say, not what I do 😉
I did wait to actually take them out and slice them, but still – I just had to try them as I was expecting so much!
They lived up to all of my expectations. Honestly, MAKE THESE BARS! 😀
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Gingersnap Fudge Bars
Ingredients
- For the cookie dough:
- 3/4 stick (85g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 3/4 cup (150g) light brown sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tbsp runny honey
- 1 cup (140g) plain flour
- 1/2 cup (70g) bread flour
- 1 tbsp cornflour
- 2 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp ground allspice
- 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- Pinch salt
- For the filling:
- 14 oz can of condensed milk
- 1 cup (175g) dark chocolate chips
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- Pinch salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180C/350F and grease and line an 8x8 inch square pan.
- Place butter and sugar into a large bowl or the bowl of your stand mixer and beat until light and fluffy, 2 mins on med-high speed.
- Add in the egg and vanilla extract, scraping down sides as necessary and mix on med-high until well incorporated.
- Add in the honey and mix briefly until combined.
- Place flours, spices, bicarb and salt into a medium sized bowl and stir to combine.
- Tip the flour mix into the egg mixture and mix on low until you have a soft dough.
- Place 3/4 of the dough into your lined pan and push into the pan with your hands or the back of a spoon until level.
- Place the base in the oven for 10 minutes, it will be slightly puffy and ever so slightly coloured around the edges when ready.
- Whilst the base is baking, make the filling: place condensed milk, chocolate chips, vanilla and salt into a medium sized saucepan over a low heat and stir continuously until the chocolate melts and everything is smooth and well combined.
- Leave to one side until the base is done baking.
- Once baked, pour the fudge filling all over and smooth until level with a spoon/spatula.
- Crumble the remaining 1/4 of cookie dough over the fudge filling - it's not meant to entirely cover it, so gaps are fine!
- Place in the oven for 15-20 (mine took 17 minutes) until the cookie dough is golden brown and the filling is just set, it will be soft and wobble slightly in the middle.
- Leave to cool completely in the pan, before slicing into 9-12 bars.
- Bars will keep in an airtight container, at room temperature for 5 days.
Notes
