I love seeing traditions passed on to the next generation. Especially when it comes to food. As I mentioned in my post Birthday Girls my mum would make congo bars for us and mail them to me when I was away. I’m pretty sure Grammy made them for her as well. Of course mum would bake all sorts of things for us when we were little. And she was generous with it. The second she brought out home baked cookies and glasses of milk onto the carport kids would materialise out of nowhere and suddenly I was the most popular kid on the block!
Congo bars have become a favourite in our house as well. Particularly with my 9 year old son. It’s the one baked good he requests the most. And I can’t let him down, now can I? Of course since it wouldn’t be healthy for him to eat all the bars the rest of us step up to help. It’s the least we can do. 🙂
The recipe we use is Millie Corbett’s Congo Bars. The recipe has to be at least 60 years old. It was originally published in her local church’s cookbooks. Those types of cookbooks can be real gems.
Preheat the oven to 350F/177C and grease a 9 x 13 inch pan.
Add 3/4 cups of soft butter and 1 3/4 cups of brown sugar to the mixer and cream together.
Add 3 eggs one at a time and blend well. Once blended add 2 cups flour, 2 tsps baking powder, and a pinch of salt.
The recipe calls for 12oz of semi-sweet chocolate chips. No problem, right? Well that’s what I thought until I opened the cupboard. We had a small handful, too many chocolate chip pancakes have been made, I say! Fortunately we had small chocolate discs that are great for melting like a fondue. As I didn’t want large blobs of melted chocolate, well I’m ok with that but it would be messy, I chopped up the chocolate and mixed that in.
Spread evenly in the baking pan.
Now the recipe said to bake 20-25 minutes but I find that it needs to be about 30-35 minutes to completely bake and still be moist.
Now you are supposed to wait until it cools to eat. Good luck with that…
My son was so excited when I picked him up from school and I told him what was waiting for him at home. 🙂
Agree.We need to preserve our traditions.
So true. 🙂
Spotted this earlier on Twitter, but was in the middle of doing stuff. Bet this is deliciously moist. And I would’ve thought a great base for adding in bits, if chocolate wasn’t available.
Thanks for the Follow, btw!
You can also put nuts in. And you’re welcome for the follow! 🙂
These look delicious, I would be excited if these were waiting for me at home too!
🙂 Hard to pass up baked goods!
12 oz of chocolate? I’d be happy too knowing that this was waiting for me. I’ve not heard of Congo bars and certainly haven’t tasted one. I need to change that. Thanks for sharing a recipe that’s been in your family for generations.
You’ll have to make some. 🙂 Such a treat.
That’s a new one on me – can’t wait to give it a try!
I thought they were popular in NE? Maybe it is more localised round Boston.
They look incredibly Yummy!