You know how after Christmas, you’re just never sure what kind of baking to do? You definitely don’t want cookies because you gained 35 pounds eating the little boogers over Christmas. Bread is always good when it’s freshly made and I make a lot of that. But even though I’m rather burnt out on sweets (well, baked ones anyway. I can ALWAYS manage things like flan or ice cream), my family still manages to get to me with puppy dog eyes and heavy sighs when there is nothing home made to nosh on.

So I bake. Well, I also bake for all of you because I lurveseses you. 😀

I love things like these bars. They could also be called a snack cake because the texture is fairly cake like. Cut these in small squares and serve them to the kids after school. Top with a scoop of ice cream and they make a great dessert. leave the pan sit out and watch your husband devour them in ten minutes. Wait… maybe that’s just my house and I need to get a padlocked cabinet. Preferably see through so that he could look through it, see the goodies and whine piteously. Yes, I’m cruel hehe

These are easy as can be to throw together. The fruit makes you feel like you are doing something a little healthy for your families snacks and the small amount of cornmeal in these gives theses a punch of fiber plus a rustic feel. And chocolate of course is just…well, chocolate! Need I say more? These aren’t gorgeous. They aren’t food porn to look at. But they are sweet and chocolatey and when chilled, have a lovely texture and a slightly sticky, you have to lick your fingers sort of top and will definitely take care of your sweet tooth. You could add a drizzle of sauce to the top of these, but truthfully, they are great as they are.

You know the drill… 🙂

Chocolate Triple Berry Snack Bars

• 3/4 cup unsalted butter, room temp
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup light brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon almond extract
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1/2 cup cornmeal
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons orange zest (optional but it adds a nice flavor)
• 1 can triple berry pie filling (can sub any berry flavor you’d like)
• 5 to 6 ounce bag of dried berry mix
• 1 12 ounce bag semi sweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 13×9 inch pan.
2. In a small bowl, combine the flour, cornmeal, baking soda, salt and orange zest. Set aside.
3. In a large bowl, cream the butter and the sugars together until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and extracts and beat well.
4. Pour the flour mix into the butter and beat on low speed just until combined.
5. Using a wooden spoon (or a plastic spork if it makes you happy) gently fold in the pie filling and dried fruit just until well combined. Then fold in the chocolate chips.
6. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake at 350 until the top is golden brown and springs back when lightly touched and a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean, about 35 to 45 minutes. When testing with something with chips in it, always make sure to poke twice if the first one comes out goopy. You may have just poked right into a gooey chocolate chip.
7. Let cool in the pan on a rack. When cool, you can either chill this before cutting (I prefer the texture chilled myself) or serve it at room temp.

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