The Spiced Life

Musings & Recipes From My Kitchen

  • Home
  • About Me
  • FAQ
  • Dishes By Region
  • Archive and Index
  • Creative Cookie Exchange
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy
You are here: Home / bar cookies / Bakeless Brownies: Review of Bakeless Sweets

Bakeless Brownies: Review of Bakeless Sweets

June 15, 2013 By Laura 9 Comments

Sharing is caring!

  • Facebook
  • Yummly
  • Twitter
  • Email
Jump to Recipe  ↓ Print Recipe  ❒

No Bake Chocolate Bars with Pecans

You know what they say about assuming….

I write this post in sincere humility, to demonstrate that even experienced bakers such as myself, who routinely instruct others of you how to bake on this website, are capable of making absolutely ridiculous mistakes. Alas. And sometimes we even do it when it really counts, such as when celebrating our daughter’s 8th birthday.

Sigh.

No Bake Chocolate Bars

So the second picture, the one with the “8” candle, those are the bars I served for Alex’s birthday dinner with her grandparents. Those are the bars in which I assumed that a can of sweetened condensed milk was 3/4 cup, the amount called for by the recipe. Why did I assume this? I have no idea. Sheer laziness I suppose. And irritability when I could not easily figure out how much was in the can. The result was annoyingly gooey and pretty darn sweet. Which is not surprising given that just as I was trying to figure out what to say about this recipe, I realized that a can of sweetened condensed milk has 1 1/4 cups. YIKES.

Never let it be said I am not willing to sacrifice myself for you guys. In order to give this recipe and book a fair review, I of course needed to re-make the recipe as soon as possible. I wouldn’t want to keep you waiting!

No Bake Chocolate Bars with Pecans

The moral of the story? Don’t eyeball sweetened condensed milk. Oh yeah, and Faith Durand’s Bakeless Sweets: Pudding, Panna Cotta, Fluffs, Icebox Cakes, and More No-Bake Desserts rocks.

The book is big and gorgeous for a single topic cookbook. That sounds like damning with faint praise, which is not at all how I mean it. But most single topic cookbooks are smaller, often paperback and often not with loads of photos. This is a large book, hardback, with 223 pages of beautiful desserts. This is partly accomplished by including stovetop desserts and puddings. It is also accomplished just by being really creative and thinking outside the box. I think I have half the recipes bookmarked!

No Bake Chocolate Bars with Nuts

This particular recipe is super simple, super short and super tasty. Other than taking the time to melt the chocolate, this recipe consists of dumping ingredients into a bowl and mixing, then pressing into a parchment lined pan. Chill time is 1 hour. The result is similar to chocolate salami, but not nearly as rich given the graham cracker crumbs permeating the brownies. The first time, I used pistachios. The second time, pecans. Faith calls for hazelnuts, but any nut should work. I would also like to try other mix-ins, such as chocolate cookie crumbs instead of graham crackers, with maybe Andes mint chocolate baking pieces in place of the nuts. And so on.

No Bake Chocolate Bars with Pecans
Print
Bakeless Brownies
Closely adapted from Bakeless Sweets
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: no bake bars
Keyword: brownies
Author: TheSpicedLife
Ingredients
  • 1 cup (100 g) graham cracker crumbs (from 8-10 crackers)
  • 1/2 cup finely chopped nuts of choice
  • 1/4 cup (20 g) cocoa powder (I used Dutched--that is up to you)
  • 1/2 t coarse sea salt
  • 3/4 cup sweetened condensed milk
  • 4 oz (115 g) bittersweet chocolate, melted
Instructions
  1. Line an 8 inch square pan with parchment paper. Set aside.
  2. Mix the salt into the graham cracker crumbs. Dump all of the ingredients into a medium-large bowl and mix. The mixture will be quite stiff, use a folding mechanism to completely and evenly incorporate all of the ingredients.
  3. Press the mixture into the prepared pan. Cover with plastic wrap and press the misture more evenly into the pan, including the corners. Leave the plastic wrap on the mixture.
  4. Chill for 1 hour.
  5. Slice and serve--store in fridge.

 

Filed Under: bar cookies, brownies, chocolate, cookbooks, hazelnuts, No Bake Desserts, pecans, Pistachios, reviews Tagged With: bakeless, brownies, chocolate, chocolate bars, graham crackers, hazelnuts, no bake, nuts, pecans, pistachios, sweetened condensed milk

« #ChocolateParty: Crumb Cake with White Chocolate Chunks and Sour Cherries
Taqueria Style Guacamole with Tomatillos »

Comments

  1. Laura@bakinginpyjamas says

    June 16, 2013 at 5:44 am

    These look great, I may have to check this book out. Lovely candle too 🙂

    Reply
  2. Joanne says

    June 16, 2013 at 7:30 am

    I’m cringing at the 3/4 v. 1 1/4 cup sweetened condensed milk…but it really happens to all of us! At least the second time around they were delicious!

    Reply
  3. Camille says

    June 16, 2013 at 9:26 pm

    So perfect for summer. Glad you figured out the milk situation. Those little cans look so deceiving. I’ll be giving these little gems a try.

    Reply
  4. Dorothy at ShockinglyDelicious says

    June 18, 2013 at 8:22 pm

    They look good! What are we doing with the rest of the sweetened condensed milk?

    Reply
    • Laura says

      June 18, 2013 at 9:28 pm

      I say make Vietnamese coffee!

      Reply
  5. Kristina says

    June 21, 2013 at 10:30 am

    haha! I think we’ve been all there… a few times 🙂 Those brownies look amazing though! I love the idea of a bakeless brownie – need to get my hands on that cookbook!

    Reply
  6. Julia Al Arab says

    June 23, 2013 at 10:47 pm

    How creative! That sounds so delicious and easy!

    Reply
  7. Ashley says

    July 9, 2013 at 3:24 pm

    Oh my goodness – I can’t even imagine how sweet that must have been the first time around. Love having no-bake goodies on file… especially of the chocolate variety 🙂

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Hi! I’m Laura and I am a recovering history major who has re-channeled all of my passion for learning about the history of different countries to learning about their food culture. That doesn’t mean every dish on here is strictly authentic, but it does mean that even my adaptations are not undertaken lightly. My goal is to show you–by doing–that these dishes are possible in your kitchen. Including desserts because I have quite the sweet tooth! Read More…

Twitter Facebook Pinterest Instagram
Enter your email here and never miss a post!

Popular Posts

  • Restaurant Style Beef Vindaloo
  • Taralli Dolci di Pasqua (Southern Italian Easter Cookies): #CreativeCookieExchange
  • Mexican Ramen Bowl
  • Grandma’s Beef and Noodles
  • New Orleans Style Pain Perdu (French Toast)
  • Saag Gosht (Beef in Fragrant Spinach Sauce)
  • Moroccan Inspired Couscous Bowl with Ground Beef, Veggies and Caramelized Onions (redux)
  • Middle Eastern Scrambled Eggs with Meat and Onion: Review of An Edible Mosaic
  • North Indian Baked Eggs: Review of Seven Spoons
  • Goan Influenced Goat Stew in the Slow Cooker

Copyright © 2008–2023 The Spiced Life