The most famous bar cookie, the brownie, is all about deep, rich, dark chocolate flavor. But dark chocolate isn’t the only confection that deserves star status in the bar world. These chewy, rich, brownie-like bars are made with white chocolate. We use just enough of the white stuff for a moist, rich-tasting bar but not so much that it’s cloyingly sweet. Juicy, bright raspberries are a perfect foil to the creamy, mild sweetness of white chocolate, so we punctuated these bars with whole berries. Tossing the raspberries with a little sugar before pressing them into the batter encouraged them to caramelize and tempered their tartness a bit. Baking these bars at a slightly higher temperature than most brownie recipes call for 375 degrees instead of 350 resulted in beautifully browned edges that further enhanced the caramel notes. An elegant drizzle of white chocolate provided just the right finishing touch to these dressed up bars.
Ingredients
- 1 cup (5 ounces) all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 6 ounces white chocolate
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
- ½ cup (3½ ounces) plus 2 teaspoons sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 5 ounces (1 cup) raspberries
- Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 375 degrees. Make foil sling for 8-inch square baking pan by folding 2 long sheets of aluminum foil so each is 8 inches wide. Lay sheets of foil in pan perpendicular to each other, with extra foil hanging over edges of pan. Push foil into corners and up sides of pan, smoothing foil flush to pan. Grease foil.
- Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt together in small bowl. Roughly chop 3 ounces chocolate and microwave in bowl at 50 percent power, stirring often, until melted, about 1 minute. Chop remaining 3 ounces chocolate into ½-inch pieces.
- Using stand mixer fitted with paddle, beat butter and ½ cup sugar on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add egg and vanilla and beat until combined. Add melted chocolate and mix until incorporated, about 30 seconds. Reduce speed to low and slowly add flour mixture until combined, about 45 seconds. Stir in all but 2 tablespoons chopped chocolate.
- Transfer batter to prepared pan and spread into even layer. Toss raspberries with remaining 2 teaspoons sugar to coat and gently press into batter, spacing evenly apart. Bake until edges are puffed and golden and toothpick inserted in center comes out with few moist crumbs attached, 25 to 35 minutes.
- Let bars cool completely in pan on wire rack, about 2 hours. Using foil overhang, remove bars from pan. Microwave reserved 2 tablespoons chocolate in bowl at 50 percent power, stirring occasionally, until melted, about 45 seconds. Drizzle melted chocolate over entire surface of bars. Cut into 16 pieces and let chocolate set, about 30 minutes, before serving.
