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Sugar Cookie Bars
Margaux Laskey, “American Girl Cookies”
5453 ratings with an average rating of 5 out of 5 stars
5,453
40 minutes, plus cooling
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Heat the oven to 325 degrees. In a food processor, grind the graham crackers to fine crumbs — you should have about 2¼ cups crumbs — and tip into a bowl. Add sugar, salt and butter, and toss until evenly moistened. Tip the crumb mixture into a 9-inch springform pan. Use your fingers to press the crumbs into a thin, even layer on the bottom of the pan and at least 2¼ inches up its sides. Bake the crust until just set, about 10 minutes. (The crust will continue to cook in the next step.) Increase heat to 350 degrees.
Prepare the cake: In a bowl set over a pot of barely simmering water but not touching it, melt together the butter and chocolate. (Alternatively, do this in short bursts in the microwave but be careful not to scorch the chocolate.) Remove the bowl from the heat and whisk in the dark brown sugar, cocoa powder, vanilla extract and salt. Let cool slightly, then whisk in the 3 large egg yolks.
In large bowl, beat the remaining 3 large egg whites with an electric mixer on medium until foamy, about 30 seconds. While mixing, gradually add the granulated sugar in a steady stream. Increase the mixer speed to high and continue to beat until you have stiff peaks, about 3 minutes. Using a large rubber spatula, fold the egg-white mixture evenly into the chocolate mixture. Sift the flour evenly over the chocolate mixture and fold it in. Transfer the batter to the prepared crust and smooth the top. Bake until a crust has formed over the top, the center is just set and a toothpick inserted 1 inch from the edges comes out with moist crumbs attached, 30 to 35 minutes. The center of the cake, under the crust, should still be very moist and fudgy. (Peek under the crust if necessary.) Do not overbake. The cake will sink slightly as it cools. Let the cake cool completely, at least 90 minutes.
Prepare the custard: Set the chocolate and butter in a medium bowl. Place a fine-mesh sieve over the bowl and set it aside. In a medium saucepan, whisk together the sugar, salt, cocoa powder, and cornstarch. Add the milk, little by little, while whisking to incorporate it fully. Whisk in the egg yolks. Heat the mixture over medium heat, stirring constantly, until it has thickened and just come to a low boil. Continue to cook the custard, whisking, for another minute, then immediately pour it into the sieve, pushing it through with a small spatula. Let the custard stand for 1 minute, then whisk it together with the butter and chocolate until smooth. Pour the custard over the cooled cake. Cover the custard with plastic wrap or wax paper, making sure to press it gently into the surface of the custard. Chill until the custard has set completely, at least 4 hours and up to overnight.
Just before serving, remove the ring from springform pan base and transfer pie to a serving plate. Whip the cream to soft peaks and spoon high dollops over the top of the pie, leaving about a 1-inch border. Dust with cocoa powder.
This is a perfect recipe. Just beware, this recipe is best for those prepared to live their lives as trolls sitting in front of their open refrigerators taking small handfuls at a time.
We cooked this for a pie-baking contest and after one trial round made the following changes: -Reduced the salt slightly in the graham cracker crust (about 1/4 tsp) -Swapped 1/2 of the bittersweet chocolate (60%) for semisweet (40%) in the cake -Swapped all of the bittersweet chocolate for semisweet in the custard -Added vanilla extract (a couple of tsp) to the whipped cream We won first place, so the changes seemed to work! Overall, it's an amazing recipe as-written - the changes made it a hit.
How about a chocolate cookie crust instead of graham cracker, then it is chocolate all the way through!
This recipe was great! Everyone loved it. After you add the whip cream layer, refrigerate the pie overnight for best results.
A suggestion for the times listed at the top of recipes: it would be helpful if an estimate of chilling/cooling time was included. I know I should read the whole recipe before beginning, but a couple of times have started a recipe with a plan based on the minutes/hours listed, then partway through discovered that something has to chill for several hours or overnight. The recipes always turn out great, but I’d love to have a quick reference for the actual start-to-finish time needed. Thanks!
Fabulous pie, but beware that kosher salt isn’t all the same density. This recipe likely uses Diamond Crystal kosher salt. Morton’s kosher contains more salt per teaspoon, so cut salt in half if using.
Only thing I did differently was to add icing sugar and vanilla to the cream and then whip to ensure it’s stiffness. A hot knife to slice makes presentation perfect.
A fair amount of effort, but worth it! Fantastic and fudgy without being cloying. As a note, it takes a full 6 hours to prepare: while active prep time is perhaps 90 minutes, the cake requires cooling for 90 min before assembly and further 4 hours (and I agree, overnight is better) of chilling prior to serving. Recipe a little misleading there, so if you want it for the evening you need to start at noon.
I've made this for parties multiple times, and it's a hit each time. It may have replaced my son's favorite chocolate cake recipe! I've been making stabilized whipped cream using gelatin, and it's made a big difference in how well it keeps in the fridge.
Wow. Gloriously rich, and so delicious. Skinny pieces are perfect, so you really can serve this to a larger crowd. It looks perfect when sliced and with the whipped cream on top.
The brownie layer seemed too thick so I halved that part of the recipe and the result was a perfect balance of brownie, pudding, and whipped cream. A huge hit!
I was tempted to add sugar to the whipped cream topping, but I’m glad I didn’t. The dish is already is very rich and pretty sweet, so the unsweetened whipped cream added a nice balance.
Graham cracker squares or rectangles? The weight would be helpful!
Loved this! We call this midnight Mississippi mud pie because if you start it in the early afternoon it will take until midnight!
My family LOVED this. It's better the second day, and also cuts more beautifully if you chill overnight with the whipped cream. Don't just put on the whipped cream last minute, I mean. I notice one commenter cut the brownie in half, which probably doesn't look as good, but I will experiment with proportions in future, since it's really the custard that wins this, imo. I also recommend watching the accompanying video -- very helpful and fun.
I used the same amount of flour, no cornstarch needed. No sieve needed
So delicious. Made this as more of a bar by doubling the crust & cream and baking in a 9x13. A bit easier to get everything in one bite, plus easier to cut smaller pieces - and nobody minded the higher crust ratio -- in fact most people requested an edge piece for even more! I cut down the brownie bake time to ~18 mins. (Yes I had previously made this exactly as written, and while very impressive, it was hard to get a slice that wasn't enormous, thus the tweaks)
Double the graham cracker crust—I can never get it quite high enough around the pan.
As an Australian, I’ve never heard of graham crackers. Perhaps a little translation for antipodean subscribers would be a nice touch. I think I will use smashed up chocolate biscuits (cookies for you) to make the base. 😋
Yum yum YUM. Husband made me this for my fourth birthday running. Not sure I’ll ever request another birthday dessert. The graham cracker is a lovely textural and flavor contrast to the chocolate, the whipped cream helps cut through the sweetness, the cake layer is rich, dense, and delicious, and the pudding always reminds me how much I love chocolate pudding. Perfection!
I accidentally put in 1/2 cup white sugar instead of the brown sugar for the brownie cake and it still came out delicious. I used cool whip instead of the whipped heavy cream as a time saver. It was a hit
How many grams of graham cracker? Ty
Very good, although very, very rich dessert! Made this for the office “Pi Day. Next time would double the graham cracker crust- not enough to cover both chocolate layers. The instructions for the brownie are overly complex. Misread and mixed the egg whites with sugar and flour, then added to chocolate-still turned out fine. Added vanilla and about a teaspoon of sugar to the whipped cream. Overall, an impressive dessert!
I made this for Christmas dinner dessert. The crowd loved it.
Really need a weight for the graham crackers. They come in different shapes and sizes!
Really great recipe - race reviews! Definitely need to plan in advance for the cooling and chilling times. I added some powdered sugar and vanilla extract to the whipped cream top layer, and also replaced a few ounces of chocolate with semisweet chocolate in the brownie cake layer.
This pie was a lot of work, but not hard. And the results were so worth it. Super rich, super chocolatey, silky and dense textures. It was way too much for Thanksgiving, nobody could eat more than a sliver. With so much left over, I sliced it thin and put in archment between so I could pull out one piece at a time. Frozen, it’s like the most dense insane ice cream cake. Thawed, the texture was nearly as good as fresh. Amazing.
Very rich. Cut small slices. Based on others' reviews, baked brownie layer @27 minutes. Used mix of bittersweet and semi-sweet in both the brownie and custard. Added some confectioner's sugar and vanilla to the whipped cream. Dusted whipped cream with cocoa.
Ideal for sharing! Messy but delicious :) and it’s impossible to eat more than one slice at a time lol. Definitely don’t think she doesn’t mean it when she says refrigerate overnight! I had to freeze mine a bit to be ready to serve since I was not on top of things :/
2/3 recipe in 9 inch round cake pan. Cook brownies 20 minutes
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