Congo Bars

CONGO BARS

Now that Christmas is just a few weeks away, my mind tends to turn to cookies. Growing up, we would make cookies all month, and freeze them. Then come Christmas morning, we'd have plates and plates of cookies on the table and counter, that would we graze on all day long. The best sugar buffet EVER.

Over at Splitcoast Stampers, I hosted a few cookies swaps. The way the swap works is everyone makes a set number of the same thing. For my cookie swap, everyone made 6 recipe cards, all of them identical. Then they mailed them to me, and since I took the time to host it, I got to keep one of everyone, and they got 5 different recipe cards mailed back to them.

and now? I have about 100 different cookie recipes I can't wait to try. The first on my list was Congo bars, crafted by a lady with the screen name 'FLscraphappy'. The main reason I picked this recipe is because I had all the ingredients on hand. That always helps!


here's what we're baking with today--flour, brown sugar, eggs, butter, salt, baking powder, and chocolate chips.


melt up the butter and mix with the brown sugar. I learned something while making this recipe.

Actually, this was the second time I made this recipe. The first time, I put a bag of sugar into the recipe, thinking that the box of sugar the recipe calls for, is the same size as a bag of sugar.

Let the record show that I now know that a bag of brown sugar is TWO TIMES the size of a box of brown sugar. Captain Jax sure loved the first batch though.


this is what the brown sugar and butter mixture look like after they're all mixed together. My first batch sure didn't look like that.


then go ahead and add everything else. No need to mix the eggs before adding them, just throw them in there with everything else.


Is it odd that I don't like to eat raw cookie dough? When I was in college, my room-mates LOVED to eat raw cookie dough. I dunno, I prefer a nice warm cookie to th raw dough.


Then ta-da! after letting them bake, and cool, we have a nice tray of congo bars! (and I was so excited to finally break out my Christmas platters. All two of them)

Here's FLscraphappy's card she created. I love the ribbon on the side, so nice.

CONGO BARS

• 1 1/4 sticks margarine
• 1 box (1 lb) brown sugar
• 3 eggs (do not beat before mixing)
• 2 1/4 cups flour
• 1/ tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 bag chocolate chips or butterscotch chips
• 1/2 cup nuts (optional)

Melt margarine and add brown sugar. Add all other ingredients. Spread mixture on greased cookie sheet with rim. Bake at 325 for 3 minutes. If using smaller dish, bake for up to one hour. Do toothpick test to determine doneness.

my notes:
-in the first batch, the one with the extra sugar, we used butterscotch chips. I like the chocolate chips much better.
-in the second batch, I put the dough into a 9x13 pan and baked for about 45minutes. They were still soft to eat, and a bit thicker, which I like.