Treasure-Chest Bars
Photo Credit : Michael PiazzaHere’s a fruitcake variation that people actually love: tender frosted bars studded with dried fruit, nuts, and chocolate (that’s the “treasure”). Treasure-chest bars were popular in the ’60s and ’70s, and we published this version of the recipe in November 1978.
It came from Armand Riendeau, a soft-spoken French Canadian chef who operated the Pot Luck Restaurant in Berlin, New Hampshire, from 1964 until 1981. (After closing the restaurant, he opened an art studio, which he ran until his death in 1987.)
His son, Roland, remains in the restaurant business as an executive chef, and he remembers the bars well. “They had a browned-butter frosting, and that’s really different,” he says. “My dad had professional bakers who worked for him over the years, and I think one of them brought the recipe. I still have one of their cookbooks, a little brown spiral binder that has all the handwritten recipes.”
Find more recipes for “Cookies Through the Decades.”
Yield:
about 20 barsFor the bars:
Ingredients
1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened, plus more for pan
2/3 cup firmly packed light-brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon table salt
3/4 cup milk
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
3/4 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup chopped dried cherries, apricots, cranberries, or other fruit of your choice
Instructions
Preheat your oven to 350° and position a rack in the middle. Line a 9×13-inch baking pan with aluminum foil, draping the sheets over the sides (to make the bars easier to remove). Grease the foil with butter.
In the bowl of a standing mixer (or in a large bowl, if you’re using a handheld mixer), cream the butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add the eggs and vanilla and beat 1 minute.
In a medium-size bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add the dry mixture to the butter mixture in three batches, alternating with the milk. Add the chocolate, nuts, and fruit, and stir to combine.
Spread the batter in the prepared pan and bake, rotating the pan halfway through, until the top is golden brown and the cake is beginning to pull away from the sides, about 30 minutes.
For the frosting:
Ingredients
1/2 stick (4 tablespoons) unsalted butter
2 cups confectioners’ sugar
2 tablespoons milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Pinch table salt
Instructions
Meanwhile, make the frosting: In a medium-size skillet over medium heat, melt 1/2 stick (4 tablespoons) of butter and let it cook, stirring, until it begins to brown. Pour into the clean bowl of your mixer, and add the confectioners’ sugar, milk, vanilla, and salt. Beat the mixture until smooth.
Let the bars cool in the pan for 10 minutes; then lift by the foil to remove. Frost while still slightly warm; then cut and serve.
Amy Traverso
Amy Traverso is the senior food editor at Yankee magazine and co-host of the public television series Weekends with Yankee, a coproduction with WGBH. Previously, she was food editor at Boston magazine and an associate food editor at Sunset magazine. Her work has also been published in The Boston Globe, Saveur, and Travel & Leisure, and she has appeared on Hallmark Home & Family, The Martha Stewart Show, Throwdown with Bobby Flay, and Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares. Amy is the author of The Apple Lover’s Cookbook, which was a finalist for the Julia Child Award for best first-time author and won an IACP Cookbook Award in the “American” category.
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