The first time we had this "cookie" was at my Aunt (in-law) Zora's. She is from Croatia and our son fell in love with it. At our daughters wedding we had them on the cookie table and a dear friend of mine said she would like them for her son's graduation party. Well any excuse I have to bake, I am on it!
There are three layers to this bar cookie. The base layer is kind of like a thin cake. The middle layer is the minty part. And the crowning jewel is the thin layer of milk chocolate.
Note - as we work through the recipe you must understand I am a dump and throw kinda cook and use a recipe as a guideline. While I try to follow the portions and ingredients sometimes you have to improvise.
The base layer is pretty basic. You beat together 1/2 cup butter (remember this is an old recipe "oleo") and 1 cup of granulated sugar. Next blend in 4 eggs. Lastly, add 1 cup of all-purpose flour, 1/2 tsp. salt, 1 tsp. vanilla and 1 pound of Hershey's chocolate syrup.
*Hershey's no longer sells their 1# cans but the bottles contain the same syrup so you will need 16 ounces. This is one of the places I improvised. The bottle I had was 24 oz but I was making a double batch. So while it was a little shy on chocolate syrup there were no complains or leftovers.
Pour the cake mixture into a 9 x 13 pan and bake for 25-30 minutes at 350° F.
*Again, improvisation...I greased my pan. Original recipe says ungreased.
Once your cake is baked and cooled. Beat together 1/2 cup butter, 2 cups of powdered sugar and 2 Tblsp. creme de menthe. Usually found with the liquors in your grocery store or at a state liquor store. Spread the mixture over the cake and refrigerate until firm.
The last step is to melt 6 oz of semi-sweet chocolate chips with 6 Tblsp of butter. You can do this on the stove top or in the microwave. I did it in the microwave for 30 seconds then would mix it, then another 30 seconds. Once your butter melts you can continue to stir and it will melt the chips. Spread this over chilled cake immediately. And pop it back in the frig to firm up.
When you're ready to cut it, take it out of the refrigerator and allow to sit at room temperature for at least a half an hour. In the picture below you will see I trimmed the edges to get nice straight lines. You don't have to do this...it was for a graduation party and I wanted it to look nice. **Plus my son got to have all the edges.
I cut mine into approximately 1" squares. If you keep paper towels handy and wipe your knife in between each cut you get cleaner edges.
I hope you enjoy this bar cookie...something a little different but VERY tasty.
