Sinful Chocolate Squares

Looking for a new chocolate dessert, I happened upon a recipe for “Sin Pie” in the April 1986 issue of Bon Appétit.  It appears in the RSVP column, requested from the Joie de Vivre restaurant in Chatham, New Jersey.  The pie’s ingredient list lived up to its name: butter, powdered sugar, chocolate, Frangelico, and walnuts. While I could imagine a dense, very chocolate-y indulgence in this ten-inch pie, I couldn’t consider eating a whole slice of it. Instead, I decided to try it out as a Sinful Chocolate Squares, a cousin to the Seven Layer Magic Cookie Bars that I grew up eating.

The crust has simple ingredients, and since I wanted to tone down the sweetness of this dessert, I halved the sugar that the crust called for.

The food processor helped me to chop whole walnuts to a consistency that was just right for the crust.

Then, I lined my baking pan with parchment paper to ease getting the squares out of the pan once they were finished. Once I smoothed out the flour-walnut mixture, it only took a few minutes of baking to end up with a golden brown, crisp and nutty crust.

Next I assembled the filling ingredients.

The original recipe called for semisweet chocolate, but since there is so much sugar in the pie, I opted for bittersweet chocolate. It melted smoothly on the stove over a very low heat, and while it cooled, I could work on the other parts of the filling.

Sin Pie called for adding two raw eggs to the chocolate mixture right before pouring the filling into the crust and refrigerating it. Because I was planning to serve this at a party where I wasn’t sure of people’s dietary restrictions, I decided to pasteurize the eggs by cooking them over a low heat with some granulated sugar until they had reached 140 degrees for 3 minutes.  It took about 10 minutes to reach this point, but the sugar caramelized a bit, and the eggs never became scrambled.  (Since I added granulated sugar to the raw eggs before cooking them, I reduced the amount of powdered sugar that is creamed with the butter.) Once the eggs were cooled, I beat the room temperature butter and powdered sugar together until they were fluffy. I slowly added the cooled, melted chocolate and Frangelico.  The cooled egg mixture was incorporated last.

I smoothed the filling over the crust, and the pan was ready for the refrigerator.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

This confection tastes like fluffy fudge on a crispy bar, yet the filling gets quite firm after refrigeration. I ended up using a pastry scraper to cut the bars when I was ready to serve.

The squares were best with a small dollop of whipped cream and a few toasted almonds on top. And even in these smaller serving sizes, they were definitely sinful.

Sinful Chocolate Squares

Sunnyside Cook

Dawn Dobie

Fudgy squares with a crisp, nutty crust

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 30 minutes mins

Cook Time 20 minutes mins

Total Time 2 hours hrs 30 minutes mins

Servings 12 servings

Ingredients

  

For the crust

• 1 cup walnuts
• 1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
• ¼ cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter --melted

For the filling

• 10 tablespoons (1 ¼ sticks) unsalted butter --room temperature
• 1 1/3 cups powdered sugar --sifted
• 8 ounces bittersweet chocolate --melted and cooled
• ¼ cup Frangelico (hazelnut liqueur)
• 2 eggs
• ¼ cup granulated sugar

For serving

• 1 cup whipping cream --well chilled
• 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup sliced raw almonds

Instructions

 

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Line a 9 X 13 pan with parchment paper so that it covers the bottoms and goes up the sides about 1 inch. You may have to crease the corners to have the paper stand up properly in the pan.
• Combine walnuts, flour, brown sugar, and salt in bowl of food processor. Pulse 5-6 times, until the mixture looks crumbly.
• Add melted butter and pulse 4-5 additional times, until the butter is incorporated well into the dry ingredients.
• Transfer crust mixture to prepared pan and smooth out evenly over bottom of pan.
• Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until the crust is a light golden brown.
• Remove pan from the oven and allow crust to completely cool on a rack at room temperature.

For the filling

• Melt the chocolate (broken into small pieces) in a small pan over very low heat, stirring occasionally, until it is smooth and shiny. (Or place chocolate in a bowl over a pan of simmering water, making sure the water doesn’t touch the bottom of the bowl, and melt, stirring occasionally, until smooth and shiny.)
• Remove chocolate from heat source and allow to cool at room temperature while you do the rest of the filling steps.
• Place two eggs and ¼ cup granulated sugar in small heavy pot over very low heat and whisk to combine. Continue whisking frequently until sugar is melted and eggs have reached 140 degrees for 3 minutes. (Use a candy thermometer to gauge the temperature.) **
• Remove the egg mixture from the heat and place the pot over a bowl of iced water. Whisk the egg mixture in the pan over this cold water until it is completely cooled. Set aside.
• Cream the butter in a large bowl with a mixer until it is fluffy. Slowly add the powdered sugar, about 1/3 of total each time, creaming after each addition.
• When combined thoroughly and very fluffy, slowly pour in melted, cooled chocolate and beat until combined. Add Frangelico and beat until mixed in well.
• Add cooled egg mixture and mix the filling well with beaters.
• Using a spatula, transfer the filling to the top of the cooled crust. Smooth it out evenly.
• Cover and refrigerate for at least two hours before serving.

For serving

• Roast almonds in dry skillet, stirring often, until they are golden brown. Remove from heat and allow to cool.
• Using clean beaters and clean bowl, whip 1 cup of chilled whipping cream on high speed until it is fluffy. Add 2 tablespoons of granulated sugar and ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract to cream and continue beating on high speed until stiff.
• Cut the contents of the pan into bars of the size you wish. (I used a pastry scraper to make the cuts straight down.)
• Serve each square with a dollop of whipped cream and a sprinkle of toasted almonds on top.

Notes

**The original recipe called for mixing two raw eggs into the chocolate filling right before adding it to the crust. I inserted this pasteurization step to avoid putting raw eggs into a non-cooked filling. If you feel comfortable using raw eggs, skip this step and just add two beaten raw eggs to the mixture at the end of preparing the filling.
This dessert can be made up to 3 days in advance.

Adapted from Joie de Vivre restaurant in Chatham, NJ, published in "RSVP" in Bon Appétit (April 1986)