Layered Citrus Chocolate Squares

Rainberry Blues's Note:

These practically melt in your mouth, and the flavor is just incredible! This is one of my favorite and most-used recipes.

• Total Time: 52 mins
• Prep Time: 20 mins
• Cook Time: 32 mins

Ingredients:

Yield: 16 squares

CRUST

• 1 cup flour
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• ½ cup butter or ½ cup margarine
• ¼ cup icing sugar
• 1 tablespoon orange zest

FILLING

• 1 cup milk chocolate chips

TOPPING

• 3 eggs
• ¾ cup granulated sugar
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon orange zest
• 1⁄8; teaspoon nutmeg
• 3 tablespoons flour
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• icing sugar , for garnish

Directions:

1. MAKE CRUST: Combine 1 cup flour and 1/2 tsp baking powder, and then cut in butter with pastry blender until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
2. Mix in 1/4 cup icing sugar and 1 tbsp orange peel.
3. Press mixture into an 8 inch square pan.
4. Bake crust at 350 F for 7 minutes.
5. FOR FILLING: As soon as you take the crust out of the oven, sprinkle chocolate chips evenly over it.
6. Let chocolate chips melt and then spread the melted chocolate over the crust.
7. (If the chocolate chips aren't melting, return pan to oven for a few minutes.) MAKE TOPPING: Combine remaining ingredients (except icing sugar for garnish).
8. Mix well.
9. Pour topping over chocolate in pan.
10. Bake at 350 F until top is lightly browned, about 25 minutes.
11. When cool, dust with icing sugar and then cut into squares.

Reviews

[Muffin Goddess]

I picked this for the Alphabet Soup game, and made it that night. These were excellent! The crust is nice and delicate, and the citrus-chocolate flavor is a great combination. They were surprisingly simple to make for such a sophisticated cookie (I didn't even need my mixer, I did it all by hand). Since I'm mildly compulsive about futzing around with just about any recipe I use, I made a couple of minor changes; firstly, I had to use semisweet chips (no milk choc. chips in the house), and secondly, I added a sprinkle of cinnamon to the citrus layer (I like cinnamon with chocolate and love it with orange, so I though that it had to be good with both - it was!). The texture is what makes this, though; they really do "practically melt in your mouth". So decadent!

[applee]

These were alright. The combination of the orange and chocolate was tasty. They didn't really melt in your mouth and they turn out how I expected. It is a nice change from a typical bar cookie, though and we enjoyed them. The chocolate didn't melt right away so I had to heat it a little more. I would suggest using semi-sweet chocolate and maybe adding cocoa powder somewhere.

[RecipeNut]

These squares really do melt in your mouth. They look like they could be some work but very simple to make. Thanks for a great recipe Rainberry Blues ; )