It was a very chilly weekend in San Francisco.  After morning run through Pac Heights and brunch with a girlfriend at Maverick on Sunday, I decided to hole up in my apartment and bake for the rest of the afternoon.  It helped that there was a 49er game, the Nike Women’s Marathon, and a Giants playoff game all in the city – I did not want to go anywhere, much less try to move my car.

That being said, I had to find a recipe that I could make with everything I already had in my pantry.  After a few minutes of searching on Pinterest, I decided on these these scrumptious White and Dark Chocolate Bars from Averie Cooks.  These bars have 3 layers: chocolate cake on the bottom, white chocolate and semisweet chocolate chips in the middle, and a creamy topping of condensed milk mixed with cream cheese.  I really like that the top layer doesn’t fully set, giving it a frosting-like consistency.  I adapted the recipe slightly below:

Ingredients

1 box chocolate cake mix

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 tablespoons of cold coffee

3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips

3/4 cup white chocolate chips

1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk

1/2 cup (4 oz) cream cheese, softened

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line a 9×13 inch baking pan with aluminum foil and spray it with cooking spray.

2.  In a large mixing bowl, combine the cake mix, butter, egg and vanilla and mix with your hands.  The batter is super thick and hard to mix, but just keep at it.  Add the 2 tablespoons of coffee and continue mixing.

3.  Press the dough into the prepared pan. Sprinkle the semisweet and white chocolate chips over the top.

4.  In a mixing bowl, blend the condensed milk, cream cheese, and 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract together until well combined.  Pour over the chocolate chips.

5.  Bake at 350 degrees for 22 minutes, until the edges start to brown and pull away from the sides of the pan.  The top will be a bit jiggly and not set, but this is OK – it will continue to set after they cool.  Wait until the bars are cool before slicing and serving.  Store in the fridge.

I liked them the best served at room temperature, but they could be reheated as well!  We enjoyed these bars while watching the Packers win – solid end to a wonderful weekend.