Gingerbread Bars

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Published by Hootinanny on January 30, 2021

Gingerbread Bars

Everyone is starting to bake Christmas cookies this time of year, but it’s nice to bake a little something different too. Gingerbread is the answer! Gingerbread bars are hand-held bars with a dense cake consistency. These are flavored like traditional gingerbread with the accompanying flavor of orange zest mixed in. This is actually a common addition to gingerbread. There are milk chocolate chips added to these bars, which happens to be really delicious. But they’re optional, so you can choose to put them in or not. I have a recipe for Milk Chocolate Gingersnaps that is a very popular cookie recipe, so people tend to like the gingerbread/chocolate combination!

I first baked these bars over 10 years ago, but the recipe originally came from a cookbook I have called Fat Witch Brownies. Fat Witch is a legendary bakery in New York that has been around for a long time. It has survived the hard times and is still open today!

batter for gingerbread bars with chocolate chips in bowl

How to make Gingerbread Bars:

You’ll make a traditional gingerbread cake batter that has plenty of spices that are perfect additions to gingerbread (cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and cloves). The batter is also flavored with a little bit of orange zest. Chocolate chips are a nice addition to gingerbread, but they are totally optional for these gingerbread bars. You can leave out the chocolate chips if you were hoping to bake traditional gingerbread bars without any chocolate.

batter for gingerbread bars in square pan

The batter is spread into a square pan and then baked.

gingerbread with chocolate chips in a square pan

Here’s where you get to decide how many bars you want out of this pan. For generous servings, you can cut them into 9 bars. For smaller portions, go with 12 or 16 bars.

overhead shot of a pan of gingerbread bars

A little dusting of powdered sugar finishes off these beautiful bars!

gingerbread bar on a plate

Enjoy these Gingerbread Bars for a nice little dessert during the holiday season!

Here are a few more bars you might like to try:

Gingerbread Bars

These delicious gingerbread bars are studded with chocolate chips!

Ingredients

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/3 cup packed dark brown sugar
3/4 cup molasses
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons freshly grated orange zest
2¼ cups all purpose flour
1½ tablespoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup buttermilk
3/4 cup milk chocolate chips (optional)

Instructions

Grease and flour a 9×9-inch baking pan. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
In a large bowl, use an electric mixer to beat together the butter and sugar until creamy. Mix in the molasses, eggs and orange zest.
In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and baking soda.
Add 1/2 of the flour mixture to the wet mixture and beat until combined. Mix in 1/2 of the buttermilk. Beat in the remaining flour mixture, then beat in the remaining buttermilk. Scrape the sides and the bottom of the bowl to make sure that all ingredients are incorporated. Stir in the chocolate chips, if using (it’s okay to leave them out).
Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 30 minutes or until the top bounces back when you press it gently and the sides are starting to pull away from the edges. Remove the pan from the oven and let cool completely before cutting and serving.