Monday, February 27, 2017

Carrie's Dreamy Bars

This is one of those all-purpose, make everybody happy recipes!

The original recipe is called “Uncle Bubba Bars.” My daughter found this gluten-free, nut-free, sugar-free recipe on Briana Thomas’s blog

Since she wanted to make gluten-free bars, but not nut-free, she made some substitutions and came up with her own version of these delicious, dreamy, cream cheese/chocolate chip bars.

At the end of the recipe, I’ll give you the ingredients to make these bars with no special ingredients.

A win for everyone, right?

Carrie’s Dreamy Bars
(this version uses special ingredients available on-line at www.trimhealthymama.com or your favorite on-line retailer)

Cookie Layer Ingredients:
1 ½ cups THM baking blend
1 Tablespoon THM Super Sweet Blend
1/8 teaspoon THM Pure Stevia Extract Powder (can substitute 5 packets Truvia for the Super Sweet Blend and the Stevia)
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
¾ teaspoon Gluccomannon
½ teaspoon salt

12 Tablespoons (3/4 cup) butter, softened/melted
4 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 Tablespoon Molasses
¼ cup water
½ cup chocolate chips (use Lily’s sugar free chocolate chips to keep the recipe at zero sugar)

As you can see, we used regular chocolate chips - no Lily's
brand chips in the house!


Cream Cheese Layer Ingredients:

12 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1 egg
1 ½ teaspoons THM Super Sweet Blend

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

additional chocolate chips for topping

For the cookie layer, whisk the dry ingredients together (this works best in a food processor), then add the wet ingredients. 



Stir in the chocolate chips.

Spread just over half of the dough in the bottom of a 9"x13" pan, reserving the rest of the dough for the top layer.


Make the cream cheese layer. Beat all of the ingredients together until smooth.

Yes, this is my funny looking mixer. It's a Bosch - a
real work horse in the kitchen!
Spread the cream cheese mixture over the cookie layer in the pan.


Drop small blobs of the remaining cookie dough mixture on top of the cream cheese layer. Distribute them as evenly as you can. The cream cheese layer is a bit "soupy," so it's hard to spread the cookie dough on top.

No worries about how it looks - the cookie dough rises as the bars bake, and ours turned out beautifully.


Sprinkle chocolate chips over the top.


Bake at 350° for 20-23 minutes, or until the cream cheese layer is set in the middle. We did the jiggle test (no movement) and the finger-touch test (touch lightly with the tip of your finger - if a depression stays, it needs to bake longer).  Don't over bake these bars!

Refrigerate to chill completely before cutting.

And I'm sorry I don't have a picture of the finished product, but these were delicious!!!

If you go to Briana Thomas's blog (link here), you can see what they're supposed to look like.


Hey, I hear you non-gluten-free, non-special-ingredients people out there! I told you this recipe was for everyone, didn't I?

Here is the "no special ingredients" list - 

Cookie Layer Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups flour
2/3 up sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
12 Tablespoons (3/4 cup) butter, softened or melted
4 eggs
1 Tablespoon molasses
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Cream Cheese Layer Ingredients:

12 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
1 egg
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

additional chocolate chips for topping

The mixing and baking directions are the same!


Meanwhile, it's that time of year when our friends from the south and east are sharing pictures of daffodils, snowdrops, and crocuses.


We're still in the midst of winter...but do you see that sunshine? Spring will be here before we know it!






Jan Drexler loves her family, her home, cooking and just about anything made by hand. But she loves her Lord most of all.

Stop by Jan's website to learn more about her books: www.JanDrexler.com




5 comments:

  1. Oh my stars, these look amazing. I've never thought of pairing cream cheese with chocolate chip cookie bars! BRILLIANT!!! And I love that you have both versions here, that's marvelous, Jan!

    Tell Carrie thank you for me... I'll play with these sometime soon. And it will probably be the no special ingredients version for my little peeps, but either way, I'm psyched about this.

    And winter here, too, but milding.... And one night the peepers woke up and chattered for a few hours. The spring peepers are those cute little tree frogs we have all over the yard (marsh on one side and little ponds scattered around. They say that the peepers must freeze THREE times before spring is really here... so we have one down! In February!

    But we won't see early flowers for weeks yet. And March is always a tempest here along the Great Lakes. Blizzards and ice storms are always worse in March, so we never take a nice day for granted... or get our hopes up too much!

    But I'm loving the warmer sun, too!!!! YES! Fist bump!

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    Replies
    1. These bars were so...so...wow. Delicious. Carrie made them to take to a get-together she was having with some friends (including our mutual favorite, Meg Brummer!), but we had to try them first, right?

      One bite. Then she took them away. :(

      One of the most pleasant surprises I found when we moved here is that we have peepers! Not like we did in Kansas, but every spring, they're peeping away. Our nights are still too cold for them, though. Maybe in March!

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  2. What is THM????

    These do look great...because this is gluten free I could make these for my daughter but she is allergic to dairy too. Ahhhh....guess that means more for me. :-)

    We've had crazy warm days up here. Even thunderstorms -- in February!!!!! But it is cooling down again. And like Ruthy said, March brings its own bundles of joy in the form of snowy/sleety/freezing rain...along with a few sunshiny days too.

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  3. Hi Kav!

    Dairy free is tough. Hmm... Okay - Substitute Coconut Oil for the butter, and leave off the cream cheese layer. Voila! Toll House (almost) Cookie bars! Gluten-free, sugar-free, and dairy-free!

    We're aiming to make everybody happy in the Cafe today!

    And THM is Trim Healthy Mama. If you want more info, you can visit their website: www.trimhealthymama.com

    The weather! This time of year is always crazy - winter one day, spring the next. You never know what's going to happen until it happens! The earth's "change of life" comes twice a year. :)

    I've been following your walking regimen on Facebook, cheering you on. We're all on team Kav at the Cafe!!!

    GO, KAV! GO, KAV! GO, KAV!

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  4. I am printing this for my recipe collection because they just look too good to NOT bake one of these times!!! But I will use the "normal" recipe...no food allergies or special diets here :-)

    I was going to ask what THM was but I see Kav already did and got the answer to.

    Ah yes, spring peepers! Jan, I've been hearing them the last few nights when I take my dog outside just before bed. I love hearing them, it's like they are singing a chorus just to me, I smile every time I hear them :-) Then in the late summer, the crickets come out...God's symphony!!!

    Thanks for the recipe, I hope to make them soon. Even if it is to take to church for Sunday afternoon fellowship ;-)

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