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A question about this recipe.

16 years ago

Can't Leave Them Alone Bars

Can't Leave Them Alone

1 White cake mix

2 eggs

1/3 c. veg. oil

1 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk

1 c. semi sweet chocolate chips

1/4 c. butter or margarine, cubed

In a bowl combine dry cake mix, eggs, oil. With lightly floured hands, press 2/3 of mixture into the bottom of a greased 9 x 13 x 2 baking dish. Set aside the rest.

In a microwaveable dish, combine sweetened condensed milk, choc. chips & butter. Microwave, covered, onhigh for 45 seconds. Stir until smooth. Pour over crust. Drop remaining crust mixture, by teaspoonfuls, over top of chocolate. Bake at 350degrees F. for 20-25 minutes. Cool completely before cutting.

The name of the recipe says it all. You really can't leave them alone! Super simple and fast to make.

A friend made them today and they came out terrible. The only difference we know of is she used a yellow cake mix instead of white, and the chocolate chips had white swirls in them. They are very gummy and not nearly as sweet as mine are. I know the chips will probably make a difference, since whaterver they make the white swirls with probably melts differently. But, Would a yellow versus white cake mix cause the problem? The only other thing I can think of is maybe she used a margarine with a high oil content in it, but that shouldn't make the "crust" gooey/gummy.

Any ideas?

The name really does say it all. If they are in the house, I can't stay out of them!

Tami

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Comments (7)

beanthere_dunthat
16 years ago
Wow, that's a lot of sugar. O_O

I don't think the cake mix would make that much difference. I'm not even sure the difference in the chips would do it. I'm going to make a wild guess that the texture difference was caused by her beating the batter too much.

That condesnced milk comes in fat free now. I've never used it, so I don't know, but maybe she used that? Some of that fat-free stuff has a strange texture.
sushipup1
16 years ago
Butter vs margerine?

Overbeating?

She took them out of the oven too soon?

Her oven isn't as hot as yours, or she put them in not preheated as much as you did?
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tami_ohio
Original Author
16 years ago
The edges were well browned. The recipe calls for either butter or margarine. I have used fat free scm interchangeabley in many recipes, and might have used it when I made mine, I don't remember. I don't know how long she pre-heated the oven, but that shouldn't have affected the flavor. The texture was sort of gummey/squishy? Not brownie like. And the flavor was off. Definitely not as sweet as it should have been. I also don't think overbeating was the issue, but maybe. It doesn't have a cake batter consistancy, it's more of a dough. She said that was the way it came out. I kept asking questions, trying to figure out what the problem was.

Tami
sushipup1
16 years ago
Try a test with her. Use exactly the same ingredients, bought at the same time. I mean EXACTLY, not almost. Large eggs vs extra large eggs. Vegetable oil vs canola, corn, safflower oil, cake mix with or w/o pudding in the mix, etc etc.

Countless times I've seen people make all sorts of rationalized 'substitutions' that weren't realistic at all.
sunnyca_gw
16 years ago
My thought is she could have used extra large eggs or if not did she misread 2/3 of mixture in pan for crust thinking it was 2/3 c oil along with eggs & cake mix. The choc chips she used may be some that have changed, I read somewhere that the chip companies want to add more "fillers" to choc chips. Great, then I will have to chase around to find block choc. 1 major brand already makes lousy fudge, I threw some out 2 yrs ago. Does anyone want coconut oil, poly-whatever, thickening agents etc, instead of good choc. flavor???? Anyway the oils or whatever is in the chips may be melting out or the margarine, was it tub type or stick/cube type?? Tub type doesn't take to heat too well(grilled cheese sandwich will burn not brown)It could have made it gummy.
beanthere_dunthat
16 years ago
Short of having her make them again while you watch, you may never know. Like Sushipup said, people make substitutions all the time that they thing make sense, but that change the recipe and just don't work.
sally2_gw
16 years ago
Might she have used evaporated milk instead of sweetened condensed milk? The cans look similar enough that she could have accidently grabbed the wrong kind of milk. Just a wild guess, though.

Sally

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