Jeans Bars
Combine in bowl with pastry cutter until crumbly:
1 cup flour or 1 cup Bob’s Red Mill 1 to 1 GF flour or 1 cup America’s Test Kitchen flour blend + ¼ tsp xanthan gum or 1 cup Bob’s Red Mill flour + ¼ tsp xanthan gum
½ cup butter, softened
¼ cup sugar or ¼ cup 1:1 brown sugar substitute (like Swerve)
Press into 9x13” pan sprayed with GF baking spray.
Bake at 350° for 10 minutes.
Cool pan on wire rack for 10 minutes.
Combine in bowl (right before you reach the 10 minute cooling mark, if you mix it up too soon it gets VERY thick & nearly impossible to spread of the crust):
1 cup graham cracker crumbs or 1 cup GF graham cracker crumbs (see notes)
1 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
14 oz can sweetened condensed milk or made-from-scratch sugar free sweetened condensed milk (see recipe below)
1 cup chocolate chips or 1 cup sugar free chocolate chips (I use Lily’s, but I have also used Hershey’, which are good too)
Option: may use ½ cup chocolate chips & ½ cup chopped pecans or walnuts
Spread over crust.
Bake at 350° for 15-20 minutes, until golden brown.
Place pan on wire rack & cool completely. Seriously – cool completely! Otherwise when you spread the frosting, it will be a mess!
Blend until creamy:
½ cup powdered sugar or ½ cup SF 1:1 powdered sugar substitute (like Swerve)
½ cup butter, softened
1 tsp GF vanilla
Spread creamed mixture over bars. It may seem like there won’t be enough to cover the pan, but there is! Just keep spreading! It will be a thin layer of frosting, not thick like on a cake.
Refrigerate until set.
Cut into bars (makes about 36)
SF Sweetened Condensed Milk
2¼ cups heavy cream
¼ cup butter
½ cup sugar free powdered sugar substitute (like Swerve)
¼ tsp GF vanilla
Combine cream, butter & sugar in medium heavy saucepan.
Simmer on low for 20-30 minutes, stirring often. It will thicken & reduce by almost half. You should end up with about 2 cups, which is about the same amount as a 14 oz can of sweetened condensed milk.
Remove from heat & whisk in vanilla.
Pour into storage container (I use a mason jar). Cool completely.
May store in refrigerator for 5-7 days.
If too thick when you are ready to use, may microwave for 5-8 seconds, then stir.
This is the recipe I based the sweetened condensed milk on: https://ketocookingchristian.com/sugar-free-sweetened-condensed-milk-keto-and-low-carb-2/
Notes:
Sometimes it’s hard to find GF graham cracker crumbs. But you can easily crush whole graham crackers in a ziplock bag or between 2 sheets of waxed or parchment paper with rolling pin or flat mallet (about 6 regular graham crackers or 8-9 GF graham crackers)
My friend Maria gave this recipe to me a long time ago. Her comment was “Jeans Bars, guaranteed to make your jeans fit tight!” The original recipe is VERY rich, but with gluten free &/or sugar free substitutions, hopefully they will not have the same effect on your jeans!