Cooking With C.C. ~ Gluten Free Cappuccino Bars

Most of my regular readers know that I have gone gluten free in efforts to help my fibromyalgia. One thing I had not tried since becoming GF is to bake. You see, I'm not really a kitchen person. Give me a crockpot and a microwave, oh and a coffee maker, and I'll be a happy gal! Well, over the summer, I found out from my Mom that the youth minister's wife at their church is GF. I met her just a day after we moved here and we have discovered how much we have in common. We've been sharing tons of recipes that we find online and she, Katie, suggested we get together to bake.

Either my Mom or I had run across this recipe for cappuccino bars, but it was not a gluten free recipe. I sent it to Katie anyway and asked if she could convert it to GF. She was able to do it and we got together Tuesday afternoon to have my first ever GF baking experience! I took tons of pictures and am going to try to walk you through making this recipe. I did not save where the recipe came from so if you come across my blog and this is your recipe, let me know and I'll definitely give you credit.

Let's begin!

First, preheat the oven to 375*F with the rack at the middle level. Line a 10×15 inch pan with baking parchment or grease lightly. (We just used Pam and it worked fine.)


In a bowl, combine 1 cup (2 sticks) of butter (at room temperature),


1 cup of brown sugar (firmly packed),


1 tbsp. of instant coffee or espresso powder (not granules), and 1 tsp. of vanilla extract.


Cream together with your mixer.


You may have to use a spatula to get everything off the beaters during the process.


In a separate bowl, mix together 2 1/4 cups of all purpose gluten free flour, 1/2 tsp. of xantham gum, 1/2 tsp. of baking powder, and 1/2 tsp. of salt.


Use a whisk to slowly combine the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients.


It may become easier to use a spatula to mix at some point.


Lastly, stir in 2 cups of semisweet chocolate chips using a large spoon. That is unless you use the really big chocolate chips and then it will be hard to get more than about 1 cup in the batter.


The mixture will be very crumbly, with barely enough dough to hold together the chocolate chips.


Spoon the mixture into your baking pan.


Use your fingers, palms, and heels of your hands to press the dough evenly into the pan. If necessary, cover the dough with wax or parchment paper and use a small rolling pin to flatten the lumps. We used the big spoon first and then finished with a spatula.


Bake 5 minutes, rotate the pan, and bake 5 to 10 minutes more or until the edges are just starting to brown (watch carefully). Ours took the first 5 minutes, the next 10 minutes, and then 2 more minutes.


Remove from the oven and set aside to cool 5 minutes.


While the bars are cooling, combine 2 tbsp. of milk (we used almond milk), 1 tbsp. of butter, 3/4 cup of powdered sugar, and 1/4 tsp. of cinnamon in a saucepan.


Use a whisk and stir over medium heat until smooth and barely bubbly. Don’t leave this stuff! It might burn if you do.


Drizzle the glaze evenly over the bars.


Smooth out the glaze to the edges and corners with a spatula. Now, the hardest part! Let the bars cool until the pan is just warm to the touch.


Cut into bars with a sharp knife. The original recipe suggests cutting them into 32 pieces. Ours ended up being 35 pieces. Now, for the life of me, I couldn't figure out why we were cutting them into such small pieces. Until...


...I ATE ONE!!!!! These bars are super rich. Make sure you have a beverage handy because you'll definitely need it!

These cappuccino bars were eaten up super quick! Between splitting them with Katie and her hubby and the five of us here at the house plus the extra guest we had, they were gone in 2 days. Damaris is already begging for more! (And I agree with her, just don't tell her that! LOL!)

Hope you've enjoyed this episode of Cooking with C.C. I plan to be back with more recipes soon, all having something to do with pumpkin! Enjoy!