Purely delectable toasted meringue chocolate bars are the perfect union of melt in your mouth chocolate ganache and pillowy soft swiss meringue.
Can you really ever go wrong with chocolate? The answer is pretty obvious if you ask me! Chocolate is ALWAYS a good idea; so when I was contacted by the team at Nielsen Massey about participating in their Better Your Bake – How to Make Meringue Campaign, I knew exactly what I wanted to make – these incredibly delicious toasted meringue chocolate bars! The mild sweetness of the meringue perfectly compliments the robust flavor of the creamy chocolate ganache layer making for an awesomely delicious treat. To sweeten the deal even more, these toasted meringue chocolate bars are no-bake and are a breeze to make!!
How to Make Toasted Meringue Chocolate Bars
Chocolate Crust
Key Ingredients
- Chocolate Cookie Crust
- Melted Unsalted Butter
How To Make Chocolate Crust
- Line – a standard size loaf pan with parchment paper allowing for some overhang. This will make it easier to remove chocolate bars from pan later.
- Mix – in a small mixing bowl, add the chocolate cookie crumbs, pour in melted butter and mix to combine. The resulting mixture will have the appearance of wet sand.
- Spoon – chocolate crust mixture into prepared pan and spread out into an even layer.
- Refrigerate – chocolate crust as the chocolate filling is being prepared.
Chocolate Ganache Layer
Key Ingredients
- Semi-Sweet Chocolate –finely chopped
- Heavy Cream – warmed to hot
How To Make Chocolate Ganache Layer
- Place – chocolate in a medium mixing bowl.
- Pour – hot heavy cream over chocolate and let mixture sit untouched for at least 30 seconds.
- Whisk – chocolate-cream mixture until smooth.
- Retrieve – chocolate crust from the refrigerator and pour in the chocolate ganache filling.
- Refrigerate – chocolate bars for 6-8 hours or overnight. I highly recommend refrigerating overnight.
Swiss Meringue Topping
For the Swiss meringue topping, I adapted the recipe from the Nielsen Massey’s Better Your Bake – How to Make Meringue blog post which features a step by step guide on how to make French and Swiss meringues. I am partial to Swiss meringue because I find it to be more stable than the French meringue and easier to make than the Italian meringue; however, that is just a matter of preference. I found the Better Your Bake – How to Make Meringue blog post to be very informative and helpful! So if you looking to learn or improve your meringue making skills, I honestly recommend checking out the Better Your Bake – How to Make Meringue guide.
Bring It All Together – Toasted Meringue Chocolate Bars
- Retrieve – set chocolate bars from refrigerator and use parchment overhang to remove from pan.
- Cut – chocolate bars into 8 equal pieces.
- Pipe – swiss meringue on top of each chocolate bar using preferred pastry tip. I used this 1A wilton pastry tip.
- Toast – using a hand-held kitchen torch, carefully toast meringue topping until rich golden brown in appearance. Alternatively, meringue topping can be toasted under a broiler, about 30-40 seconds. If using the broiler, watch meringue attentively to prevent it from burning and the chocolate bars from melting.
How to Store Toasted Meringue Chocolate Bars
Toasted meringue chocolate bars stored in an airtight container will last up to 1 week in the refrigerator and 3-4 weeks in the freezer.
Looking for More Chocolate Recipes, Check Out the Links Below:
Toasted Meringue Chocolate Bars
Purely delectable toasted meringue chocolate bars are the perfect union of melt in your mouth chocolate ganache and pillowy soft swiss meringue.
- Prep Time: 30 Minutes
- Cook Time: 10 Minutes
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 8 Bars 1x
Ingredients
Chocolate Crust
- 1 cup (100 g) Chocolate Cookie Crumbs
- 1.5 Ounces (3 Tablespoons) Unsalted Butter, Melted, Cooled
Chocolate Ganache Layer
- 6 Ounces (170 g) Semi-Sweet Chocolate, Finely Chopped
- 3/4 Cup (177 ml) Heavy Cream, Warmed to Hot (Not Boiled)
- 1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
Swiss Meringue Topping
- Recipe Adapted from Better Your Bake – How to Make Meringue Guide. I halved the recipe for a smaller yield.
Instructions
Chocolate Crust
- Line a standard size loaf pan with parchment paper allowing for some overhang. This will make it easier to remove chocolate bars from the pan later.
- In a small mixing bowl, add the chocolate cookie crumbs, pour in melted butter and mix until all of the chocolate crumbs are moisten with the melted butter.
- Spoon chocolate crust mixture into prepared pan and spread out into an even layer.
- Refrigerate chocolate crust as the chocolate filling is being prepared.
Chocolate Ganache Layer
- Place finely chopped chocolate in a medium mixing bowl.
- Pour hot heavy cream over chocolate and let mixture sit untouched for at least 30-60 seconds.
- Whisk chocolate-cream mixture until smooth.
- Next, whisk in the vanilla extract into the chocolate ganache.
- Retrieve chocolate crust from the refrigerator and pour the chocolate ganache filling over the crust.
- Refrigerate chocolate bars for 6-8 hours or overnight. I highly recommend refrigerating overnight.
Swiss Meringue Topping
- Recipe adapted from Better Your Bake – How to Make Meringue Guide. I halved the recipe for a smaller yield.
Assembly
- Retrieve set chocolate bars from refrigerator and use parchment overhang to remove from the pan.
- Cut chocolate bars into 8 equal pieces.
- Using preferred pastry tip, pipe a small dollop of the swiss meringue across the top surface of each chocolate bar. I used this 1A wilton pastry tip.
- Using a hand-held kitchen torch, carefully toast meringue topping until rich golden brown in appearance. Alternatively, meringue topping can be toasted under a broiler for about 30-40 seconds. If using the broiler, watch meringue attentively to prevent it from burning and the chocolate bars from melting.
Notes
- I used semi-sweet chocolate for the chocolate ganache layer; however, semi-sweet chocolate can be replaced with bittersweet or dark chocolate for a more robust chocolate flavor.
- For a s’mores twist, use graham cracker crumbs in place of chocolate crumbs.
- For the Swiss meringue recipe adapted from the Better Your Bake – How to Make Meringue guide, I halved the recipe but still had some leftover meringue. To avoid having leftover meringue spread all of meringue over the top of chilled chocolate bar, toasted and cut into equal pieces.
- For a nice cold treat, place toasted meringue chocolate bars in the freezer for an hour or so before eating. So yum! Alternatively, bars can be kept in the freezer and eaten when a chocolate craving hits.
Diana
These are gorgeous!
nourished endeavors
Hi Diana, Thanks so much!!