With a flakey crust and creamy, sweet orange center topped with decadent chocolate and powdered sugar, this dessert is a definite crowd pleaser. Perfect for parties or holidays, it can easily be adapted to gluten free by switching out for a gluten free all purpose flour such as Bob's Red Mill (used in the photos above).
Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease 9x13 inch baking dish (if it is not non-stick).
Mix flour, powdered sugar, cornstarch and salt together in a mixing bowl until combined.
Cut in butter, or use a cheese grater and grate butter into bowl. Using your hands, work flour and butter together until combined into a crumbly dough.
Place dough in greased baking pan and evenly distribute, pressing down with your hands until you have about a 1/4-1/2 inch crust on the bottom of the dish. Place this in the refrigerator for 20 minutes.
Remove crust from refrigerator and bake in oven for about 15 minutes, or until crust begins to turn golden brown. Once you see this, remove crust from oven and set aside. You can begin preparing your filling while this is baking.
Prepare the Filling
Crack four eggs into mixing bowl. Whisk in sugar and flour until combined.
Whisk remaining ingredients (orange zest, orange juice, orange extract, milk and salt) into egg mixture until combined.
Pour topping mixture over warm crust an return to the oven. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until center of the bars is just firm to the touch, and remove from oven.
Sprinkle chocolate chips on top of bars while still warm, allowing the chocolate to melt.
After bars are cool, sprinkle (or sift, if you have a sifter) powdered sugar on top of bars. Add orange zest decoratively around on top and cut into bars.
Eat those delicious, delicious bars immediately. Or share them. Or not. We won't tell.
Notes
Click on the time in the instructions to start a timer!