Sacher Bars

I made these for home fellowship. I didn't know who Sacher was or why his bars would be so special, but they sounded good and looked yummy in the picture. I have since learned, through Google, that Sacher Torte is a Viennese dessert traditionally made with two layers of chocolate sponge cake with a layer of apricot jam in the middle, frosted with dark chocolate and served with unsweetened whipped cream. So these bars are apparently a take on that. I love chocolate and fruit together. I know not everyone does. My favorite is chocolate and raspberry. Maybe I could call those Rasper Bars or something. This one is from the Feb/March 2012 Simple & Delicious.

Sacher Bars
3/4 cup butter
3 oz unsweetened chocolate
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/4 cup flour
3/4 cup apricot preserves
2 oz semisweet chocolate

Line a greased 15x10x1 inch baking pan with waxed paper. Grease and flour paper (I just sprayed liberally with cooking spray); set aside. Place butter and unsweetened chocolate in microwave safe bowl. Microwave on high for 2 minutes, then stir until chocolate is completely melted. Allow to cool slightly. Add sugar, eggs, and vanilla, and mix well. Add flour. Transfer to prepared pan. Bake at 325 for 15-20 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean (do not overbake). Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan to wire rack to cool completely.

Microwave apricot preserves until melted (took mine about 1 minute on high). Cut cake into four 7 1/2 x 5 in rectangles (how precise. I just cut mine into 4 approximately-same sized rectangles). Spread half of the preserves over two rectangles. Top each rectangle with another one. Spread with remaining preserves. Cut into bars.

Melt semisweet chocolate; stir until smooth. Drizzle over bars. Let stand until set. Store in airtight container (Tupperware) in the refrigerator.

Okay if you make these you should warn people that it is apricot. Apparently people expected it to be caramel, and it did look like that a little bit, in retrospect. Lisa took a bite, and with it still in her mouth (I think she wanted to spit it out) said "did you make sweet and sour brownies???" Ha. So these were not a hit at home fellowship. I took them to work the next night, gave a warning to all that it was apricot, and they were much better received. I cut them very small, like 2 bites' worth for each one, and I had 3 of them through the night. Each time I ate one I liked it better. So at first I wasn't going to save this one but now I don't know.