The Last Remaining Piece of VanLeer Chocolate in the World

Funny Story.

For many years my Mom made her famous English Toffee. She made it for gifts and then started a small cottage industry selling to friends and family. She would make so much that she would go through hundreds of pounds of chocolate each holiday season (she only made toffee in the winter during proper weather conditions). She bought her chocolate wholesale, but in order to do so she had to purchase a minimum amount. So, she would offer to buy chocolate for her friends at church so they could add to her order and they could get the wholesale price.

After testing numerous brands, she found a brand she loved called VanLeer. It had the best melting capabilities and the perfect flavor. I remember sitting in her house tasting samples of the different milk chocolates they made and determining which one was the very best for the toffee. They all had slight but very distinct flavor differences.

The orders came in 50 pound boxes with huge 10# slabs. My children were fed chocolate by their Grandmother from the time they were infants, and feasted on pound blocks that she would cut off and give them to nibble on, like a giant lollipop.

I am convinced the chocolate makes the toffee. There are probably thousands of "the best English Toffee" made out there, but none of them could hold a candle to Mom's and I am sure it was because of the chocolate.

Unfortunately, VanLeer went out of business and sold their operation to Caillebaut. I have nothing against Caillebaut, but their milk chocolate wasn't the same and they did not keep the VanLeer recipe.

Mom was determined to find every last ounce of VanLeer chocolate before it became extinct. She talked to Caillebaut and convinced them to send her the last of their stock. But finally, it ran out and Mom, so disheartened, discontinued her toffee business. That was about 12 years ago.

Fast forward to 2011. I was visiting an old friend of Mom's who used to order chocolate from Mom when she would put her order in to VanLeer. Gwen wanted to show me something in her pantry. It was a container filled with a 5 pound block of VanLeer chocolate! It had to be at least 12 years old! It had been wrapped so well that it was in almost perfect condition. She offered it to me as she was no longer able to cook or utilize the chocolate.

So, armed with probably the last existing piece of Van Leer chocolate in the entire world, I made once more, a batch of The Best English Toffee in the world!

Gooey German Chocolate Cake Bars

okay, here's the thing...sometimes i get into these moods where i need to cook. in the last two days, i've made corn bread, chocolate covered oreos, eggplant and tomato stacks, and these. i affectionately call this sugar casserole. or diabetes. i'm just being honest here. i found a recipe on some random blog that used cake mix as a base for cookie bars, and was topped with sweetened condensed milk and thought, "hmmm, i wonder if this could be a good way to get rid of all that random junk in my pantry." it was. behold, gooey german chocolate cake bars.


warning: this stuff is not pretty. see the picture? don't mind my half eaten blob and dirty fork off to the side there.  if you actually wait for it to cool (i clearly could not), it can be cut into bars.  despite the hideous appearance, i have received rave reviews from everyone that has tried it. so! go make it.

mix these together until they form a dough:
1 box yellow cake mix
1 egg
1 stick butter

press the dough into a foil-lined 8 by 8 glass dish.

dump whatever you want on top. no, seriously. w-h-a-t-e-v-e-r you want. i can't even give you super accurate measurements because i just started dumping, but my best guess would be:
1 bag (3-ish cups?) german chocolate cake marshmallows (i found them at target. chocolate marshmallows covered in coconut. seriously. i'm guessing normal marshmallows plus a 1/2 cup of shredded coconut would do the trick, if need be)
1 cup chopped pecans
10(+...) oz chopped chocolate of your choice (chocolate chips work, i assume. i just used all the random leftover chocolate bars in the pantry)

then top with the magic sauce:
1 cup of sweetened condensed milk

bake at 350 for 25 minutes. take it out before the marshmallows burn. don't try to eat it right away...trust me on this one...remember the picture? let cool 30 minutes. it WILL be rough getting that junk off the foil, but it's better than trying to get it off the dish. cut into squares. go into sugar coma (less of an instruction, more of a warning).

the sweetened condensed milk seeps through the marshmallows and keeps the cake dough base really moist, plus it mixes well with the chocolate.  the marshmallows get crusty on top but keep their gooey-ness and help everything to stick together well.  there is something about that yellow cake flavor that makes these taste sooooo good...but i'd be interested to try different flavors too.  did i mention that you need to make these?