Recipe #7 - Pecan Bars

Confession:  I picked this recipe tonight because I knew that no one in my house would like it.  I didn't plan to feed it to any of them either.  We have our annual "block party" tomorrow, and I am in charge of bringing a dessert.  So I picked something that I knew my kids wouldn't like.

The ideas wasn't to feed my neighbors something yucky.  It was to not waste a pan of perfectly good treats on people who say, "Ewww, what's in THAT?!"  Lame sauce, as my 12-year old would say.

So I picked Pecan Bars for today.  Its page 215 in the cookbook, and it doesn't appear to be on the blog.  Sorry.

This is a little more time consuming recipe, but its not tricky.  It is just done in phases.

Phase one: Make the "crust".  Its sort of like a shortbread and its not remotely healthy...sort of like sugared butter!  This is what it looks like before you pat it into the bottom of the pan.

 

While that bakes in the oven for 13-14 minutes, you mix up phase two -- the pecan pie filling-ish stuff.  This phase can just be mixed by hand.  Easy, peasy.

Once the crust comes out of the oven, you pour the filling over the top of the hot crust.  Since I was more focused on getting a picture while pouring, I didn't really pay attention to pouring it very evenly.  Do your best to pour it evenly though.  Since the crust is still hot and not quite set, it makes it difficult to "spread out" the filling if you just blob it in the center.  But you can get an action shot if you don't pay attention.

(By the way, my eight-year old really digs taking pictures for me!)  Once this is spread out, you cook everything for another 20 minutes.

When phase two came out of the over, I was a little worried about this recipe.  It looked over cooked and sort of yucky.  But I pressed on.

Phase three is a glaze.  Warning, do not lick the spoon.  It is delicious and you will want to lick the bowl.  The glaze just whips up really fast and you (attempt) to pour it evenly over the warm bars.

Well it would be easier to pour it evenly if your dang bars were even to start with!

 

See why I was a little nervous?  Even with the glaze, it looks yucky.  

Next, you have to let it cool completely before cutting, and this took a couple hours.  My plan was to just cut these bars up and get them on a plate for the party tomorrow.  In fact, I waited until my kids went to bed to even bother cutting them and no one seemed to care since they knew what I was making.

They aren't really pretty, but I'm not sure that is the fault of Sara and Kate's recipe...pretty sure that had something to do with the cook.

But yes what?!  They're yummy!  They are really-bad-for-me yummy.  They are so yummy that I had to plate the bars for tomorrow and only save 4 very small pieces for my family to try in the morning.  Why small pieces, you ask?  Because I know how to cut big pieces down and still have enough for my family to try.  I needed them to not be accessible to me.