Where it all began...

Apparently I make good cookies. Not just good cookies but awesome cookies. Not my words, the words of my family and friends. Don't get me wrong, I can follow a recipe. But I'm not really sure what makes them so delectible. I almost feel as though I am cheating my family, mostly my husband, out of the tastefulness of life when I make cookies from premade dough or pour them out of a box. They even have their own name: Shari Cookies. These "Shari Cookies" have become the only request of my family as Christmas presents and are a requirement at family parties. It all started Christmas 2005 when I tried to get a cookie exchange going. I made hundreds of cookies in my college apartment all by hand (I didn't yet have a mixer), in an oven that barely fit one pan. My roommate awoke to masses of baked goods covering each and every surface of our living space, save her bedroom and our tiny bathroom. I boxed them all up, well most of them, wrapped them in holiday flare, and placed them under the trees of my unsuspecting family members. With visions of sugar plums fleeing their dreams, they awoke to the sugar spender that has now become the traditional holiday staple. My goal is to get some practice this year. Not that I'm rusty. I absolutely adore baking. However, it seems as though I always go into the holiday cold, without the proper shoes, stretch and warmup. Not this year. This year I plan to outdo all the rest, which will be hard to do, for sure. And so, "The Cookie Project" was born. Each week I plan to make one type of cookie. It must be from scratch and have all the love and tenderness of warm homemade cookies and the subsidial milk, sans the slobber of my husband's spit on the spoon. So, one homemade cookie a week. This can't be good for our waistlines, but he's not complaining...

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Football Weekend: Maple-Pecan Sticky Bars

Tailgating Weekend!      GO HAWKEYES!!
Maple-Pecan Sticky Bars
Makes 30
Epicurious.com, Bon Appetit, October 2003

Ingredients:
Crust:
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/4 cup sugar
1 large egg yolk
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
Filling:
1/2 cup pure maple syrup
1/3 cup (packed) brown sugar
1/4 cup whipping cream
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups coursely chopped pecans

Preparation:
For crust: Preheat oven to 350. Butter 9x9x2 inch metal cake pan. Using electric mixer, beat butter, sugar and egg yolk in bowl to blend. Add flour and salt; beat until moist clumps form. Gather dough together. Press dough over bottom and 1/2 inch up sides or pan. Bake crust until golden, about 20 minutes. Cool.

For filling: Combine first 4 ingredients in medium saucepan. Bring to boil, stirring until butter melts and mixture is smooth. Boil filling 30 seconds. Remove from heat; mix in vanilla, then nuts.

Pour hot filling into crust. Bake bars until filling is bubbling in center, about 15 minutes. Cool bars completely in pan on rack (filling will become firm). Chill at least 1 hour and up to 2 hours. (Can be made 3 days ahead. Cover and keep chilled.) Cut into 30 bars.
The directions sound complicated but they are very easy. I was in a hurry so I accidently put all the crust ingredients in the mixer all at the same time. It took a little more mixing, but the crust turned out just as well. Don't be worried if the crust is really crumbly. You press it all together into the pan anyways and it comes together. Unfortunately I cannot tell you what these are going to be like in a few days because they were all gone by the end of the tailgate. They almost taste like pecan pie but I don't think they are as sugary sweet. My husband, who claims to hate pecans but eats them in everything I add them to, loved these. They are what he would call "breakfast dessert", but they can be eaten any time of day. Bars are outside of the cookie project prerequisite as they aren't actually cookies, but I wanted something that would travel well that I haven't made before. Brownies and rice crispies are always prominent on the tailgate table, but at 7am, maple sugar and pecans are exactly what I crave.
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