Email to Chefmom, Tami L. Smith      

Colonial Pecan Bars

List of Ingredients

Dough:
2 sticks butter,
----semi-soft, squeezable, not squishy
1 cup powdered sugar
2 1/2 cups pastry flour
-----or 1 cup cake flour and 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
3 egg yolks

Filling:
2-3 cups roughly chopped pecans
1 stick butter
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup honey
1 Tbsp heavy cream
1 tsp vanilla



Recipe

For the dough, layer the butter on the bottom of your mixing bowl, then add the sugar on top, then the flour. Cover the bowl with a piece of parchment or a kitchen towel to prevent a powder mess. Mix on LOW until crumbly, then add the egg yolks and mix on low JUST until the mixture comes together as a dough. Pat into a rectangle and wrap in plastic wrap. Chill overnight.

When ready to roll, preheat the oven to 350°. Cut the dough in half and roll one half about ¼-inch thick, and large enough to line a cookie sheet that is 9x13. This is a very stiff dough, so you may have to either give it a few minutes to warm slightly on the counter, or do the Julia Child technique of banging it to loosen without really softening the dough too much. Just take your rolling pin and give it a few wallops, then roll as you usually do. Spray the baking pan liberally with cooking spray, then roll the dough up onto the rolling pin. Line up with the cookie sheet and unroll. Gently lift the sides and press the corners in. With a fork, "dock", a.k.a. prick the dough all over to prevent it from puffing up in the oven. Bake until it just begins to turn brown, about 10-12 minutes. Remove from the oven, set aside to cool and lower the temperature to 300°.

In a saucepan, combine the butter, brown sugar and honey. Bring to a full, rolling boil, and then stir in the heavy cream and vanilla. Set aside to cool for a few minutes and spread the pecans in an even layer on the prebaked crust, then slowly pour the honey mixture over the pecans, you may need to use a spatula to help the goo into the corners.

Now, if you like, this can be frozen at this point. Be sure it is kept level until it's frozen, then wrap in plastic wrap and again in a freezer bag or foil. When you are ready to bake, just pop into a pre-heated 300° oven and bake as usual.

Okay, if you are baking it fresh, bake about 15-17 minutes, but check and rotate the pan after 10 minutes until the mixture is bubbling ALL OVER, not just in the middle. The crust on the edges should be a nice golden brown.

Remove from the oven and set at room temperature for about 24 hours, then cut it. Trust me, it's much easier to cut after the day long set.

Yield: depends on how large you cut the bars, I like to cut the 9x13 pan in about 24 - 36 bars.

NOTE: If you are not a good cutter, line the bottom of the pan in the beginning with a piece of wax or parchment paper cut to fit. Then, when you are ready to cut, simply loosen the edges with a butter knife and turn onto a board, then turn right-side up onto a cutting board. Then you can easily cut without worrying about destroying the pan.

Store the bars in a plastic storage tub, in an even layer, with wax or parchment paper in between the layers, they are sticky when you store them…..if they last that long. They will store nicely for about 10 days to 2 weeks in a cool area.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A Note from Chefmom…..
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This is a recipe I learned in Colonial Williamsburg, I broke it down from making 5 full sheet pans of these gooey bars to the recipe above. I didn't have much success making the dough amount any smaller, so you have enough dough for 2 9x13 pans of these bars, or you can use the half of dough for this recipe and the other half to make little cutout cookies. They are wonderful by themselves, or sandwiched with raspberry preserves. Also, with no leavening they hold their shape really nice.