bars inspired by a pie

Father's day - a reason to bake a little treat specially for my papa. As some of you might remember, my father loves pecan pie (I baked him one for Easter) - so I decided to make him pecan pie inspired bars... squares of pecan and chocolate with a hint of maple syrup.

Really easy to make - and substitute your favourite nut for the pecans if they're not your thing :0) The original recipe that is the basis for this one actually called for walnuts. So anything goes...

Pecan & chocolate bars
ingredients:
1 c. pecan pieces (make them about the same size as chocolate chips)
1/2 c. (1 stick) of butter, room temperature
1 c. brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 c. whole wheat pastry flour
1 tsp. b. powder
1/4 c. maple syrup
1 1/4 c. dark chocolate chips

Preheat your oven to 350 F. Grease a baking dish - I used my rectangular jelly roll pan, but a square pan should work too... use what you've got!

In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar together. Once the mixture has gotten fluffy, add the vanilla. Then, with a wooden spoon stir in the flour and b. powder - combine well.

This is where I added the maple syrup - it moistens up the batter just a little (you'll find it's a pretty dense batter).

Stir in the pecan pieces and dark chocolate chips. This should kind of resemble a really thick cookie batter - everything will clump together.

Now, dump the batter into your pan - I wet my hands a little so that I can pat the batter down and make sure that it's evenly spread.

Bake for between 35 - 37 minutes (depending on your oven and the pan you decide to bake the bars in... thicker bars will take a bit longer).

Remove from the oven, cool in the pan and then cut into slices. You should get about 18 bars out of this recipe.

My favourite part of this - is the smell that comes from the oven. Sigh. Nuts and chocolate always go so well together...