pecan bars

The original recipe came from Betty Crocker's website and it's called "Scandinavian Almond Cookies" and because of my creative mind, others might call it failure to follow instructions, I just couldn't leave it alone! So I substituted a few ingredients and viola! Pecan Bars. They are one of my family's and co-workers favorites. And as we learned from my previous post (which I thought was hilarious!) red and green cookies have fewer calories, I made sure green and red were seen from space.

Ingredients:
1 pouch of Betty Crocker sugar cookie mix

1/3 cup butter, softened

1 egg

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

3 teaspoons of milk


*Glaze:

1 cup of powdered sugar

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

5-6 teaspoons of milk

1 cup of finely chopped pecans

Red or Green food coloring gels

*Bakers note: the original recipe calls for 1 cup of powdered sugar, but every time I make these cookies I end up making a second batch of the glaze. It might be a good idea to double up on the glaze recipe from the beginning.

Heat oven to 375°F.

In large bowl, stir cookie mix, butter, egg, flour and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract until dough forms.

Divide dough into 3 equal parts; place on parchment lined cookie sheets. Press each into 12x3-inch rectangle. I like to use either plastic wrap or wax paper to press the dough. Less sticky mess to deal with. Brush each rectangle with 1 teaspoon of milk;

Sprinkle with 1/3 cup of pecans;

Bake for about 10 to 12 minutes or until edges are light golden brown;

Mhhh! The smell emanating from the kitchen announcing that the cookies are done it's addicting. It makes you want to eat the air.

Cool for about one minute and remove from the cookie sheet, parchment paper and all, and while they're still warm, cut into 1 inch diagonal slices;

Move to wire rack for a complete cool down, about 30 minutes.

In a small bowl, stir powdered sugar, 1/4- tsp vanilla extract and 5-6 tsp of milk until you achieve the desired consistency. Normally I would stop at this point and drizzle the glaze, however in honor of the season, we decided to add some festive colors to the bars. Divide the glaze into two equal parts. One I left au naturale and the other one I colored green (I was out of red coloring or I would have done both). Add food coloring until you reach the desired hues and drizzle over cookies. I sprinkled some magic red dust to make up for the lack of red glze and here the are...

Let them sit for a few hours or overnight so the glaze can set. Store in an air tight container, share with your friends, or enjoy with a nice tall glass of milk.

Ahhh....cookie heaven!

christmas cookie rules

1. If you eat a Christmas cookie fresh out of the oven, it has no calories because everyone knows that the first cookie is the test and thus calorie free.
2. If you drink a diet soda after eating your second cookie. It also has no calories because the diet soda cancels out the cookie calories.
3. If a friend comes over while you are making your Christmas cookies and needs to sample, you must sample with your friend. Because your friend's first cookie is calorie free, rule #1 is yours also. It would be rude to let your friend sample alone, and being the friend that you are makes your cookie calorie free.
4. Any cookie calories consumed while walking around will fall to your feet and eventually fall off as you move. This is due to gravity and the density of the caloric mass.
5. Any calories consumed during the frosting of the Christmas cookies will be used up because it takes many calories to lick excess frosting from a knife without cutting your tongue.
6. Cookies colored red or green have very few calories. Red ones have 3 and green ones have 5 - one calorie for each letter. Make more red ones!
7. As always, cookie pieces contain no calories because the process of breaking causes calorie leakage.
8. Any cookies consumed from someone else's plate has no calories since the calories rightfully belong to the other person and will cling to their plate. We all know how calories like to CLING!   And finally...
9. Any cookies consumed while feeling stressed have no calories because cookies used for medicinal purposes NEVER have calories. It's a rule!