Walnut Bars

Don’t have a mixer? Don’t worry. You can still make may types of tasty treats. Like these walnut bars, for example.

The recipe below is adapted from a King Arthur Flour recipe called vintage butterscotch bars; I substituted one cup each of white and dark brown sugar for the two cups of light brown sugar in the original and omitted the scant 1/8 teaspoon butter rum flavor. The end result is a gooey and almost fudgy treat, if one can use the word fudgy for a recipe that has no chocolate. All you need is a saucepan or microwave to melt your butter, then a large bowl for the mixing of the rest of the ingredients. The bars get puffy when baking, then fall once they’ve cooled – don’t worry, this is supposed to happen.

Ingredients

• 8 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup dark brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 1/2 cups chopped walnuts

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 9 x 13 baking pan.

Melt butter in a saucepan or in your microwave. Place white and dark brown sugars in a large mixing bowl and pour the butter over top, then stir to combine. Let cool to lukewarm.

Stir in eggs and vanilla extract, then add salt, baking powder, and flour. Fold in nuts.

Scoop batter into pan; it will be very thick, but spread it out as evenly as you can.

Bake for 22-24 minutes, until top looks shiny and edges have pulled away from the pan. Be careful not to over-bake these bars, as they’ll get dry if they’re overdone.

Cool completely in pan, then cut into bars. Store in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

Makes 24.