Nut Bars

Read any article about healthy eating habits and it’ll tell you to keep healthy snacks like almonds not just in your pantry, but with you when you’re on the go or at your desk at work. I aspire to be a healthy snacker, but truth be told most of the nuts I buy for snacks end up in baked goods.

These nut bars, adapted from a recipe I found at Taste of Home, are definitely not in the healthy snack category. I adapted mine to include pecans instead of pistachios, but I suspect any nutty combination would work for these treats. The bar base is far more crumbly than I expected it to be, so I think I need to mix my dough better next time. In any case, they’re delicious. Next time, I might sneak a bit of maple flavoring into the honey/sugar mixture.

Ingredients

For the crust

• 12 tablespoons butter, cut into cubes
• 2 1/3 cups flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg, at room temperature, lightly beaten

For the topping

• 1 cup toasted hazelnuts, cooled and chopped
• 1 cup lightly salted cashews
• 1 cup lightly salted almonds
• 1 cup pecans, chopped
• 2/3 cup honey
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 6 tablespoons butter, cut into cubes
• 2 tablespoons heavy cream

Preparation

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a 9 x 13 baking tin with foil and grease it with butter.

In a large bowl, stir together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Cut in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs, then stir in egg. Press into the bottom of the baking tin and bake for 18-20 minutes, until light golden brown. Cool crust completely.

In a medium saucepan, combine honey, brown sugar, and salt over medium heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Bring the mixture to a boil and boil without stirring for 2 minutes; remove from heat and stir in butter and heavy cream, then return to the heat for about 1 minute, stirring constantly, until the mixture becomes smooth. Stir in nuts.

Pour over cooled crust and bake for 15-18 minutes, until topping bubbles at the edges. Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack completely; lift out of pan and cut into squares; I made small, approximately 1 x 1 squares for more bite-sized treats, but you could cut larger squares if you like. My batch yielded 48 squares.