Cookie Day At Sarah's

Every year there is an event in our family called "Cookie Day", it is a day full of baking cookies at my sister Sarah's house. Sarah has a nice big house and I think three ovens. I could be wrong as there might be four, a double upstairs and a double down stairs. This attribute makes her house the perfect place for "Cookie Day". The day is just that, those in attendance come over with their cookie baking gear in hand, I.E. mixers, bowls, cookie sheets, cook books and ingredients. It is a festive day of baking our favorite cookies and chatting with family. I have yet to be able to attend this event as my job as an over the road truck driver has kept me from it. It usually is on a Sunday but this year it is on a Saturday so I will be in attendance. I am not sure of my cookie selection yet, I have two boxes in the dinning room floor full of cookie books and I brought four with me this week in the truck.

I have the Mrs. fields cookie book from 1992, the Farm Journal Choice Chocolate Recipes book, a Time Life cookie book from 1982, and a Better Homes and Gardens "Homemade Cookies" from 1989. I like the older books because the recipes are not convoluted with a bunch of useless extra steps. As I have been reading through these this week some items stand out in my mind. Number one is the Pecan Pie Bars in the Mrs Fields cookie book. This is a basic cookie bar recipe but with a pecan pie filling. Being married to a southern gal has me loving pecan pie more than most pies so I am debating making this for cookie day. Let me explain one of the greatest things about cookie day. When all the cookies are baked and laid out on the various counter tops at my sisters house, they get divided up by the number of participants there that day! Yea baby! You got it! It is a bountiful blessing of cookie greatness to be had by all! I have to say though that not every one's cookies come out as the greatest but we just keep our mouths shut and deal with those when we get home LOL.

So with this being my first time to Cookie Day I want to make a good impression yet I don't want to be an oven hog either. There is also the fact that I need to bake enough to make the split fair as well. I'm going to have to get with Sarah and see how the RSV P's are coming so I know what to do. As far as the Pecan Pie Bars go the most expensive ingredient is going to be the chopped and halved pecans. the rest is basic.

Here is how it looks, I haven't made this yet so I don't have pictures yet.


Pastry Ingredients

1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup salted butter, chilled
5-6 Tbsp ice water

Filling
5 Tbsp salted butter
1 cup dark brown sugar firmly packed
1/2 cup light corn syrup
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 large eggs beaten
1 1/2 cups (6 ounces) chopped pecans
16 pecan halves


oven to 350 degrees F.
In a medium bowl combine flour and chilled butter with a pastry cutter until dough resembles a course meal. Add water gradually and mix until dough holds together and can be shaped into a ball. You can also do this in a food processor and add the water gradually until a dough ball forms. Wrap this dough ball in plastic wrap and refrigerate for one hour or until firm. On a floured board using a floured rolling pin, roll out dough into a 10 x 10 square. Fold dough in half and then into quarters. Place it in a 8 x 8 baking pan and unfold and press into the corners and up along the sides of the pan. Refrigerate for 15 minutes. They didn't say a word about greasing the pan so I'm not sure what to do about that. Maybe a non stick pan like most people use today is the answer there. Myself I like an 8x8 glass pan with a touch of real butter. Just enough to keep it from sticking.

OK now the filling
Melt 5 Tbsp of butter in a medium sauce pan over medium heat. Remove from heat and stir in the the sugar and the corn syrup. Mix until smooth. If you have to double or triple the batch like I do for cookie day, you might want to use the stand mixer if you have one. Add the vanilla and the eggs and beat until thoroughly combined. Add the pecan pieces and fold in. Now pour the pecan filing into the pastry lined pan that you had in the refrigerator. Smooth out the filling and trim the dough down to just above the filling mixture if need be. Bake in the center of the oven for 50-60 minutes or until filling is set. Cool on a wire rack then cut into 2x2 inch pieces. Top each piece with a pecan half and serve at room temperature or chilled.

It is supposed to yield 16 pieces

I may make this before hand and bake a simpler cookie recipe on the day. It really depends on how many people are coming. Try this one out and let me know what you think. I will be taking pictures of the grand event and the bounty to share here afterwards.

Piece
Tim