For me, Christmas season starts as soon as the last trick-or-treater takes their candy and walks away from my front door. This year, actually, while I waited for the little ones to come I planned out Christmas decorations. Quinn, being the ever-loyal husband, followed me around the house making notes and drawing sketches for me. So, it comes as no surprise that this recipe comes from Southern Living’s Big Book of Christmas Baking.
Not wanting to spend hours in the kitchen, I was looking for something easy and quick. This recipe fit the bill on both counts. These little bars mix up in no time, with only a mixing bowl and a saucepan to clean up. The flavor is good, too. For only having a handful of ingredients, they are very rich. The middle layer of pecans and the caramel-ish stuff is almost like toffee in taste and texture.
My only problem with these is the chocolate on top. The chocolate chips were added after baking, and then after a few minutes they were to be swirled into the bars with a knife to create a marbled effect. That didn’t work out so well, so I ended up just kind of spreading it around like frosting. Knowing that now, I would probably use more than a cup of chocolate chips to have plenty to cover all of the bars.
These would be great for Christmas or for any time. Somehow, just baking out of a Christmas cookbook makes it seem more like Christmas. Be prepared, everyone, as Christmas approaches I may not be able to control all my baking urges.
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November 6th, 2006 at 7:40 pm
Those look fantastic. I too have had the Christmas baking bug already and (hang my head in shame) I played Chrstmas music today.
November 7th, 2006 at 1:19 am
Those are some delicious looking bars! And bring on the Christmas baking!
November 7th, 2006 at 11:55 am
long time lurker first time poster!
those look just like these turtle bars that my mom makes around christmas time! I am so excited to start baking and spending time in the kitchen and decorating.
i so look forward to all the things you will bake/blog! yay for christmas!
November 7th, 2006 at 12:58 pm
Oh my…your blog is simply the bomb. So many delicious things to make and eat. I’m not the Christmas kind…I lean towards Festimas…but there is certainly room at our table for any of your recipes. I’ll be back!
November 7th, 2006 at 3:34 pm
What is not to love about these… yum!
November 7th, 2006 at 8:24 pm
Thanks, y’all! I hope to do a lot of holiday baking in the next several weeks.
November 8th, 2006 at 11:31 am
I think these are wonderful to give away during the holidays! I certainly would enjoy a plate right now! Happy Cooking
November 8th, 2006 at 8:51 pm
These look great…and my boyfriend would love ‘em except for the chocolate on top he doesn’t dig it
How about white chocolate on top? any suggestions?
November 9th, 2006 at 12:27 am
Gina, I think white chocolate is a great idea!
November 9th, 2006 at 8:46 am
I think I’d have a problem eating only one of those.
November 9th, 2006 at 11:51 pm
Oh. Wow.
I would have eaten all of these if I’d been present!
November 10th, 2006 at 10:03 pm
I love the holidays! What a perfect time of year to showcase the many wonderful sweet recipes such as this one.
These look so delicious.
November 16th, 2006 at 2:44 pm
These look delicious! I’ll have to add this recipe to our Christmas cookie list!
September 20th, 2009 at 5:50 pm
I’ve made these for funerals, good times and work. Everyone loves them and I always get requests for the recipe. I make the crust in my food processor for a really fast recipe. I also use a fine quality dark chocolate chip and plenty of them!