Honey Pecan Bars and Pecan Pie Cookies

What a beautiful day! Today is truly a rest day for me. I deep cleaned my kitchen yesterday after turning my fair entries in. I even used the granite polish on my countertops and steam mopped my wood floors. There was NOTHING on my countertops or kitchen table. Then I had a cup of coffee and went to bed.

The weather is perfect today. It almost feels like early fall. I spent the morning reading on my upper deck then went for a short 3 mile run. So this is how my running went last week:

Sunday: rest
Monday: rest (suppose to cross-train but it didn't happen)
Tuesday: 7 miles
Wednesday: 14 miles
Thursday: 3 miles
Friday: 7 miles
Saturday: 3 miles

34 miles total, my longest week yet. This week will be less mileage as every 3rd week in the training cycle is a lower mileage week. I'm looking forward to it.

So here is my Honey Pecan Bar recipe.

It's one of my favorites. I use it for the Honey category where 51% or more of the sweetener in your recipe has to be from honey.

Crust
2 cups flour
1/4 cup confectioners' sugar
1 1/2 sticks (12 tablespoons) butter

Filling
1 cup honey
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons heavy cream
3 cups coarsely chopped pecans

First, line a 13 X 9 pan with parchment. This makes it way easy to lift your cookies out of the pan later.

I buy pre-cut 16 X 12 sheets of parchment paper from www.webstaurantstore.com . They charge $4.49 for a package of 100. This is WAY cheaper than anything I've found elsewhere and pre-cut parchment makes my life so much easier.

Next, put all your crust ingredients in a food processor...

and process until fine and crumbly.

Pour it all out into your 13 X 9 pan and press into place, raising the edges up slightly.

Bake for 20 minutes at 350 degrees.

In the meanwhile, put your honey and brown sugar in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Let it simmer for 3 minutes, add your butter and cream, and simmer for 2 more minutes.

Remove from heat and stir in the pecans. Once the crust is baked, remove from oven and lower the oven temperature to 325 degrees. Pour your filling into the crust and bake for 20 more minutes.

Cool, lift cookies out of your pan and cut into bars.

I liked this recipe so much that I wanted to enter it in the Nut Cookie category at the State Fair. Our County Fair has a stipulation that you cannot enter the same recipe in more than one category. I couldn't find any such rule in the State Fair but I didn't want to take any chances so I changed the recipe slightly and created

Pecan Pie Cookies

Pecan shortbread layer

3 cups flour

1 cup pecans

3 sticks of butter

Pecan pie layer

1 cup honey

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

6 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons heavy cream

3 cups coarsely chopped pecans

As you can see, the filling is exactly the same. I don't have "how to" photos since I created this on the fly during my crazy day on Friday.

For the shortbread, process the pecans and flour together until pecans are fine. You don't want to process the pecans alone because the oils in the pecans will make the pecan meal clump together. Add your butter and process until a dough forms.

Press the dough into a 12-serving whoopee pie pan or similar. You will only use half the dough at a time if you are using a 12 hole whoopee pie pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes.

Make the pecan pie layer just like you made the filling for the first recipe and spoon it over the pecan shortbread layer. Lower oven temperature to 325 degrees and bake for 15 more minutes. Do not under bake these cookies. The edges need to be golden brown or else they will be too soft to pick up. Cool completely, then remove from pan.

If you like pecans or pecan pie, you will like these cookies. Enjoy!

I suppose today is the calm before the storm. Tomorrow will be cake day. I have 4 cakes and 6 of the same cupcake I need to turn in by 4 pm on Tuesday for the State Fair so the baking madness will resume in the morning.

How was your weekend?