Description

Maple Nut Bars These delicious bars start with a shortbread crust and add a slightly gooey maple topping loaded with your favorite nuts. What could be better?

Scale

Ingredients

CRUST

1 cup (250 mL) butter, softened
1⁄2 cup (125 mL) packed brown sugar
2 cups (500 mL) all-purpose flour

TOPPING

3 eggs
1 cup (250 mL) packed brown sugar
1⁄4 cup (60 mL) pure maple syrup
2 tbsp (30 mL) butter, melted
1⁄4 cup (60 mL) all-purpose flour
1⁄2 tsp (2 mL) baking powder
1 cup (250 mL) coarsely chopped pecans
3⁄4 cup (175 mL) sliced hazelnuts
2⁄3 cup (150 mL) coarsely chopped walnuts

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C). Grease a 13- by 9-inch (3 L) cake pan.

Crust:

In a bowl, using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat butter and brown sugar until smooth and creamy. On low speed, beat in flour until thoroughly blended and crumbly. Press evenly into prepared pan. Bake in preheated oven until golden around edges, 12 to 15 minutes.

Topping:

In a bowl, whisk eggs, brown sugar, maple syrup and melted butter until smoothly blended. Whisk in flour and baking powder. Mix well. Stir in pecans, hazelnuts and walnuts. Spread evenly over warm crust.
Return to oven and bake until topping is set, 20 to 25 minutes. Let cool completely in pan on rack. Cut into bars.

Notes

If you prefer, mix the crust in a food processor. Use cold butter rather than softened. You can also mix the crust in a bowl, cutting in cold cubed butter using a pastry blender, 2 knives or your fingers.

Use pure maple syrup for baking. Pancake syrup doesn’t have enough maple flavor and can react differently in baking.

Buy California walnuts for baking. If you have the time, buy walnut halves and chop them rather than using pieces. They’re fresher and of a higher quality.

In all your baking, you can replace all-purpose flour with unbleached all-purpose flour, if you prefer. They are interchangeable.