Tackle Worthy Turtle Cookie Bars

By Jessica

A long time ago, I used to work in an area with a lot of guys. Technical support guys, hardware guys, essentially the kind of guys that play quite a lot of video games and whose idea of social interaction might be a LAN party. To say that they got excited over food or baked goods would be an understatement. If any other department over ordered for meetings, it would only take one of my guys catching wind and all that excess food would be gone in a heartbeat.

It helped to ply them with baked goods, given that I often needed them to do some sort of special customer service task for me or get me parts that were hard to procure. I got the recipe for these cookies from a Land o' Lakes butter box and my fate was sealed. If ever I was spotted (all our mods were walled with windows that looked into the parking lot) carrying a tray or a glass baking dish, I would be surrounded in the hallway. I had to start making double batches, one to parcel out on my way in and one to actually make it to its original destination.

Ingredients:

Crust:

2 c All-purpose flour
1 c Firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 c Butter softened
1 c Chopped pecans

Topping:

2/3 c Butter
1/2 c Firmly packed brown sugar
1 c Chocolate chips (the recipe calls for semi-sweet, I use a combo of milk and semi)

Heat oven to 350°F. Combine all crust ingredients except pecans in large bowl. Beat at medium speed until mixture resembles fine crumbs.

Press onto bottom of ungreased 13x9-inch baking pan. Place pecans evenly over unbaked crust.

Combine 2/3 cup butter and 1/2 cup brown sugar in 1-quart saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until entire surface of mixture begins to boil. Boil 1 minute, stirring constantly. Pour evenly over pecans and crust.

Bake for 18 to 22 minutes or until entire caramel layer is bubbly. (DO NOT OVERBAKE.) Remove from oven. Immediately sprinkle with chips; allow to melt slightly (2 to 3 minutes). Swirl chips leaving some whole for a marbled effect.

Cool completely*; cut into bars.

*If you let this cool completely, the caramel can be very hard to get through with like a butter knife or the like. I cut them just this side of totally cool.

{Photo credit: Land o Lakes}