Walnut Pecan Bars and my day at the Farmers Market

These bars are just delicious. If you make them and you're anything like me, you need to get them out of the house before you eat the entire batch. And its a big batch too! I got the recipe from the wonderful people at the Elephant Deli in Portland. This bar tided me over on a sad plane ride home after a wonderful weekend there. Do bear in mind that they are a little gooey and messy though!

I had a stand again at the Farmers Market this weekend to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and I sold these. It was a very hard mornings work, but when we realized that we needed to have samples and talk to people, things picked up a lot. It gave me an enormous amount of pleasure to see how much people enjoyed my cooking. I think everyone that I gave a sample to ended up buying something. I had lots of different cookies and shortbreads, some low fat banana muffins and some of my english style flapjacks. It was a really hard morning, but we raised a fairly decent amount of money and my team-mate Jessica brought some delicious biscotti, brownies and banana cake.

Walnut Squares from the Elephants Deli, Portland, OR

Makes 24 squares

Crust:
1/2 cup Granulated Sugar
1/2 cup plus 6 tbsp( 1 3/4 sticks) Unsalted butter
1 Egg
3 cups Unbleached Flour
1 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Baking Powder

Filling:
1 1/4 cups Unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups Firmly packed brown sugar
1/4 cups + 1 tbsp Plus one tablespoon granulated sugar
1/3 cup Honey
1/3 cup Light corn syrup
2 cups Toasted and chopped pecans
2 cups Toasted and chopped walnuts
1/4 cups Whipping cream
1/2 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Vanilla

Preheat oven to 350f
Grease a 10 x 15in pan and line with parchment paper allowing a 1 in overhang for easy removal

In the bowl of a mixer, cream sugar and butter until light and fluffy. Add the egg and beat until combined.
In a small bowl, stir together the flour, salt and baking powder. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix until dough comes together. Pat the dough into the prepared pan, building up the edges slightly.
Bake for 17-20 minutes until crust begins to brown and set. Remove from oven and cool.

Reduce oven to 300f. Place a large sheet pan on the bottom oven rack to catch any drips.

In a medium saucepan combine butter, sugars, honey and corn syrup. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat and boil for exactly 2 1/2 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in pecans, walnuts, cream, salt and vanilla. Pour filling into cooled crust and spread evenly.

Place on center oven rack over the sheet pan and bake for 35-40 mins until the filling is bubbling in the center. Cool overnight.

Cut into squares and serve.