Perfect Pecan Pie Bars recipe

I probably should have posted this recipe ages ago. But you know how I roll. I procrastinate. Then, I get writer's block and don't know what to say. So today, for the sake of getting this post out, so that I can do the hoovering, I am not going to say a lot. The pecans in this recipe will do the talking.

One more thing, pecans can be a bit on the pricey side, so I get mine from Lidl or Aldi. They are much more easy on the pocket there. This recipe is so good for the nut lover in need of something more than Peanut Butter Cookies.

Almond Shortbread

The old shortbread recipe. But this time it's with a twist and one now that I've discovered, will not have me rushing back to the plain run-of-the-mill type. Sorry. These shortbread would be dreamy with a nice cup of tea, ice cream, or a cup of cold milk.

Almond Shortbread
170g butter

100g golden caster sugar 

110g ground almonds 

200g plain flour 

1 tsp finely grated lime zest 

For the sticky caramel gloss (optional)
55g unsalted butter
110g brown sugar
50g honey
handful of whole pecans or whole blanched almonds

Set the oven at 160°C/320°F.

In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Stir the ground almonds, flour and zest into the mixture. Stir until thoroughly mixed. Knead the mixture a little to mix it fully until it resembles more of a dough.

Loosely wrap the dough in enough cling-film and gently roll it into an even thick log shape. Refrigerate for around 30 minutes. Remove the dough from the fridge and with a sharp knife slice into biscuits about 5mm/ ¼" thick. Place them on a non-stick baking sheet.

Bake for about 25 minutes, until the biscuits are barely coloured. Remove from the oven and leave to cool for 10 minutes.


For the caramel gloss (completely optional)
Keep a cooling rack near, you will need it. Combine the butter, brown sugar and honey in a saucepan and stir over medium heat. Simmer the mixture for 1 minute. Remove from the heat and leave to cool no longer than 3 minutes. Carefully dip the shortbread into the warm mixture until halfway. Place on the cooling rack and add a pecan or almond to decorate before mixture hardens. Work quickly repeating until all the shortbread has been used. Leave to cool on the rack for at least an hour, momentarily rotating each shortbread to avoid sticking, until the caramel has hardened.


Adapted from Nigel Slater's almond shortbreads

Dreamlike Shortbread

I wanted something quick and very easy to do this week, so I chose these. Dreamlike Shortbread. I had a lot of errands to get through this weekend and one of them was to get en edge-trimmer for our lawn. The other-half has taken up the chore of mowing the grass occasionally; I think to get out of doing house-chores. The grass gets cut with the mower, but he can never get round the lawn’s edges close enough and it ends up looking spiky like Bart Simpson’s head.

So, we get home with the edge-trimmer, thinking we can just plug it and go, but oh no, there’s some small amount of assembly to do. To the instruction manual we go, only to find pictorial instructions which can be interpreted any which way but the right way. Why can't I have words? Why do they do that? I want words AND pictures! Needless to say it took much longer to assemble this thing than it should have. People, please – I have limited time for gardening.

With only five ingredients, your preparation for this shortbread is half done. My little head got distracted by one of the ingredients, though – Rice Flour. I had never baked with this before, but luckily found a bag in Sainsburys (in their gluten-free section). As this recipe only uses 60 grams, God knows what I'm gonna do with the rest of it! Any ideas? Answers on a postcard please. (or in the comments box below  :-)