Dolly's magic bars

These bars are often called Hello Dolly bars, or seven layer bars or magic bars. I never really got the seven layers name - it makes them sound like they are way more complicated than they are. And they are really, really not complicated to make. They take about 10 minutes to get them in the oven and they really have two very simple layers: a graham crumb crust and then a gooey, caramelly chocolate and nuts layer, balanced with some flaky salt on top. 

You can put anything you want in these bars. I like to go with lots of types of chocolate, and I think the star touch is the malted chocolate balls. When you bake them, the malty insides kind of vaporize into crispy, melty magic. I’m very fond of this particular combination, but go for whatever you like - often these bars have coconut, or dried fruit. 

dolly’s magic bars

• 1 ½ cups graham crumbs 

• ½ cup butter, melted 

• 1 tin sweetened condensed milk 

• ¼ cup milk chocolate chips or chunks

• ¼ cup dark chocolate chips or chunks

• ¼ cup white chocolate chips or chunks

• ¼ cup chocolate malt balls (Maltesers or Whoppers)

• ½ cup toasted walnuts, roughly chopped

• 1.2 cup toasted pecans, roughly chopped

• A very generous pinch of flaky salt (Maldon salt is great)

Line an 8” x 8” pan with parchment paper. Combine graham crumbs and butter until evenly mixed. Spread over the bottom of lined pan, and smooth into a uniform layer. 

Sprinkle chocolate and nuts over the graham crumbs. Pour the condensed milk evenly over the chocolate and nuts, scraping out as much from the can as possible. Sprinkle a bunch of flaky salt over top (I like to really go for it with the salt - these are very sweet and they can handle it!).
Bake at 350° F for around 30 minutes, or until the top is caramelized and bubbly. Cool bars completely before cutting (chilling them helps even more). These keep well in an airtight container in the fridge (or freezer) if you manage to keep them hanging around.

jammy walnut cookies

I'm totally fascinated by aquafaba, a new egg white substitute that has been getting popular in the last year or two. Aquafaba is something I have been unknowingly throwing away for years, and before I saw it in action, I couldn't really believe that it was actually going to work. Aquafaba is chickpea brine, the water that I have been tipping out of canned beans and pouring away down the drain! But it has a secret power to become an uncanny egg white replacer. It makes very fluffy, glossy meringues indistinguishable from egg white meringue. Uncooked aquafaba meringue has the faintest beany smell, but sugar and a bit of vanilla takes that away, and cooked, the stuff is an incredibly convincing egg white mimic. 

To make it work, it helps to reduce the aqua faba by about 25% to thicken it slightly, so 1 cup becomes 3/4 cup. To reduce, heat over medium heat in a small pan for around 10-15 minutes, checking the volume frequently until you get 3/4 the original volume.Now, every time I eat chickpeas I save the liquid in a jar in the freezer for later. I can be frozen and then reduced after, or reduced and then frozen.

These cookies are soft and chewy, with a molten, caramelly little jam puddle through the centre. 

jammy walnut cookies: 

Adapted from The New York TImes

• 1 ¾ cups blanched almonds, toasted

• 1 ½ cups walnuts, toasted

• 1 cup sugar

• 1/2 tsp cinnamon

• 1 tsp vanilla extract

• 1/2 cup aqua faba, reduced by 25%

• ½ cup raspberry jam

Grind almonds and walnuts in a food processor until mostly finely ground, a few bigger pieces are ok. Combine nuts with sugar, cinnamon and vanilla in a medium bowl. 

In the bowl of a stand mixer, mix aqua faba with the whisk attachment on medium speed until very frothy, about 3 minutes. Fold into nut mixture. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour, overnight if you like. 

Heat oven to 325°.  Scoop golf ball sized cookies onto a parchment lined baking sheet and cook for 15 minutes. Remove from oven, cool for a couple minutes and then carefully make in an indentation in the centre of each cookie. Drop a teaspoon of jam in each and then bake 10 more minutes, until the bottom edges of the cookies are golden brown and jam is bubbling. 

maple walnut honeycomb

One more quick candy for any really severely last minute holiday emergencies you are having. Honeycomb or sponge toffee is a light, crispy, foamy candy - it's what's inside a Crunchy bar. It's great with chocolate on top, or with maple syrup and toasted walnuts as I did here. It's quick, it's an excellent stocking stuffer and you will find watching it magically bubble up strangely soothing in the midst of seasonal panic. Or at least I did. If the foaming isn't quite soothing enough, there is also some very cathartic smashing to look forward to. It puffs up so much it seems impossible. Make sure to choose a large enough pan to contain the foam explosion.

I hope you have a lovely, happy Christmas or holiday or your choice! 

maple walnut honeycomb

adapted from Merrill Stubbs at Food 52

• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup maple syrup
• 1 tbs baking soda
• 1/3 cup toasted walnuts, roughly chopped
• big pinch flaky salt, if you wish
   

Line a cookie sheet with parchment and place this on a heat tolerant cutting board or trivet. 

Heat sugar, syrup and 1/3 cup water in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Swirl mixture a couple times but do not stir. Cook until mixture reaches 300°F on a candy thermometer. 

Remove the pan from heat and very quickly stir in baking soda. Mixture will foam up a lot so stir rapidly to mix soda thoroughly. Add half the nuts and dump mixture out onto prepared baking sheet. Sprinkle remaining nuts and salt on top. 

Let toffee cool completely and then smash it up into bite size chunks. Store in an airtight container, toffee will wilt and weep if left out for too long.

Photos: Tyrel Hiebert

nameless (chocolate, walnut & pecan) bars

Like Holly Golightly's cat, these bars are nameless. Unlike Holly Golightly's cat, the reason for their namelessness is that their inspiration is a certain infamous pie, which is the registered trademark of some rather litigious individuals. Kern's Kitchen, who hold the trademark, like to make liberal and slightly terrifying use of the legal system to protect their pie. They have sued 25 times to protect it, with targets including cookbooks, restaurants and Bon Appetit magazine. In a fantastically Wizard-of-Oz-esque move, their production facilities include a curtained off area where the pie is mixed  by the sole employee who knows the recipe. 

So these are nameless bars. And also like Holy Golightly's cat, these should never be thrown out of a taxi in a rainstorm. 

These bars are fantastical dessert hybrids, a sugary chimera: part gooey sugar pie, part buttery shortbread, with a touch of chocolate chip cookies goodness. 

from Smitten Kitchen

crust

• 1 cup flour

• 1/4 teaspoon fine sea or table salt

• 1/4 cup sugar

• 1/2 cup butter, cut into chunks

filling

• 6 tablespoons butter, melted

• 1/3 cup brown sugar

• 1/3 cup granulated sugar

• 1 large egg

• 1 large egg yolk

• 1/4 teaspoon salt

• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

• 6 tablespoons flour

• 3/4 cup chocolate chips

• 1/2 cup toasted walnuts, roughly chopped

• 1/2 cup toasted pecans, roughly chopped

• flaky salt

Heat oven to 350°F. Line a 8" square pan with parchment paper. 

Crust: Combine all ingredients in a food processor and blend until the dough comes together in a solid lump. Pat dough into an even layer in the parchment lined pan. Bake until just beginning to colour, about 15 minutes. Set aside to cool. 

Filling: Mix together butter, sugars, egg, yolk, salt and vanilla. Add flour and stir until just combined. Fold in chocolate and nuts. Pour over crust, spreading evenly. Sprinkle the top with flaky salt. 

Bake for about 20 minutes, until top is crackly and golden but still wobbles a teeny bit when jiggled. 

Photos: Tyrel Hiebert