I’m happy to be baking from Dorie’s Cookies again and these delicious bars got me in the mood for Thanksgiving . I made a couple of tweaks to Dorie’s recipe, one by choice, the other out of necessity.

The recipe comes together very quickly. The simple shortbread crust is made in a food processor, then pressed into the pan, which brings up the first change I made to the recipe. I hadn’t read the recipe carefully enough (oops!) to realize the bars were to be baked in a 9 inch square pan. I don’t own a 9 inch pan, so an 8 inch pan had to do the job. I blind-baked the crust as instructed, anticipating the thicker crust might require more time in the oven. Instead, the crust was ready after baking for the time called for in the recipe, nicely golden on the edges.

The second change was intentional. Dorie’s recipe calls for canned sweet potatoes. But I could not justify using canned potatoes when I had sweet potatoes on my counter, recently delivered in my weekly produce box. So I roasted the sweet potatoes until very soft and puréed them in the food processor before adding the rest of the filling ingredients.

The bars needed no extra time in the oven, in spite of the smaller pan. The filling puffed up in the middle while baking, but settled down after cooling for a bit. I skipped the marshmallow topping and we did not miss it. The bars taste just like pumpkin pie, a preview of things to come later this month.

The bars held up well in the fridge overnight and I gave some to my contractor, electrician and helper the next morning. They are modifying a bedroom in my home in anticipation of my mom moving in at the end of the month. I am looking forward to treating her to Dorie’s cookies on a regular basis. Sharing is the best part of baking!

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