How About Them Nuts?

Sean and I are up at Big Bear Lake for a few days with some friends and to sweeten the ride up, I made some cookies, the chocolate chocolate chips I made here and then some caramel nut bars. If you have some extra nuts in your pantry, not quite sure what to do with them, whether you have all almonds, all walnuts or a variety of nuts, you can make this recipe. With a little bit of sweetness of the caramel, crunch from the nuts and then the shortbread base, you have yourself a winning cookie.

First, gather together your ingredients.

2 cups all-purpose flour, 1/3 cup granulated sugar, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, cubed, 2/3 cup light corn syrup, 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar, 1/3 cup butter, cubed, 3 tablespoons heavy whipping cream, 1 cup walnut halves, 1 cup pecan halves, 1 cup roasted cashews, 1 cup roasted almonds. (My grandma gave Sean and I a can of mixed nuts from Sees for Christmas so I used this mixture of nuts).

p.s. I halved this recipe, so the photos are not the full recipe

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Use a 13X9 baking pan, grease the bottom and sides of the pan or line it with parchment paper.

In your food processor, add the flour, salt and sugar. 

Turn the chopper on for a quick mix then add in the cubed butter.

 Mix the butter into the dry ingredients until it resembles a wet sand 

then press all the dough onto the bottom of your baking pan, making it an even crust. 

Cook the crust for 20 minutes or until a golden tan color. Remove the crust when fully cooked and let it cool. Once you removed the crust from the oven, in a sauce pan add the brown sugar and corn syrup. 

Let these two ingredients cook until the brown sugar is dissolved stirring the entire time. 

Once the brown sugar has dissolved, STOP stirring for 2 minutes. After the 2 minutes are up, add the cubed butter and whipping cream and combine.

 Boil and stir for 1 minutes then add in all the nuts.

Give the nuts a quick stir in the caramel and then pour everything over the shortbread crust, spreading out the nuts with a spatula if necessary.

Bake the entire pan for another 20 minutes. Once the cookies are cooled, cut them into rectangles then serve, eat and enjoy!

Look at all that caramely, nutty goodness!
recipe found here