Christmas Bars

Inspired by another Great Cookie Swap recipe on Serious Eats, these were quick to make, very quickly polished off as well.

Recipe adapted from Serious Eats' Toffee Bars

Ingredients:
2 cups flour
1 egg yolk
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp mixed spice
1 cup soft butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup chocolate chunks, a mix of dark cooking chocolate and Cadbury's Fruit & Nut
1 cup chopped mixed nuts and raisins
Desiccated coconut

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celcius and grease a 9x9 baking tin
Cream butter, sugar, vanilla and yolk
Mix in mixed spice with flour and combine with the butter, sugar, vanilla and yolk mixture.
Spread evenly on the bottom of the baking tin and pop into the oven for 20-25 minutes or until a light golden brown.
Remove from the oven and sprinkle with chocolate chunks, mixed nuts, raisins and desiccated coconut.
Return to the oven for 5 minutes to melt the chocolate.
Remove from the oven, spread chocolate and sprinkle with more desiccated coconut

The lightly spiced bottom half of the bars harden slightly upon cooling, so you get a little bit of bite to go with the decadent chocolate-nut-coconut topping. I initially wanted to make them on Christmas eve, just so we'd have some leftover treats on Christmas day but I simply had to give in to temptation so we had Christmas Bars two days before Christmas and they were completely gone by lunchtime on Christmas Eve.

So much for restraint.

Though it's been said many times, many ways,
Merry Christmas to you.

I hope you have a fantastic one.