Back to College

Where has the summer gone? I love the cooler temperatures that we're having, but so sad to see our young guy return to college. We'll be making the long trek tomorrow, so I wanted to send him off with a special dessert. My guys love almonds, so when I came across this cookie recipe from Chef Nick Malgieri I thought it would be something he'd enjoy and that would travel well.

Almond Pie Cookie Bars

For the Base:

2 cups AP flour

1/3 cup sugar

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

8 T (1 stick) unsalted butter, cold, cut into 10 pieces

2 large eggs

Prepare a 9x13x2 inch pan by lining with greased parchment paper.

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in work bowl of a food processor. Pulse several times to mix.

Add the butter and pulse repeatedly at 1 second intervals until mixture looks crumbly. (Can also cut the butter in by hand with a pastry blender.)

Add the eggs and pulse again until the dough forms a ball. Invert the dough to a floured work surface and gently knead it until it is pliable and slightly softened.  Form the dough into a rectangle and flour the work surface again.  Roll the dough out to a rectangle slightly larger than the pan size.

Fold the dough into quarters and place in pan, pressing slightly up sides of the pan and into the corners. Chill.

For the Topping:

10 T (1 1/4 sticks) butter

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1/3 cup light brown sugar

3 T light corn syrup (can also use dark)

1/8 tsp sale

1/4 cup heavy whipping cream

3 1/2 cups slivered almonds, lightly toasted (toast until lightly browned--they'll brown more as they cook)

Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium heat.  Stir in the sugar, brown sugar and corn syrup one at a time, stirring to combine between additions.  Add the sale and bring the mixture to a fill boil, stirring occasionally.  At the boil, add the cream a little at a time (the mixture bubbles up quite a bit every time this is added).  Continue cooking for 1 minute, stirring constantly.  Stir in the almonds and scrape the mixture into a buttered bowl to cool slightly.  

Set a rack in the lower third of the over. Deposit large spoonfuls of topping on the chilled crust. Spread almonds into a fairly even layer of topping. 

Bake for 25-35 minutes until dough is baked through and topping is gently bubbling.  Cool on a wire rack at least 1 hour.

Unmold and cut into bars.

Despite the number of steps, these were pretty easy to make and yummy, though definitely not low fat! I'm sharing these on Mix it Up Monday.

Last week was filled with back to school preparations but we also had fun helping deliver the school supplies donated by church members to help inner city schools. If you're wondering about all the copy paper, we collect that for the teachers because their supply budgets are so limited. Some of the other things we collect for teachers are hand sanitizer, paper towels, construction paper and dry erase markers.

Yesterday we did some home town sightseeing and went to the Nelson Atkins Art Museum.  

Beautiful grounds!

One of the Famous Shuttlecocks

Classy Way to Get Around the Grounds

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And tomorrow I'll be taking him back to Michigan for his senior year! Excited for him, dreading the long, lonely drive home.