Eating Well Nana's Creole Pecan Cake Bars

I love when I get the first issue of a new (to me) food magazine. There is something thrilling to me about picking out the first recipe that I want to try and review. I spend a good hour or two every week going through my food magazines and tearing out recipes that I want to try in the future. Then I sit down with the file folder of saved magazines that I have collected and go through to find my menu plan for the week. When I get a new magazine it's exciting having a new set of recipes to mull over and decide which ones to try. My newest magazine Eating Well had a recipe for Nana's Creole Pecan Cake Bars, which looked delicious and a great first recipe to review.

This recipe has 12 ingredients. It makes 4 dozen bars and takes approximately 2 hours of total time, with 30 being active. All the ingredients I either had or were easily available at my local grocery store. I used dried dates, since those were what I had available and golden raisins as suggested by the recipe. I did find that my baking time was significantly less than the 45 minutes stated in the recipe. My total cooking time was closer to 30-35 minutes. Additionally, I rotated my pan halfway through to ensure even baking. Finally, I made my bars larger than the recipe suggested, so I had closer to 2 dozen total cookies. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

These bars are different than normal cookie bar recipes. They have a texture that is more consistent with cake, and are full of nuts and dried fruit. The corner cookies get a slightly sweet and crunchy texture, which is delicious. My family loved these cookies and how they were different than other cookie recipes I have tried previously. Overall, a great new recipe from a new (to me) magazine I look forward to using again in the future.

For the recipe go to Nana's Creole Pecan Cake Bars.