About ten minutes ago, I pulled a pan out of the oven and the most aromatic scent filled the space of my small apartment. I’ve just made these amazingly delicious nut bars. If you love nuts, chocolate, coconut and caramel all meshed into one chewy square then this is your dream dessert. They are called Big Blondes and they can be found inside Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey by Jill O’Connor. I mentioned her book before when I made Gooey Caramel Butter Bars. Today I am making these nut bars as a gift for my aunt and her family who, as I mentioned before, are in Toronto this week.
My youngest sister was over earlier and she did a great job helping me prep some ingredients. The book says to use semi-sweet chocolate chips and Heath bars but I used unsweetened chocolate chunks and chopped up Skor bars (chopped by Little Sue, my sis):
I decided to use unsweetened chocolate because the nut bars are already sweet enough and the bitterness of the dark chocolate are a nice contrast to the overall taste.
Here are the toasted nuts: walnuts, pecans and almonds.
I guess you don’t really need to toast them beforehand but they smell incredible when they’re toasted. Toasting them also brings out their natural flavour. Trust me, it’s worth it.
The first time I made these nut bars (about three months ago) I was impatient and I mixed the chocolate chips while the toasted nuts were still hot. The chocolate melted of course and I learned my lesson. It’s not a big deal but it does make a difference in the end. Definitely let the bars cool after taking them out of the oven, even if you’re just as impatient as I am and definitely wait until the next day to eat them because they taste even better then.
