Candy Bar Cookie Bars

We had too few Trick or Treaters, and a lot of leftover Halloween candy. I modified my Over the Top Cookie Bars from last year to make Candy Bar Cookie Bars to give as a small thank-you for donations at the Heifer International table at the WPPC Global Market.

Ingredients:

• 625 gr (5 cups) all-purpose flour
• 226 gr (1 cup, aka 2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into small dices
  
• 226 gr (1 cup) sourdough starter (or 4 ounces of water and 4 ounces of flour, stirred together)
  
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  
• 250 gr (1,25 cups) granulated sugar
• 300 gr (1.5 cups)  brown sugar
• 2  large eggs
• 2  teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ~480 gr (16 ounces, ~ 3 cups) chilled candy bars, sliced into thin pieces
  (I had a mix of leftover mini candy bars from Halloween)
  
  
  
  
• 4 to 6 ounces of so of M&Ms for color (maybe 14 small pack from the Halloween leftovers)
  

 

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°. Line a half baking sheet (13 x 18-inch pan) with parchment paper and set aside.
   (Use parchment paper not a Silpat line for easier removal and cutting.)
   
2. In a large bowl add flour, salt, baking, and sugars and mix well.
   (I used my food processor for mixing the dry ingredients)
3. Add the butter chunks, and whisk or whirr to create a slightly sandy mix.
4. Stir the eggs and vanilla extract into the sourdough starter and mix well.
5. Fold the wet ingredients into flour mixture until combined.
   (I moved everything into a large bowl, and stirred this together with myn stand mixer.)
   
6. Press 3/4 of the shortbread into pan, leveling and spreading to edges of pan. Reserve the rest of the shortbread for the topping.
   
7. Chop up the chilled chocolate bars.
   (If your house is warm, chilling them makes them chop easier and stick together less.)
   
8. Top the shortbread by spreading the sliced candy bars all over it. (I tried to evenly spread out the caramel ones)
   
   
    
   
9. Top the candy bars by dropping little clumps of the remaining cookie shortbread over the pan, as well as M&M. The shortbread will puff up a bit when baked.
   
   
   
   
10. Bake for 26-28 minutes until the cookie bits have some color.
    
    
    
    
11. Let the pan cool on wire rack, then remove using the parchment and cut into small pieces when cooled.
    

 

Carole's Notes:

These are very good! The bars are very rich - a tender cookie shortbread layer, a candy bar layer and a cookie and M&M toppin.

This time, I cut them into 32 bars for the Global Market, but I probably would cut them into 48 pieces usually since they are very rich.

The recipe is a 'lighter' version of my Over the Top Cookie Bars.