Ina's Pecan Squares

I started making this recipe without taking the time to read any of the online reviews - that was a mistake. I nearly had a disaster on my hands, but thankfully I was able to correct the problem before I made a terrible mess... In the future, I will be sure to use this pan instead of a sheet pan as the recipe instructs.

The recipe starts innocently enough - make the shortbread crust. This was a breeze, especially using my favorite BeaterBlade attachment.

Pressing the shortbread crust into the 12x18x1-inch sheet pan was a little time consuming and messy because the dough was so soft and wet that I had to continually dip my hands in flour between each and every press.

This is the point in the process when I started to question whether or not all that pecan filling was going to fit in the pan without overflowing...

After the crust emerged from it's prebake session, I noticed it had puffed up quite a bit. In other words, now there was even less room for the filling! This is when I KNEW there was no way the crust was going to be able to contain 1 pound of butter, 1 cup of honey, 3 cups of brown sugar, and 2 pounds of chopped pecans... ABSOLUTELY NO WAY!!

So I put the recipe on hold while I went online to read the reviews. Many people did indeed end up with a horrible mess in their ovens, but some thought ahead a lined their sheet pans with foil, building up the sides of their pans - an excellent idea, but it was too late for me to line my pan - the crust was already prebaked. So I had to come up with a Plan B.

I topped my prebaked crust with a spare sheet pan, flipped everything upside down, and removed the original sheet pan. The crust released perfectly without breaking - so far, so good.

Then I added several strips of foil...

Placed the original sheet pan back in place...

And flipped it all right side up again.

Voila - a foil-lined sheet pan, sides built up, topped with the prebaked crust.

After crimping the corners closed, I felt much better about pouring all that ooey-gooey filling onto the crust and sending it off to bubble in my oven for 25 minutes. I'll use two of these 9x13-inch cake pans in the future… OR cut the recipe in half like I did in this variation for my Vanilla Nut Bars.

The filling was extremely easy to make. Just bring the butter, sugar, honey, and zests to a full boil for 3 minutes...

Stir in the heavy cream and pecans...

And pour the mixture on top of the crust and bake.

Cool, chill, cut, and serve - delicious!

Items used to make this recipe:

(affiliate links)

• professional half sheet pan https://amzn.to/2UgZM8U

• the best pure vanilla extract https://amzn.to/2KUC3HF

• Lyle’s golden syrup https://amzn.to/2PiKPj2

• stainless sieve for sifting https://amzn.to/3HIyOlY

---

Pecan Squares

makes 54 squares (2x2-inch) - recipe can also be baked in two 9x13 cake pans

Printable Recipe

Ingredients

Crust:

• 1 1/4 pounds unsalted butter, softened (yes pounds, not sticks)

• 3/4 cup granulated sugar

• 3 extra large eggs

• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

• 4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

• 1/4 teaspoon fine salt

Filling:

• 1 pound unsalted butter

• 1 cup honey (or even better, Lyle's Golden Syrup)

• 3 cups light brown sugar

• 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

• 1/4 cup heavy cream

• 2 pounds pecans, chopped

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350F.

2. Make the crust by combining the softened butter and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer.

3. Use the paddle attachment or BeaterBlade, mix for 3 minutes.

4. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix well.

5. Use a sieve to sift the dry ingredients together and add to the butter/sugar mixture on low speed just until all the ingredients are completely incorporated.

6. Using well floured hands, press dough into DEEP half sheet pan.

7. Bake crust for 15 minutes and cool while preparing the filling.

8. Make the filling by combining the butter, honey, and brown sugar in a heavy-bottomed saucepan.

9. Heat, stirring constantly until mixture boils; continue to boil for 3 minutes.

10. Remove from heat and stir in the heavy cream and chopped pecans.

11. Pour mixture over the crust and bake for 20-25 minutes.

12. Cool until set; wrap well with plastic and refrigerate.

13. Cut and serve.

Notes

• I would decrease the shortbread crust by half next time.  

• These are yummy drizzled with chocolate.

• You might also be interested in my Vanilla Nut Bars which makes one 9x13-inch pan.

adapted from Ina Garten

Hungarian Jancsi Torta

ButterYum Hungarian Jancsi Torta

Here's my entry for the first cake selection of the new baking group Heavenly Cake Bakers , featuring recipes from Rose's Heavenly Cakes by Rose Levy Beranbaum.

Begin by preparing a 9" springform pan - grease and line the bottom with parchment, spray parchment and sides with baking spray. Set aside.

black walnuts in a torte

The recipe didn't specify what kind of walnuts to use, so I chose Black Walnuts over the more common English variety. Black Walnuts have the most amazing flavor, one that pairs extremely well with chocolate. The flavor is hard to describe, but Hammon's website has a list of flavor descriptions here. Looks like they're pretty good for you too - you can find nutritional information here.

Note: Black Walnuts are kind of hard to find, but they usually appear in the stores around the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. I found these at Costco (my favorite store). Stock up and store them in the freezer because they have a tendency to quickly go rancid otherwise.

We have lots of Black Walnut trees growing on our property, but I know how difficult harvesting them can be after my mother-in-law spent the better part of a weekend doing just that several years ago. First you repeatedly drive over the hard outer husk with your car (no joke), then you pry the outer husks away, then you smash the inner shells with a heavy mallet, then you pry them all open and pick out all the itty-bitty pieces of nut meat - your hands practically stained for life in the process... all that you only get about a cups worth in the end... definitely not worth the effort.

Okay, back to the recipe - the Black Walnuts are toasted to enhance their flavor, then the walnuts are placed in a clean kitchen towel to rub as much of the thin nut skin off as possible. This is a pretty messy process. Use an old or dark colored kitchen towel. The photo above is before the skins were removed.

Here's what the nuts look like after - it's impossible to remove all of the skin. Additionally, it's really difficult to separate all the nuts from the loose papery skins, so I ended up shaking the nuts in a sieve with medium gauge mesh. Worked pretty well!

Then the walnuts are ground in the food processor with a bit of sugar.

Dark chocolate is also ground in the food processor. I suppose you could use semi-sweet or milk chocolate if you wanted to. Caution - the food processor can have a tendency to melt the chocolate a bit, so you might want to chill the chocolate as well as the chopping blade in the fridge for a couple of minutes first. By the way, I wear earplugs when I chop chocolate in the food processor... you wouldn't believe the noise!

Next I separated the eggs.

The yolks were whipped until light and fluffy. Then the ground nuts and chocolate were stirred in and the mixture set aside.

Now for the meringue - in a separate mixing bowl, whip the whites until frothy. This is the stage when you should add the cream of tartar.

Btw, I have 2 bowls and 2 whip attachments for each of my mixers - invaluable investment!

When the eggs reach soft peaks, the sugar can slowly be added.

Continue whipping until the stiff peak stage is reached.

Time to gently fold the egg whites into the yolk mixture.

Everybody into the pool, I mean pan. I used insulated cake strips around the outside of my pan. They keep the sides of the cake from baking too fast. The recipe stated that the batter would fill the pan about 1/2 full, but the batter actually filled my pan about 3/4 full, so I placed the springform on a sheet pan just in case the batter decided to spill over in the oven.

Thankfully no spills occurred. The cake is removed from the oven when the internal temp reaches 200F (about 45 minutes). The cake should cool on a wire rack for 5 minutes before the sides of the pan are removed. The Torta can be served warm or at room temperature. I opted for room temp.

Here it is - isn't it pretty?

Rose suggests serving with apricot preserves, sour cherry preserves, or ganache. I was feeling very chocolaty today, so I topped my Torta with a quick combo of ganache and mascarpone cheese - heaven!

Mascarpone Ganache

• 1/4 cup dark chocolate, chopped

• 1/4 cup heavy cream, scalded

• 1/2 cup Mascarpone cheese, softened

• Raspberry puree for garnish (optional)

Directions

1. Combine heavy cream and chocolate until well combined; cool to room temp.

2. In a small bowl, cream mascarpone until soft and smooth; add chocolate and combine.

Yum - I really like this Hungarian Jancsi Torta. The texture is so light it's practically a souffle. Oh, I found cutting this torta easiest using a hot/dry serrated knife coated with oil. Just run the knife under hot water, dry it off, and wipe a little oil on with a paper towel. Don't cut yourself!

Enjoy!

For more Heavenly Cake Baker posts about this Hungarian Jancsi Torta, visit Marie's blog.