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Spicy Nut Bars
Mix in order given: 4 beaten eggs, 2 cups sugar, 1 cup molasses, 1 lb. blanched almonds, chopped (or any other nutmeats); 1 cup any fruit jam, 4 cups sifted flour with 4 teaspoons baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon cloves, 1/4 teaspoon allspice, 1/4 teaspoon ginger, 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg, 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon, grated rind 1 orange and 1 lemon or 1 tablespoon of candied peel, 1 square melted chocolate with 2 tablespoons melted margarine. Pour the mixture into the bottom of a small baking pan, the bottom of which is lined with paper. Bake 30 min., moderate (350 degrees) oven. Remove from pan, and when the mass is cold, slice in 3/4 inch slices, cutting diagonally, and making the lengths about 4 inches. Store in air tight crock, or tin box.
A dense, heavily spiced nut and jam batter, baked as a slab and cut diagonally after cooling. The batter volume is much larger than the instruction "a small baking pan" suggests, and that is the one thing to get right.
- Pan sizeFour cups of flour, a pound of nuts and a cup of jam make roughly three quarts of stiff batter. Use a 13x9-inch pan, or divide between two 9-inch square pans; a small pan gives a slab too deep to bake through in the stated time.
- Baking time follows depthThirty minutes at 350F suits a slab about an inch deep. A thicker slab needs 45-55 minutes, and it is done when a skewer in the centre comes out with no wet batter and the top springs back.
- A square of chocolateOne ounce of unsweetened baking chocolate. Modern bars are not always scored the same way, so weigh out 1 oz.
- Lining the pan"Lined with paper" meant greased parchment or waxed paper. Parchment, or a parchment sling up two sides, makes the cold slab easy to lift out whole for slicing.
- Cool completely before cuttingThe instruction to slice only when the mass is cold is not optional. Warm, this batter tears and crumbles around the almonds; cold and firm, it cuts cleanly on the diagonal.
- SpicesThe five ground spices total about a teaspoon and a quarter for four cups of flour, which is restrained. Measure them fresh rather than from a jar that has sat several years, or the effect will be flat.
- StorageAn airtight tin is right, and these should keep for weeks. Like other molasses keeping cakes they firm up and the flavour deepens over the first few days; a piece of apple or bread in the tin is the traditional trick against their going hard.
- YieldAbout 35 to 40 bars at 3/4 inch by 4 inches, depending on pan. It is a quantity meant for a holiday tin, not a single dessert.