Stress Relief

Finding a work/life/achieving dreams balance is proving to be pretty difficult right now so when things get me down I tend to bake to remind myself that life's too short to stress and cake makes everything better. Obviously. 

This recipe is from the Magnolia Bakery cookbook and its pretty damn good. Try it.

White Chocolate Pecan Bars

2 cups plain flour

226g unsalted butter

1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup chopped toasted pecans

1 1/12 cups chopped whit chocolate

1/2 cup toasted pecans

[toast pecans in the oven for 15 mins or lightly browned and fragrant (I totally over did mine hence why I added cranberries to add a bit more sweetness!)]

1. Preheat oven to 200oC and grease and lightly flour a 9x13 inch baking pan 
2. Cream together the butter, sugar, egg and vanilla. Add the flour and thoroughly mix. Stir in the pecans and spread out evenly in the prepared pan. Bake for 25 mins.
3. Remove from the oven and immediately sprinkle on the white chocolate and let stand for 5 mins. Spread out the chocolate into a thin layer and sprinkle on pecans (and cranberries or other dried fruit if using) 
4. Allow to cool at room temperature and slice into squares