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By Sarah Condley

Columnist

I was going to bake a couple of treats for the youth at our church when I ran across this recipe in my stash of things to try someday. The recipe was written on notebook paper in my high school days’ handwriting. I have no idea where the recipe originated, but it probably came from one of my Home Economics teachers (Elsie Curry or Sandy Baker – both were the best teachers ever).

I turned on the oven, greased the baking dish, and melted the butter in the microwave to get started. While the oven was heating and the butter was cooling off, I broke the eggs into a large bowl and used a hand mixer to beat them. When the eggs were foamy, I added the sugar, vanilla, and melted butter to the bowl, mixing until everything looked creamy. Once that was done, I whisked the flour, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl and then poured the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. I turned the mixer on low, and once blended, I added the chopped nuts- I used pecan.

The recipe didn’t lie when it said the batter would be stiff.

I got the batter into the pan and used a spatula to spread it to the edges of the pan. Into the oven, the Butter Nut Chewies went. They baked for a total of 30 minutes, and then I let them cool in the pan for about 20 minutes.

Cutting the chewies into bars and getting them out of the pan went smoothly because of how I cut them I ended up with more than 2 dozen.

After filling a container with the chewies, there was one left over so Brad and I took a taste. Even though they were really sweet, I thought they were good; of course, they were too sweet for Brad.

When I delivered the treats to church the next morning, I asked Elaine – a friend that works at church – to give them a try and let me know what she thought. A couple of days later, when I saw Elaine again, she told me she thought the Butter Nut Chewies were great.

So, with Elaine’s blessing, I’ll call this recipe a “Nailed It” and add it to my self-made cookbook.

By the way, I hope each of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving, remembering all the things God has blessed you with. Our newest blessing is a baby boy, born last Thursday, to our son and daughter-in-law, Daniel and Katelyn. Bruce Patrick weighed in at 9 lbs. 14 ounces and is as cute as can be.

Butter Nut Chewies

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup melted butter

• 2 eggs

• 2 cups firmly packed light brown sugar

• 1 teaspoon vanilla

• 1 1/2 cups unsifted all-purpose flour

• 2 teaspoons baking powder

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 1 cup chopped nuts

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease 13x9x2 inch pan with shortening.

• Beat eggs until light and foamy in large bowl of electric mixer.  Beat in sugar, vanilla, and butter until creamy.  In a small bowl combine flour with baking powder and salt then add to egg mixture mixing on low speed until blended.  Sir in nuts at low speed (mixture will be stiff).

• Spread evenly in prepared pan.  Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes, until top is light brown.  Cool 10-15 minutes.  Cut into bars. Makes 2 dozen.