Christmas in July: Twelve Days of Christmas Cookies: Day 10

If yesterday was about family tradition recipes from my side, then I must include one from Mark's side. This is his favourite Christmas cookie. As I mentioned I'm not really a candied cherry loving gal, so these aren't MY personal favourite, but he loves them, so they are now on my list to make every year.

Oh, that makes them sound gross. They're not. They have chocolate and nuts (so I guess if you don't like nuts, don't make these. Ha!). I can't tell you how excited he was to come home and found I had made them in the SUMMER time. I told him to thank my blog. So, thanks to all of you for reading, so that I have motivation to post and thus Mark got his favourite cookie.

Jewel Bars
(These came from Mark's mom. I have no idea if they were originally in a cook book in order to give credit)

Here's what you'll need:

1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup brown sugar, firm, divided
¾ cup butter, softened
1 egg
½ tsp salt
1 ½ cups mixed nuts
1 ½ cups halved candied cherries (in the picture I only used green, but it's prettier to use both red and green)
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Combine flour with 1/3 cup brown sugar. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Press mixture evenly and firmly onto bottom of ungreased (I line mine with foil) 15x10x3/4in jelly roll pan**. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes. Meanwhile beat egg slightly in large bowl. Stir in remaining 1/3 cup brown sugar and salt. Add nuts, cherries and chocolate chips. Toss mixture lightly to coat. Spoon fruit mixture evenly over baked layer. Press firmly to adhere layers. Bake an additional 20 minutes. Cool. Cut into 1-1/2x2in bars.


**When my mother-in-law originally gave me the recipe she said that she didn't like how thin they were when you made them in the jelly roll pan, sometimes they fall apart (and when you put the crust part in it's hard to get it to cover the bottom). So she generally makes these in a 9x13 inch pan. I forgot this and mine that are pictured were in the jelly roll pan. They are harder to stick together in the larger pan, but if you get it right, I like the thickness of the finished square better. Try it both ways and see which you prefer.