Happy Thanksgiving to my friends and fellow bloggers.  Thanksgiving dinner means turkey, sweet potato and pumpkin dishes.  Since I had to make some dessert for Thanksgiving dinner, I thought to make something different which can be eaten with a cup of coffee after all the heavy meals – where we can sit and relax and have fun with family.   This cookie bar is perfect for that, a sweet toffee-caramel base that is topped with a soft and puffy meringue layer with some walnuts sprinkled on the top.  This will go well with black coffee or coffee with cream but omitting any sweetener/sugar.

On a side note, the cookie base layer is quite sticky like a caramel toffee.  So make sure to place a parchment paper to the baking pan and grease with butter well.  Before cutting into pieces, ensure it is completely cool, or even pop it into the refrigerator for a few hours.

Ingredients:

For the base:

• 2 oz/4 tablespoon butter/margarine
• 1 ¼ cup dark brown sugar
• 1 egg at room temperature
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 ½ oz all-purpose flour
• ¼ teaspoon salt (only if you are using sweet button/unsalted butter)

For the topping:

• 1 large egg white
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon maple syrup
• 1/3 cup castor sugar
• ½ cup walnuts finely chopped
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Method:

To make base:

• Line parchment paper to a baking pan and generously grease with butter.
• Pre-heat oven to 350 F.
• Add butter and brown sugar to a small saucepan and heat until bubbly. Let cool.
• Beat egg into the butter mixture with vanilla. Sift flour with salt and add to the butter mixture
• Pour batter into the prepared pan.

To make the topping:

• Add egg white to a dry bowl and beat until stiff and frothy.
• Add vanilla, maple syrup, sugar and salt and beat until smooth and glossy
• Set aside 1 tablespoon walnuts. Add the rest of the walnuts to the egg mixture and mix well.
• Pour egg mixture to the prepared base and sprinkle with walnuts

Bake for about 25 to 30 minutes.  Completely cool to room temperature and cut into bars or squares.

Yields: about 16 square bars.