By Christmas prep. Ham ordered. Tree bought. Ornaments hung. The collection grows — this year Sarah added one, a small ceramic mountain she found at a craft fair in Harlan. A mountain on the tree next to a coal car and a hiking boot and a ceramic chicken. The tree is telling the story of a family from the mountains who went into the mines and out of the mines and into the world and the world came back to the mountains in the form of ornaments and recipes and grandchildren with names from two continents.
Made gingerbread cookies again for Nadia's second Christmas. The kitchen smelled like ginger and molasses and the small hands of a twenty-one-month-old reaching for the dough, which I let her touch because dough is for touching and cookies are for making and a child's hands in cookie dough is the beginning of a kitchen education.
Earl Thomas helped — stirred the bowl with his wooden spoon, the same spoon, now scratched and worn from a year of use, and I watched him stir and thought: the spoon is working. The spoon is becoming a tool. The boy is becoming a cook. The cook is becoming a person who will someday feed someone the way I feed him, and that person will feel what he feels when he eats, which is loved, which is the only seasoning that matters.
We didn’t get to the gingerbread this year — not quite — but we got to something better: chewy walnut pan bars, the kind of recipe that tolerates small hands and a wooden spoon worked hard by a boy who is becoming a cook. These bars are forgiving the way a good kitchen is forgiving, and they come out of the oven smelling like brown sugar and warmth, which is close enough to what a December kitchen ought to smell like when the tree is up and the ornaments are telling their stories on the branches.
Chewy Walnut Pan Bars
Prep Time: 15 minutes | Cook Time: 25 minutes | Total Time: 40 minutes | Servings: 24 bars
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
- 1 cup packed light brown sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup chopped walnuts
- Powdered sugar for dusting (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat oven. Heat your oven to 350°F. Grease an 8x8-inch or 9x9-inch baking pan lightly with butter or non-stick spray.
- Mix wet ingredients. In a large bowl, stir together the melted butter and brown sugar until well combined. Add the eggs one at a time, stirring after each addition, then stir in the vanilla extract.
- Add dry ingredients. Sift in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Stir until just combined — do not overmix.
- Fold in walnuts. Gently fold the chopped walnuts into the batter, distributing them evenly throughout.
- Spread and bake. Spread the batter evenly into the prepared pan. Bake for 22 to 25 minutes, until the top is golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with just a few moist crumbs.
- Cool and cut. Let the pan cool completely on a wire rack before cutting into bars. Dust with powdered sugar if desired before serving.
Nutrition (per serving)
Calories: 105 | Protein: 2g | Fat: 5g | Carbs: 14g | Fiber: 0g | Sodium: 45mg