Christmas Joy! A Craft and Butterscotch Bars with Brown Sugar Meringue !

It’s all about extravagance in December and I’m going with that today doing another double post!!! There’s a craft and a recipe!

First the fun craft then hang with me for a recipe from one of my favorite cookbooks: Heirloom Baking!

It’s no secret that I luvs me some Mod Podge.  I recently did a Christmas take on this little Autumn Joy craft I did …The easy breezy tutorial for the decoupaged JOY is HERE.

Here’s the Christmas Joy I did to go with my new dinning room Christmas colors...

Find a candle ring that goes with your style and then some scrapbook paper and a paper mache “J” and “Y”! (I get mine at Hobby Lobby, I like them better than the wooden letters. Paper Mache letters are thinner) I loved this candle ring…but I didn’t love it enough NOT to spray paint it a little bit! Just a spray of teal here and a spray of silver there…WaaLaa!

Then simply trace the letters and use Mod Podge to adhere the paper to the letters. Before painting over the top, I grunge up the edges (see the tutorial HERE) Then Seal with a couple coats of M. P. (letting dry in between coats!) And there you have it! A little Christmas JOY!

P.S. Looking for Craft ideas??? All my crafts are in the pull-down menu on the left under: All Things Crafty!

Creative types from all over blog-land link up to give you the best ideas!

Also, over at Kimba’s blog, A Soft Place To Land it’s DIY Tuesday! Everyone loves inspiration to Do It Yourself !

Check out Second Time Around Tuesday Blog-Party!

Also, Trash To Treasure Tuesday! Such great ideas all over blog-land today!

And now to the recipe!!!

I so love this cookbook Peeps. I’ve posted about it HERE! The other day I tried another recipe…Butterscotch Bars with Brown Sugar Meringue ! (I ALMOST stuck to the recipe this time!)

Butterscotch Bars with Brown Sugar Meringue

*2 cups pecan pieces (toast these at 350* for 5 minutes)

*1  1/2 cups flour

*1  1/2 teaspoons baking powder

*1/8 teaspoon salt

*1 cup brown sugar

*1/2 cup butter, diced

*2 egg yolks

*1 teaspoon vanilla

For Topping

*4 egg whites  (The recipe calls for 2 egg whites but I wanted the meringue to be HIGH…maybe 3 egg whites would have been better!)

*2 cups brown sugar   (Again adjust this if you’d prefer to go by the recipe! )

***My meringue didn’t get all that crispy because I used so very much of it, the original recipe said the meringue should be a bit crispy, so use *2 egg whites and *1 cup brown sugar if you’d like it a bit crispy!)

Put oven rack in the center of oven. Preheat oven to 350*. Line the bottom and sides of a 9×13″ pan with foil. Shiny side up. Spray cooking spray over foil.

Combine flour, baking powder, salt and brown sugar in the bowl of a food processor. (Use metal blade) Add butter. Process until butter is the size of small peas. Add egg yolks and vanilla and pulse several times until the mixture has the consistency of sandy clumps.

Pat mixture into pan and level of by pressing with a small offset spatula. Press pecans into mixture.

To make topping: put egg whites in mixing bowl and mix with the whisk attachment. Beat until whites hold a peak when the whisk is lifted. Add brown sugar and beat at highest speed for 4 minutes. Spread meringue over pecan layer.

Bake 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. The meringue will crack slightly. Let cool completely and cut into squares. (You can lift foil out of pan for easier cutting)

Will ya get a load of this YumiLicious fluffy meringue!!!!

All my recipes are located in the pull-down menu on the left under: All Things Yumalicious!

Today I’m linking to 3 GREAT foodie-blog-parties… Tasty Tuesday over at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam ~ Tempt my Tummy Tuesday over at Blessed with Grace ~ and lastly Tuesday at the Table at All The Small Stuff~ You’ll find links to a hundred recipes or more with these delightful blogs!

~Love to you my Sweet Friends as we live our legacy~one day at a time

Tagged as: Brown Sugar Meringue Bars, Christmas craft, decoupage, Dessert Recipe, Heirloom Baking, mod podge, paper craft