Autumn has always been my favorite time of year. While it's often depicted as an ending as summer fades and winter's long nap looms ahead, for me, it feels more like a beginning. It's a refresher after a long hot summer -- a time of hope and new starts. And this year, we need that sense of hope, of new beginnings more than ever before as we put the worst of the pandemic behind us, then jumped right into talk of recession.
Aside from that, one of the things I love best about the season is that it's such a perfect time for cooking. The warmth of the kitchen not only becomes bearable, but welcome, and the raw material we have to work with is at its most varied and best. Everything has fattened itself up for the dormant cold season ahead -- and I don't mean just animals. Even the fruits and vegetables of fall have a density and richness that spring and summer produce often lacks.
This is also the time of year that I bake more, turning from no-bake pies and ice cream cakes to cookies, bars and dense cakes and breads. Come fall, baking gets richer and sweeter, probably because so many favorites -- apples, cranberries, pears, pecans, persimmons, sweet potatoes and walnuts -- all reach their prime right around the same time.
Moreover, when those things are paired with such autumnal flavors as cinnamon, nutmeg, citrus, bourbon, sherry, molasses, brown sugar and caramel, it's nothing short of magic.
Of all those things, however, nothing speaks to me of the season quite as much as pecans. Before long, we'll see them bagged and ready to take home from local markets, and if you have a pecan tree in your yard, it's manna from heaven. My daughter has one in Atlanta, and I love gathering them and using her pecan sheller to crack them open and use in recipes, though I must confess, a good many go straight from shell to mouth. I do try to hold back some for roasting in butter and salt, and for adding to such heady fall treats as these rich, buttery bar cookies.
They're a cross between two Southern favorites -- lemon squares and pecan tassies. The mellow combination of bourbon, brown sugar and pecans whisper of a late autumn afternoon.
This recipe is one from an old friend, Bernice Tinlan, a neighbor I had when I lived in West Virginia. I used to love sitting on her front porch in the afternoons and visiting with her, and these bars were something she loved to make and share.
Bourbon Pecan Squares
2 cups whole shelled pecan halves
10 ounces (about 2 cups) all-purpose flour, plus 1 tablespoon
2 tablespoons extra-fine white cornmeal
1 cup sugar, divided
Salt
1 1/4 cups or 2 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, softened, divided
3 large eggs
1/2 cup tightly packed light brown sugar
2 tablespoons bourbon
Position a rack in the center of the oven, and heat oven to 375 degrees. Spread the pecans on a baking sheet, and toast them in the center of the oven until they're beginning to color, about 8 minutes. Let them cool, and roughly chop them. Reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees.
Sift together 10 ounces of flour, the cornmeal, 1/2 cup sugar and a pinch of salt. Add 1 cup (2 sticks) of butter, and work it into the flour until smooth. You may do the first part of this step in a food processor fitted with a steel blade. Put in the flour, meal, sugar and salt and pulse several times to sift. Add the butter, and process until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Turn it out into a mixing bowl, and finish blending by hand. Wrap and chill for 30 minutes.
Press the dough into a 9- by 13-inch pan in a uniform layer over the bottom and about 1/2-inch up the sides. Lightly prick it with a fork, and bake in the center of the oven for 20 minutes or until it's beginning to color, then remove it from the oven and let it cool slightly.
Meanwhile, melt the remaining butter, let it cool slightly, and beat it together with the eggs, remaining 3/4 cup of sugar, the brown sugar and a small pinch of salt. Stir in the bourbon and toasted pecans. Sift in the remaining tablespoon of flour, and stir until smooth. Spread evenly over the crust, smoothing it with a spatula. Bake until golden and set, about 25 minutes. Cool in the pan on a wire rack, and cut into 24 squares.
Contact Anne Braly at abraly@timesfreepress.com or annebraly.com.