Baklava Bars

This is my absolute favorite dessert...hands down. I'm actually a little worried about posting it (but I do hate those type of cooks that give you a recipe but leave an ingredient out....GRRRRR). That's how much it is my signature dessert. But I feel a little guilty about doing that seeing that I got it off someone else's blog!!!! Thank you Cookie Madness!!

And everytime I try to take a picture of these bars, my BF grabs all of them before I can take a pic so for right now, you'll just have to trust me that they are really REALLY good looking bars! Take a look at these, courtesy of Betty Crocker

Photo Courtesy of Betty Crocker

This Betty Crocker Prize-Winning Recipe combines a sugar cookie base and baklava-style topping. Instead of messing with phyllo dough, the recipe creater chose to break up those little frozen mini phyllo shells. Talk about a brilliant idea! Now, I must admit that this recipe is on the prizey side but SOOOOO worth the little extra slurge! Oh and another thing, I found (& bought) those frozen phyllo shells at Raley's but then went to FoodMaxx/Food4Less (or whatever they're calling themselves these days...) for something else and found them there a little cheaper...who knew? Ohh and I did modify the recipe just a bit. My BF doesn't like anything lemon so I left the lemon peel out of the cookie base, also I added the entire box of crushed phyllo shells just cuz and it makes it more 'baklava-ish' in my opinion!

Baklava Bars
Adapted from Betty Crocker

Cookie Base
1 pouch (1 lb 1.5 oz) Betty Crocker® sugar cookie mix
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 egg

Filling
1 1/2 cups chopped walnuts
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp salt
1 pkg (2.1-oz) frozen mini fillo shells

Glaze
1/3 cup honey
2 Tbsp butter or margarine, softened
1 Tbsp packed brown sugar
1/2 tsp lemon juice
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla

Garnish
5 tablespoons honey

Heat oven to 350°F. Spray bottom only of 13x9-inch pan with cooking spray.

In large bowl, stir cookie base ingredients until soft dough forms. Press dough in bottom of pan. Bake 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, in medium bowl, stir walnuts, granulated sugar, 1/4 cup butter, 1 teaspoon cinnamon and the salt with fork until mixture is well mixed and crumbly.

Sprinkle nut mixture evenly over partially baked base. With hands, crumble frozen fillo shells evenly over nut mixture. Bake 18 to 20 minutes longer or until golden brown.

Meanwhile, in small microwavable bowl, microwave 1/3 cup honey, 2 tablespoons butter, the brown sugar, lemon juice and 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon uncovered on High 1 minute or until bubbly. Stir in vanilla.

Drizzle honey mixture evenly over fillo. Cool completely, about 2 hours.

For bars, cut into 6 rows by 4 rows. Before serving, drizzle 1/2 tsp honey over each bar. Store covered at room temperature.