My Kitchen Drawer’s Maple Pecan Pie Bars

For the shortcrust pastry maple leaves:

• 100g unsalted butter chilled
• 200g plain flour
• 3 tbsp cold water

For the maple crust:

• 110g unsalted butter melted
• 3 tbsp maple sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 175g plain flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 2 tbsp pure Canadian maple syrup (preferably amber syrup for its rich taste)

For the maple and pecan filling:

• 2 tbsp unsalted butter
• 100g maple sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1/4 salt
• 200g pecan halves
• 8 tbsp pure Canadian maple syrup (preferably amber syrup for its rich taste)
• 3 tbsp pure Canadian maple syrup (preferably dark syrup for its robust taste)

To make the shortcrust pastry maple leaves:

1. Add the flour and cold butter into a medium bowl and mix together with your hands until you have a breadcrumb texture
2. Add the cold water and bring the mixture together to form a dough. Wrap it in cling film and leave in the fridge to rest for 30 minutes

To make the maple crust:

1. Preheat the oven to 160°C and line an 8 inch pan with baking paper
2. Whisk the melted butter, maple sugar and vanilla together in a medium bowl
3. In a separate bowl combine the flour, baking powder and spices then add to the wet butter mixture and fold the two together
4. Press the mixture evenly into the bottom of the prepared pan then bake for 20 minutes until lightly golden. Leave to cool and increase the oven to 200°C

To make the maple and pecan filling:

1. Melt the butter in a pan gently until it foams and turns brown
2. Add the maple sugar to a bowl and add the warm butter then add the amber maple syrup, eggs, salt and vanilla and whisk together until smooth
3. Pour the mixture onto the cooled crust and then top with the pecan halves
4. Bake for 10 minutes then reduce the oven to 160°C
5. Whist it bakes, take the chilled pastry dough out of the fridge and dust a surface with flour
6. Roll the dough out until it’s around 1cm thick then cut out as many maple leaves as you can using your cookie cutter
7. Remove the bake from the oven and immediately decorate the top of it with the cut out pastry leaves
8. Brush the tops of them with dark maple syrup and then bake for a further 30 minutes
9. Remove from the oven and brush over with more dark maple syrup. Leave to cool slightly and serve warm with ice cream