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Cream
Cheese Dough: Place the cold butter and cream cheese in the bowl of your
electric mixer. Mix on low speed until the cream cheese is broken down but the
butter is still chunky. Add the flour and salt and, on low speed, beat until
crumbly and just beginning to hold together. (There should still be some small
pieces of butter visible in the dough.) Divide the dough into two equal pieces.
Flatten each piece of dough into a rectangle and wrap in plastic. Chill in the
refrigerator several hours or overnight.
Next day make the
chocolate filling.
Chocolate
Filling:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (177
degrees C) and place the rack in the center of the oven. Place
the walnuts or pecans on a baking sheet and bake for about 8 - 10 minutes or
until lightly browned and fragrant. Remove from oven, cool, and then finely
chop.
In
the bowl of your food processor, pulse the chopped chocolate until very finely
chopped. Transfer to a large bowl and stir in the chopped nuts, sugar, ground
cinnamon, dried apricots, orange zest, corn syrup and melted butter.
Have ready a 9 x
13 x 2 inch (23 x 33 x 5 cm) baking pan that has been lined with parchment
paper.
Remove one
rectangle of the dough from the refrigerator and, between two 9 x 13 inch (23 x
33 cm) pieces of waxed paper or parchment paper, roll the dough into a
rectangle that is the size of your baking pan. Line your pan with the rolled out
dough, trimming as needed. Spread the chocolate filling over the
dough. Remove the second dough from the refrigerator and roll it out the same
as the first. Place the rolled out dough on top of the chocolate filling,
trimming the edges as needed.
Mix the egg yolk
and water together in a small bowl, and brush the top of the bars with the
glaze. Sprinkle with sugar. Bake in a 350 degree F (177 degree C) oven for about
35 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to
cool. Cut into 1 x 3 inch long bars (2.5 x 7.5 cm).
Makes about 36 - 1
x 3 inch bars
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