Inaugural Bakextravaganza Part II: Bars

My old apartment had a miniature oven into which I could barely fit a single 9 by 13-inch pan. I'm happy to report that even though my current oven is still pretty small, it will at least fit two 9 by 13-inch pans side by side on a single rack, which makes baking massive quantities of bars a lot easier. (I never like to use two separate racks to bake, since that usually results in uneven browning and unpredictable baking times, even if I rotate the pans and switch racks halfway through. Even baking two pans side by side can have its own challenges... My 9 by 13-inch pans are from different manufacturers and are non-identical. To ensure that I have the same amount of batter in the two pans so that they will finish baking at the same time, I usually pour in the batter and weigh the filled pans, taking into account the fact that one of the pans weighs 240 grams more than the other... I really should suck it up and just buy an identical set of pans!)

The inaugural party baked goods tally was 18 dozen bars, including Raspberry-Filled White Chocolate Bars, Chewy Cherry Almond Bars, Caramel Pecan Bars, Ultimate Lemon Butter Bars, and Midnight Brownie Bites.

Recipes:

• "Raspberry-Filled White Chocolate Bars," from the 1990 Pillsbury Bakeoff by contestant Mark Bocianski.
• "Chewy Cherry Almond Bars," from Cookies and Brownies by Alice Medrich.
• Caramel Pecan Cookies from epicurious.com.
• The Ultimate Lemon Butter Bar, from Rose's Christmas Cookies by Rose Levy Beranbaum, reprinted on epicurious.com.
• "Midnight Chocolate Brownie Bites," from the Los Angeles Times, July 2, 2008.
  

Previous Posts:

• "Holiday Party Recap, Part II: Bites, Bars, and a Holiday Standard," December 15, 1008.
  
• "Hey, Boo Boo! What's In the Pic-a-Nic Basket?," June 26, 2008.
• "It's Starting to Taste a Little Like Autumn," September 17, 2008.
• "The Ultimate Lemon Butter Bar," October 15, 2008.
  
• "A Mysterious Midnight Bite," July 8, 2008.