Maple Sweetness

This dessert was so good I made it twice in two days.  Literally.

Of course I got it out of my Toll House cookbook, because that thing is the most amazing gift to bakers and stomachs everywhere.  Yum.  I wanted a dessert that was more exciting than plain chocolate, but I didn't want to avoid the ingredient altogether.  This was a perfect marriage of flavors.  To begin with you will need:

Ingredients:
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup butter softened
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup maple syrup (or in my case, 1/2 cup 'light' maple flavored syrup.  Because it 's cheaper and has 1/3 the calories)
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups chocolate chips
1 cup chopped walnuts

I can't quite take credit for using maple flavored syrup.  The recipe in my cookbook actually calls for maple flavored syrup, not real maple syrup.  Perhaps the authors knew that no average American is going to shell out $35 for maple syrup and then pour half a cup of it in brownies.  It would probably make it taste that much better, but I was just fine with the flavored syrup.  After all, I am rather poor these days.

Directions:
Anyway, the first thing you do (after preheating the oven to 350 of course) is beat the butter in a bowl and slowly add in the sugar until it gets nice and creamy:

Now beat in the egg slowly until it's well mixed.  Slowly use the beaters to add in the maple syrup and vanilla:

Now mix in the flour and baking powder:

Beat well. 

Chop up your walnuts and try not to cut yourself like I did (don't worry, I didn't bleed into the batter or anything):

Mix 1 cup of chocolate chips and 3/4 of the walnuts into the batter and spread into a 9x9 inch square baking pan.  Frequently I read recipes that say spread batter evenly, which I don't understand.  Who would choose NOT to spread evenly?  Who would say, "You know, I think I'll spread this batter completely unevenly so it under-cooks on one side and overcooks on the other?"  So I'm not going to tell you to spread evenly.  I'm going to assume you have the wherewithal to know you should do that on your own.  And then I'm going to talk about it for an entire paragraph.

Now bake until a toothpick (or fork tip) comes out clean.  This should be about 25 minutes, though it depends how hot your oven gets.  I think it took about 30 for me, but recipes tend to make you under cook things so you don't blame them when your food burns.  You can blame me if it burns.  I can handle it.  Just don't try to feed me your burnt food.

Anyway, once it's out of the oven, spread the second cup of chocolate chips on top and let it sit for a minute or two until they're nice and shiny.  This means they're melty and you can spread them (*evenly*) over the top of the cake so you have a nice chocolate layer on top of the bars.  Now sprinkle the rest of your walnut pieces onto the melted chocolate and let it cool.  At this point it's totally edible, but you're supposed to let things cool first so you don't burn your tongue.  Silly, I know.  But theoretically practical.

Doesn't it just make your mouth water?  I had to leave it at my sister's apartment because she invited me over for dinner, so I went home and made it again so I could have leftovers to eat over the course of the week.  I'm pretty sure it was gone in four days anyway.  So. Good.