Banana Caramel Bars

From 365 Favorite Brand Name Cookie Recipes, page 125.

Prep: 20 min. / Cook: 35 min.
Yield: 24 bars

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
1 cup margarine, cubed
1 large egg, beaten
2 extra-ripe medium bananas, peeled
1/2 cup caramel topping

Combine flour, sugar, and baking powder in medium bowl.  Cut in margarine with pastry blender until mixture resembles coarse meal.  Slowly stir in egg, mixing with fork until crumbly.  Put half of mixture into 9x13 baking pan to form crust.

For filling, mash bananas (1 cup).  Blend bananas with caramel topping.  Pour over crust; spread evenly.

Sprinkle remaining crust mixture over filling.  Pat gently.  Bake in 375F oven 35 minutes or until golden brown.  Cool on wire rack.  Cut into bars when cooled.

Notes:
- Somehow I forgot to add the egg when I made these, but they still turned out yummy.  They're a lighter color than the picture in the book, and I'm sure they weren't quite as firm.  But they were good.

Chocolate Caramel Cookies ("Rolo" Cookies)

From Quick Cooking (Nov./Dec. 1998), page 29.

Yield: 50-60 cookies

1 cup butter (no substitutions), softened
1 cup plus 1 Tbs. sugar, divided
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 ½ cups flour
¾ cup baking cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup chopped pecans, divided
1 package (13 ounces) Rolo candies

Cream the butter, 1 cup sugar, and brown sugar. Add eggs and vanilla and mix well.

Combine flour, cocoa, and baking soda and add to the creamed mixture, beating just until blended. Stir in ½ cup of the chopped pecans.

In a small bowl, combine the remaining ½ cup chopped pecans and 1 tablespoon sugar.

Shape dough by tablespoonfuls around the Rolo candies. Dip ½ of each cookie in the pecan/sugar mixture. Place cookies on cookie sheets with nut/sugar side up.

Bake at 375 degrees for 7-10 minutes, or until tops of cookies are slightly cracked. Cool on cookie sheets for 3 minutes, and then transfer cookies to wire cooling racks.

Nutrition Facts:
2 cookies = 244 calories, 12 g fat (6 g saturated fat), 32 mg cholesterol, 134 mg sodium, 32 g carbohydrate, 1 g fiber, 3 g protein.