Double Chocolate Cranberry Pecan Squares

Double Chocolate Cranberry Pecan Squares

This is a recipe of Spouse's that really reminds me of a similar square that we always made during the holidays. I remember those simply as "Christmas Squares" with a graham wafer crumb bottom and then layers of chocolate chips, coconut, chopped walnuts and condensed milk. I prefer these not only for the chewy dried cranberries that are great with chocolate but for the toasted pecans as well, which I've always preferred to walnuts. These freeze pretty well too, so if there's stil room in your Christmas freezer, perhaps you could reserve a small corner for these decadent treats.

Line the sides and bottom of a 9 inch square baking pan with parchment paper.

Prepare the graham wafer crumb bottom.Mix together:

2  1/4 cups graham wafer crumbs

2 tbsp sugar

1/2 cup melted butter

Bake in a 325 degree oven for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool for about 15 minutes.

For the top layer mix together:

1 can sweetened condensed milk

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

Stir in:

1 cup dark chocolate chips

1/2 cup white chocolate chips

3/4 cups toasted pecans ( toast them on a cookie sheet in a preheated 350 degree oven for about 3 minutes)

1 1/2 cups roughly chopped dried cranberries

Spread on top of the prepared base and bake at 350 degrees f for about 25 minutes. Cool completely before cutting into squares and serving.

Makes about 16 squares.