Cookie Carnival: Walnut Mint Bars and My 200th Post!

Yay! It's my 200th post to this blog!!!!

The recipe for this month's Cookie Carnival was Hershey's Walnut Mint Bars. I was really excited. My two favorite dessert flavors together is chocolate and mint. These were really good. Not my favorite, but I enjoyed them. My mom LOVED them! I took them to myy parents' house last night for dessert. She told me today again how much she loved them.

I was too lazy to make the drizzle; I had all the dishes done and didn't feel like washing any more! So...I used Hershey's chocolate syrup. Worked great!

Ingredients:

1/2 cup (1 stick), plus 2 T margarine, divided

1 1/2 cups vanilla wafer crumbs (about 45 wafers, crushed)

1 cup chopped walnuts

1/3 cup powdered sugar

1/3 cup Hershey's cocoa

1 package (8 oz) cream cheese, softened

1 T cornstarch

1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk

1 egg

1 1/2 tsp peppermint extract or 1 T green creme de menthe

Green food color (optional)

Chocolate Drizzle (recipe follows)

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Melt 1/2 cup margarine in medium saucepan; stir in the crumbs, walnuts, sugar and cocoa. Press firmly on bottom of ungreased 13 x 9 x 2 inch baking pan.

2. Beat cream cheese, remaining 2 T margarine and cornstarch in small bowl until fluffy. Gradually beat in sweetened condensed milk then egg, peppermint extract and food color, if desired. Pour evenly into prepared pan.

3. Bake 25 minutes or until center is set. Cool. Drizzle Chocolate Drizzle over top. Refrigerate until thoroughly chilled. Cut into bars. Store covered in refrigerator.

CHOCOLATE DRIZZLE: Melt 1 cup Hershey's Special Dark Chocolate Chips or Hershey's Semi=Sween Chocolate Chips with 1 1/2 tsp shortening (do not use butter, margarine or oil).

The base of the dessert