CreamCheese Dough: Place the cold butter and cream cheese in the bowl of yourelectric mixer. Mix on low speed until the cream cheese is broken down but thebutter is still chunky. Add the flour and salt and, on low speed, beat untilcrumbly and just beginning to hold together. (There should still be some smallpieces of butter visible in the dough.) Divide the dough into two equal pieces.Flatten each piece of dough into a rectangle and wrap in plastic. Chill in therefrigerator several hours or overnight.
Next day make thechocolate filling.
ChocolateFilling: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (177degrees C) and place the rack in the center of the oven.Placethe walnuts or pecans on a baking sheet and bake for about 8 - 10 minutes oruntil lightly browned and fragrant. Remove from oven, cool, and then finely chop. Set aside.
In the bowl ofyour food processor, pulse the chopped chocolate until very finely chopped.Transfer to a large bowl and stir in the chopped nuts, sugar, ground cinnamon,dried apricots, orange zest, corn syrup and melted butter. Set aside.
Have ready a 9 x13 x 2 inch (23 x 33 x 5 cm) baking pan that has been lined with parchmentpaper.
Remove onerectangle of the dough from the refrigerator and, between two 9 x 13 inch (23 x33 cm) pieces of waxed paper or parchment paper, roll the dough into arectangle that is the size of your baking pan. Line your pan with the rolled outdough, trimming as needed. Spread the chocolate filling over thedough. Remove the second dough from the refrigerator and roll it out the sameas the first. Place the rolled out dough on top of the chocolate filling,trimming the edges as needed.
Mix the egg yolkand water together in a small bowl, and brush the top of the bars with theglaze. Sprinkle with sugar. Bake in a 350 degree F (177 degree C) oven for about35 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack tocool. Cut into 1 x 3 inch long bars (2.5 x 7.5 cm).
Makes about 36 - 1x 3 inch bars
Source:
Stewart, Martha.Holiday Cookies Magazine. December 2001 Issue.