Landau Cookies
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 egg yolk
2 tablespoons orange juice (or water)
1 teaspoon sugar
1 1/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 – 12 package semi sweet chocolate chips
2 eggs plus leftover egg white
6 tablespoons butter melted
3/ 4 cup sugar
1 cup chopped roasted and salted pecans
1 cup chopped pecans
1 teaspoon vanilla
1. Oven to 350 degrees.
2. Grease a 10 x 15 inch baking sheet pan.
3. Beat butter, egg yolk, orange juice, and sugar together. Sift flour and baking powder together and gradually add to wet ingredients. A sticky ball of dough will form. Flour your hands and remove the dough. Place dough on the center of the greased pan. Press dough into pan evenly to cover the entire bottom using your finger tips to push the dough in place. When the pan is completely covered by dough, bake in the oven for 10 minutes.
4. In the meantime, beat 2 eggs, leftover egg white, butter, 3/4 cup sugar and vanilla. Then stir in pecans and set aside.
5. Remove baked bottom layer from oven and immediately sprinkle chocolate chips on top of the layer evenly. Return to oven for 2 minutes. Remove pan from oven and spread chips with a butter knife to make a thin layer of chocolate over the whole pan.
6. Stir the pecan mixture to make sure it is well blended and then pour over the chocolate layer. Spread evenly over chocolate.
7. Return pan to oven. Bake 30 – 35 minutes more or until lightly browned. Cool for 20 to 30 minutes before cutting. Loosen sides of cookies all around the edges of the pan with a knife then with a serrated knife, cut the cookies into 64 equal squares.
8. ENJOY! – BAR NONE, best cookie bar around!
© This recipe courtesy of Somebodys-Mom.com
Landau cookies are on the top of my list as far as bar cookies go. My good friend and neighbor, Laurie, gave me the recipe years ago. It was so old and faded in my personal recipe book, because it was one of my recipes that I had typed, yes, you heard right, typed with a typewriter. This recipe was altered to my taste a bit but it is and always will be one of Laurie’s signature cookies. Whenever I am fortunate enough to be at her table for a meal, and dessert is served, there is nothing better than Laurie taking out her big container filled with Landau cookies.
On my cookbook shelf I have two tremendous binders that contain all my recipes organized in alphabetical order. Over half of the recipes go back decades and almost all of them were passed down to me from a family member or friend. Those recipes are the joyful treasures of my life. Each one reminds me of my mom, an aunt, a sister-in-law, a good friend and those friend’s moms. How many times have I heard someone tell me that they regretted not writing down their grandmother’s or their mother’s recipes when they were still alive. Fortunately for me, my recipe collection began as a teenager when my passion for cooking really kicked in. My father died and my mother, who was a good cook, lost the love of cooking for a few years. Cooking offered me an outlet and distraction from my own sorrow and feeling of loss. To this day I still feel passion for cooking. Back then, I would write down the recipes handed down to me. Those recipes in turn were updated on a typewriter, and today are now saved on this website for my children, grandchildren and future generations. At the time I didn’t know that I was preserving something very precious and irreplaceable.
The recipes of my life, are more than just recipes, they are the memories of my life as well.
Somebody's Mom 
Hey Somebody’s Mom,
I agree with you about Laurie’s Landau cookies. I’ve had them numerous times & they are very addictive. I love that your treasured recipes are more than just ways to make food. They are a connection to your wonderful memories and a future to be passed on to your children & grandchildren.
My own mother taught me great techniques on things like gravy & roast turkey that I still treasure today.
Keep on cooking (and baking!)
Charlie
Charlie, Thanks for being a loyal subscriber, and always commenting! Mariann
These cookies have been in my family for four generations (my grandmother, parents, me, and my daughters; also, some cousins), having appeared in a synagogue sisterhood (from Westchester, NY) cookbook probably in the 50s or 60s. I won a cookie-baking contest once by adding a layer of thickened raspberry puree between the chocolate and the top. I’m wondering where Laurie found the recipe.
Do you know Laurie? Her mom, Saranne, was a great cook and gave me many years ago a cookbook, Secret Ingredients.