Shortbread Candy Bars

I saw these bars a couple of months ago in October 2010 edition of Martha Stewart's Everyday Food magazine. The bars looked very festive for Halloween so I made them as another dessert for the Ga/Fla game.

Shortbread Candy Bars
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 3/4 cup packed light-brown sugar
- 1 1/4 teaspoons coarse salt
- 2 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
- 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
- 2 cups assorted chocolate candies or roughly chopped candy bars (12 ounces) (I used Reeses Pieces and Kit Kats)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat butter, brown sugar, and salt on medium-high until light and fluffy, 3 minutes. With the mixer on low, add flour in three additions and beat until combined (dough will be crumbly). Press dough evenly into an 8-ince square baking dish. Bake until golden brown and firm. 30 to 35 minutes. Scatter chocolate chips on top of shortbread. Bake until soft. 1 minute. With the back of the spoon, spread chocolate evenly over shortbread. Scatter candies over top. Let cool on a wire rack 30 minutes. Refrigerate briefly to set chocolate, then cut into 16 bars.

Like some of my other dessert, these tasted great, but didn't look like they do in the picture! Also, plan to have a sharp knife to cut through these. They were hard to cut, but they melted in my mouth!