Because I had cherries and I had butterscotch chips

Cherry Butterscotch Bars
The Great American Cookie Cookbook Copyright 2001

2 cups plus 1 tablespoon flour, divided
¾ cup packed brown sugar
¾ cup butter, softened
2 eggs
¼ cup butterscotch chips, melted
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup chopped drained maraschino cherries
½ cup butterscotch chips
Maraschino cherries, butterscotch chips and powdered sugar for garnish

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour 13x9 inch baking pan.
2. Combine 2 cups flour, brown sugar, butter, eggs, melted butterscotch chips, baking powder, vanilla and salt in large bowl. Beat at low speed of electric mixer, scraping bowl often, until well mixed, about 1 to 2 minutes.
3. Mix chopped cherries and remaining 1 tablespoon flour in small bowl. Stir cherries and ½ cup butterscotch chips into butter mixture. Spread batter into prepared pan.
4. Bake 24 to 25 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Cool completely. Sprinkle with additional cherries, chips and powdered sugar if desired. (I sprinkled extra cherries and chips on top before baking.) Cut into bars.

Makes about 3 dozen.

Once again I chose this recipe based on ingredients I had on hand. I didn't realize how odd it was until I started making it. No creaming of the butter and sugar? No separately mixing the dry ingredients? It went against everything I thought I knew but I followed the instructions and it all worked out in the end (although I had my doubts in the middle). I'm not always a fan of butterscotch chips but they worked in this recipe. I've noticed I'm a sucker for most any recipe with maraschino cherries.

These are bar cookies. I think I would have actually preferred drop cookies made from this recipe. My oven is not exact and bar cookies are one of the worst things to cook evenly. And I usually have a devil of a time cutting neat bars.

The Great American Cookie Cookbook has many of the same recipes as in the Favorite Brand Name Bake Sale Cookbook that I baked from last week. That's something you have to watch out for - you can easily buy basically the same cookbook published with only a slight variation of you're not careful. These two books are different enough but I think I might have a couple of small paperback versions of these that are completely redundant.