{"id":117976,"date":"2025-04-08T21:30:00","date_gmt":"2025-04-09T05:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/life\/cooking-for-pleasure-marys-extreme-bars\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T08:28:59","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T17:28:59","slug":"cooking-for-pleasure-marys-extreme-bars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/2025\/04\/08\/cooking-for-pleasure-marys-extreme-bars\/","title":{"rendered":"Cooking For Pleasure: Mary’s extreme bars"},"content":{"rendered":"

For at least 20 years, my sister Mary Watson has been making these cookies frequently, especially for her piano music recitals and music history classes. Because of the variety of dried fruits and nuts, these are also a great energy bar for hiking and fishing. They are easy to make and the recipe can doubled. The nuts and dried fruits can have some substitutions, but I recommend you try the original recipe first. Mary calls them extreme bars because the ingredients are so rich. The baked bars look a bit like Renaissance jewels because of the different colors of the fruit and nuts. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Shortbread crust:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Preheat oven to 350 degrees<\/p>\n

Mix well: ½ cup unsalted butter with<\/p>\n

½ cup granulated sugar<\/p>\n

Add:<\/p>\n

1 cup all-purpose flour<\/p>\n

Zest from one orange<\/p>\n

½ tsp almond extract<\/p>\n

Mix well and press into an 8-inch square pan generously lined with parchment paper.<\/p>\n

Bake for 10 or 12 minutes until dough is set<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Topping<\/strong><\/p>\n

While the crust is baking, mix:<\/p>\n

2 cups of dried mixed fruit (apricots, cherries, dates are used here)<\/p>\n

2 cups of coarsely chopped mixed UNSALTED nuts: pecans, blanched almonds, hazelnuts and cashews (Use several kinds of nuts but decide for yourself what you would like. Macadamia nuts and\/or pine nuts could be also used. Your decision.}<\/p>\n

½ cup flaked coconut<\/p>\n

2\/3 cup brown sugar, packed<\/p>\n

2 eggs<\/p>\n

½ tsp baking powder<\/p>\n

1 tablespoon flour<\/p>\n

½ tsp salt<\/p>\n

1 teaspoon vanilla<\/p>\n

Spread topping onto shortbread crust and bake for 18-22 minutes until bubbly.<\/p>\n

Cool on rack. Lift cookie bar out of pan using the parchment paper as a handle. When cool, cut into one-inch squares. Cut cookies are small but very rich. Mary says “Don’t eat these if you are dieting!”<\/p>\n

• Patty Schied is a longtime Juneau resident who studied at the Cordon Bleu in London, has cooked meals for both AWARE and the Glory Hall, and has written a cookbook. Cooking For Pleasure appears every other week in Capital City Weekly.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For at least 20 years, my sister Mary Watson has been making these cookies frequently, especially for her piano music recitals and music history classes. Because of the variety of dried fruits and nuts, these are also a great energy bar for hiking and fishing. They are easy to make and the recipe can doubled. The nuts and dried fruits can have some substitutions, but I recommend you try the original recipe first. Mary calls them extreme bars because the ingredients are so rich. The baked bars look a bit like Renaissance jewels because of the different colors of the fruit and nuts. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1129,"featured_media":117977,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[73,326,140,837],"class_list":["post-117976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-life","tag-ccw","tag-cooking","tag-food","tag-recipes"],"yoast_head":"\nCooking For Pleasure: Mary’s extreme bars - Juneau Empire<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/2025\/04\/08\/cooking-for-pleasure-marys-extreme-bars\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Cooking For Pleasure: Mary’s extreme bars - Juneau Empire\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"For at least 20 years, my sister Mary Watson has been making these cookies frequently, especially for her piano music recitals and music history classes. Because of the variety of dried fruits and nuts, these are also a great energy bar for hiking and fishing. They are easy to make and the recipe can doubled. The nuts and dried fruits can have some substitutions, but I recommend you try the original recipe first. Mary calls them extreme bars because the ingredients are so rich. The baked bars look a bit like Renaissance jewels because of the different colors of the fruit and nuts.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/2025\/04\/08\/cooking-for-pleasure-marys-extreme-bars\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Juneau Empire\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-04-09T05:30:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-02-18T17:28:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2025\/04\/39104320_web1_CookingForPleasure-JUE-250412-1_4.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2048\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1365\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Wire Service\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Wire Service\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/2025\/04\/08\/cooking-for-pleasure-marys-extreme-bars\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/2025\/04\/08\/cooking-for-pleasure-marys-extreme-bars\/\",\"name\":\"Cooking For Pleasure: Mary’s extreme bars - Juneau Empire\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/2025\/04\/08\/cooking-for-pleasure-marys-extreme-bars\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/2025\/04\/08\/cooking-for-pleasure-marys-extreme-bars\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2025\/04\/39104320_web1_CookingForPleasure-JUE-250412-1_4.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-04-09T05:30:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-02-18T17:28:59+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/#\/schema\/person\/a55308a565b50b2e68081f4b0ef3c2ef\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/2025\/04\/08\/cooking-for-pleasure-marys-extreme-bars\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/2025\/04\/08\/cooking-for-pleasure-marys-extreme-bars\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/2025\/04\/08\/cooking-for-pleasure-marys-extreme-bars\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2025\/04\/39104320_web1_CookingForPleasure-JUE-250412-1_4.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2025\/04\/39104320_web1_CookingForPleasure-JUE-250412-1_4.jpg\",\"width\":2048,\"height\":1365,\"caption\":\"Mary’s extreme bars, ready to slice. (Photo by Patty Schied)\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/2025\/04\/08\/cooking-for-pleasure-marys-extreme-bars\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Cooking For Pleasure: Mary’s extreme bars\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/\",\"name\":\"Juneau Empire\",\"description\":\"The Voice of Alaska's Capital Since 1912\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/#\/schema\/person\/a55308a565b50b2e68081f4b0ef3c2ef\",\"name\":\"Wire Service\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6a9113d7c1c3d28e3dc686588377e84a80e4f7eb8b93ac98ec35fd50b3bb1b67?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6a9113d7c1c3d28e3dc686588377e84a80e4f7eb8b93ac98ec35fd50b3bb1b67?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Wire Service\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/author\/wire-service\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Cooking For Pleasure: Mary’s extreme bars - Juneau Empire","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/2025\/04\/08\/cooking-for-pleasure-marys-extreme-bars\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Cooking For Pleasure: Mary’s extreme bars - Juneau Empire","og_description":"For at least 20 years, my sister Mary Watson has been making these cookies frequently, especially for her piano music recitals and music history classes. Because of the variety of dried fruits and nuts, these are also a great energy bar for hiking and fishing. They are easy to make and the recipe can doubled. The nuts and dried fruits can have some substitutions, but I recommend you try the original recipe first. Mary calls them extreme bars because the ingredients are so rich. The baked bars look a bit like Renaissance jewels because of the different colors of the fruit and nuts.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/2025\/04\/08\/cooking-for-pleasure-marys-extreme-bars\/","og_site_name":"Juneau Empire","article_published_time":"2025-04-09T05:30:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-02-18T17:28:59+00:00","og_image":[{"width":2048,"height":1365,"url":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2025\/04\/39104320_web1_CookingForPleasure-JUE-250412-1_4.jpg","type":""}],"author":"Wire Service","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Wire Service","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/2025\/04\/08\/cooking-for-pleasure-marys-extreme-bars\/","url":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/2025\/04\/08\/cooking-for-pleasure-marys-extreme-bars\/","name":"Cooking For Pleasure: Mary’s extreme bars - Juneau Empire","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/2025\/04\/08\/cooking-for-pleasure-marys-extreme-bars\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/2025\/04\/08\/cooking-for-pleasure-marys-extreme-bars\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2025\/04\/39104320_web1_CookingForPleasure-JUE-250412-1_4.jpg","datePublished":"2025-04-09T05:30:00+00:00","dateModified":"2026-02-18T17:28:59+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/#\/schema\/person\/a55308a565b50b2e68081f4b0ef3c2ef"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/2025\/04\/08\/cooking-for-pleasure-marys-extreme-bars\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/2025\/04\/08\/cooking-for-pleasure-marys-extreme-bars\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/2025\/04\/08\/cooking-for-pleasure-marys-extreme-bars\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2025\/04\/39104320_web1_CookingForPleasure-JUE-250412-1_4.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2025\/04\/39104320_web1_CookingForPleasure-JUE-250412-1_4.jpg","width":2048,"height":1365,"caption":"Mary’s extreme bars, ready to slice. (Photo by Patty Schied)"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/2025\/04\/08\/cooking-for-pleasure-marys-extreme-bars\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Cooking For Pleasure: Mary’s extreme bars"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/","name":"Juneau Empire","description":"The Voice of Alaska's Capital Since 1912","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/#\/schema\/person\/a55308a565b50b2e68081f4b0ef3c2ef","name":"Wire Service","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6a9113d7c1c3d28e3dc686588377e84a80e4f7eb8b93ac98ec35fd50b3bb1b67?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6a9113d7c1c3d28e3dc686588377e84a80e4f7eb8b93ac98ec35fd50b3bb1b67?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Wire Service"},"url":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/author\/wire-service\/"}]}},"acf":[],"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","canonical_url":"https:\/\/juneauempire.com\/2025\/04\/08\/cooking-for-pleasure-marys-extreme-bars\/","smart_links":{"inbound":0,"outbound":0},"traffic_boost_suggestions_count":0,"meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"Cooking For Pleasure: Mary’s extreme bars","url":"http:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/2025\/04\/08\/cooking-for-pleasure-marys-extreme-bars\/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/2025\/04\/08\/cooking-for-pleasure-marys-extreme-bars\/"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2025\/04\/39104320_web1_CookingForPleasure-JUE-250412-1_4.jpg?w=150&h=150&crop=1","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2025\/04\/39104320_web1_CookingForPleasure-JUE-250412-1_4.jpg"},"articleSection":"Neighbors","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Wire Service"}],"creator":["Wire Service"],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Juneau Empire","logo":""},"keywords":["capital city weekly","cooking","food","recipes"],"dateCreated":"2025-04-09T05:30:00Z","datePublished":"2025-04-09T05:30:00Z","dateModified":"2026-02-18T17:28:59Z"},"rendered":"<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"wp-parsely-metadata\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@type\":\"NewsArticle\",\"headline\":\"Cooking For Pleasure: Mary’s extreme bars\",\"url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.juneauempire.com\\\/2025\\\/04\\\/08\\\/cooking-for-pleasure-marys-extreme-bars\\\/\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.juneauempire.com\\\/2025\\\/04\\\/08\\\/cooking-for-pleasure-marys-extreme-bars\\\/\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.juneauempire.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/12\\\/2025\\\/04\\\/39104320_web1_CookingForPleasure-JUE-250412-1_4.jpg?w=150&h=150&crop=1\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.juneauempire.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/12\\\/2025\\\/04\\\/39104320_web1_CookingForPleasure-JUE-250412-1_4.jpg\"},\"articleSection\":\"Neighbors\",\"author\":[{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"name\":\"Wire Service\"}],\"creator\":[\"Wire Service\"],\"publisher\":{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"name\":\"Juneau Empire\",\"logo\":\"\"},\"keywords\":[\"capital city weekly\",\"cooking\",\"food\",\"recipes\"],\"dateCreated\":\"2025-04-09T05:30:00Z\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-04-09T05:30:00Z\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-02-18T17:28:59Z\"}<\/script>","tracker_url":"https:\/\/cdn.parsely.com\/keys\/juneauempire.com\/p.js"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1129"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117976"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117976\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":122207,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117976\/revisions\/122207"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/117977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}