Erin Mann is baking a new cake every week for a year from the "All Cakes Considered" cookbook and shares her adventures here on AnnArbor.com. Read past columns here.

Brown sugar, melted butter and a touch of vanilla. A chewy middle topped with a cripsy, crackling, crust. Toasted pecans and butterscotch morsels sprinkled throughout. Sounds a lot like a blondie, no? “All Cakes Considered” author, Melissa Gray, calls them Chewy Butterscotch Bars. I’m not about to get hung up on the name; I call them GOOD.

The bars can either be baked in one 9- by 13-inch pan or two 8-inch round cake pans. My mother gifted me two shallow 8-inch round pans after one of her weekend getaways to Oscoda with her girlfriends. She picked them up at a flea market for mere pocket change.

I toasted and chopped the pecans and prepared my dry ingredients.

A double boiler (real or improvised) is needed to transform the ingredients into a gooey, caramel-like mixture. I re-purposed a metal bowl from an old stand mixer for the top of my double boiler.

In it, I whisked together the eggs, espresso powder (which lends a rich, coffee flavor without adding liquid) and brown sugar. I boiled one or two inches of water in the bottom of a large pot that the bowl could fit into just enough without touching the water. I added a couple tablespoons of butter, cut into pieces, and stirred constantly until the butter melted into the sugar and eggs.

After about five minutes, I removed the bowl from the heat and stirred in the dry ingredients along with the vanilla, the chopped pecans and the butterscotch morsels.

I used a large spoon to scoop the batter into the two pans rather than pouring it. The mixture was very sticky and would have been difficult to handle otherwise.

After baking, I left the pans of bars on the dining table along with a note to my new house mates. This week's note said,"Chewy Butterscotch Bars: contains pecans & awesome-ness." I like coming downstairs the next morning to find a good portion of the pan of bars missing. It’s like waking up on Christmas morning to find a plate of crumbs and an empty glass of milk after Santa had stopped by.

I brought some bars to work, and one candy-loving co-worker remarked, “This may be my favorite yet -- because it reminds me of a candy bar.”

Erin Mann is ruining diets one baked good at a time with her weekly baking adventures. Email this baking bachelorette at SheGotTheBeat@gmail.com to share baking tips or swap recipes. Facebook users can also keep up-to-date with A CAKE A WEEK by joining the group.