I certainly do. I loved these little candy coated chocolate orbs. M&M's were good, but Sixlets had, and still have, a very unique flavor that was nothing at all like M&M's. I wish I could give you the history of Sixlets, but alas, it is impossible to find anything substantive. The only bit of information I could gather was that production of this candy likely started sometime in the 1960's. I remember them in little cellophane packets of eight per pack and in a variety of colors. Five different colors. Eight pieces per packet and five different colors would not give us any indication of how they came to be known as Sixlets. I finally just gave up on finding the history and set about perfecting my cookie bar recipe. These are positively delicious. Read on.
Sixlet Cookie Bars
Ingredients:
6 tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature
3/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 extra large egg, preferably locally farm raised
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons Dutch-process cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher coarse salt, slightly heaping
1-1/2 cups (10 ounces) Sixlet candies
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a large bowl, mix together butter and sugar with an electric hand mixer on low speed. Add egg and vanilla to mixture and mix until well blended. Add flour, in three batches, mixing well with each batch. Add cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. Mix well. Now stir in Sixlet candies using a large spoon.
Transfer batter to a 9" x 9" glass baking dish which has been sprayed with Pam Cooking Spray for baking. (This spray has flour in the spray which works perfectly for baked goods). Smooth top. Bake until just set in center and cookie starts to pull away from sides of pan, 20 - 22 minutes. Do not overcook. Remove from oven and let cool in baking dish for 10 minutes. Then turn out onto a wire rack to finish cooling. Place on a flat surface and slice into individual bars. Can be served warm or at room temperature.
Follow us step-by-step below.
Here is our board with all of the ingredients measured. I prefer cooking this way. You will note that in most, if not all of my food posts, I start out with all the ingredients measured and in containers. I do this because, naturally, it is necessary for the blog. But even when I am cooking and it is not posted on the blog, I use this method. It makes it so easy to assemble when everything is right at your hand and can easily be added to the mix.
This picture, taken by accident, is of my feet as I was in the kitchen preparing these delicious cookie bars. These gray felt shoes are the most comfortable shoes I own. I wear them nearly everywhere these days.
So let's get started. To the bowl add the butter and packed light brown sugar.
A good thorough mixing with the electric hand mixer. You will see in this picture that I used the whisk attachments on the hand mixer. Normally I would have used the regular beaters, but I used the whisks. You could do either.
We added the egg and the vanilla.
Then a thorough mix with the hand mixer. Go about 2 minutes on this. You want the mixture smooth and silky.
Time to start adding the flour. This picture was taken after adding the first two batches of flour.
And finally the third batch. I recommend adding the flour in three batches. You are better able to get it fully incorporated into the batter if you add it in batches.
After the flour was incorporated, we added the Dutch-processed cocoa powder.
And to the cocoa-powder we added the baking soda and the coarse kosher salt.
The batter will have stiffened up substantially with the addition of the flour and cocoa powder, so you will need to switch to the regular beaters on your hand mixer at this point if you have been using the whisk attachments previously. You want to get this fully incorporated.
Time to add the Sixlets to the mix. We used white Sixlets, but you could use any color. They come in large plastic containers in an array of colors these days.
Here is a picture of a large container of white Sixlets. They come in blue, green, purple, pink - you name it. I found them at Wal-Mart.
Now it is time to prepare the baking dish. I love the Pam baking spray with flour. This is the very best in my opinion when it comes to preparing the pan for baking.
A good healthy spray of baking spray in the pan, including along the sides.
Then, in with the batter. Doesn't that look like fun. Just smooth it out as much as possible with your hands and place inside the oven. Watch it closely. You do not want it to burn.
In 20 - 22 minutes, based on your oven temperature, this is what you will have. A wonderful dish of Sixlet cookie bars. Look how beautiful they are. The baking soda help them rise to just the right height.
After they cooled, I cut them into bar size portions. I decided to plate one of them on this plain, white cocktail plate.
Then I made fresh whipped cream. Recipe - 16 oz. heavy cream and 4 tablespoons of granulated sugar in a ice cold, metal bowl. Mix on high, using the whisk attachments which have also been placed in the freezer just prior to use. Beat until stiff peaks form.
You could add a dollop of whipped cream from the bowl, but I decided to place the whipped cream into a decorating bag and pipe it on top. Beautiful. The whipped cream was the perfect consistency for this.
Just before helping myself, I sprinkled the cookie and the plate with cocoa powder for effect.
Then I set about sampling the good. Heavenly! Extraordinary! You must make these. And soon!
