MAPLE PECAN STICKY BLONDIES

This is another one of those recipes in which I utilized the recently purchased pure maple syrup.  In this dessert it was added to both the base and the topping, and wow that maple sap is tasty - I licked the thick layer left behind in the measuring spoon.  It is a far cry in quality and enjoyment from younger days when my brother and I would chug that Log Cabin right from the bottle's spout; a drizzle on french toast was clearly not satisfying our nutritional glucose requirements.  This recipe was also fun because I got to use blackstrap molassess- that stuff is tar in a bottle - sweet, iron-laden tar.  The topping consisted of lightly chopped pecans, maple syrup and oil toasted ahead of time, and then spread on blondie batter along with dark chocolate chips.  It was supposed to be assembled in an 8x8 pan lined with parchment paper and then baked, however my pan(s) of that size went AWOL on me and I do not even know what parchment paper is.  So I improvised and employed one of my seldom-used spring-form pans rubbed down with a thin smear of Smart Balance.  The Maple Pecan Sticky Blondies turned out just fine.  Divine even.