Chocolate Bars

This recipe is sent to me by my sister-in-law J.; taken from the murder mystery novels by Joanne Fluke....some people would kill for these golden bars.

Ingredients:
- 1cup of softened butter
- 3/4 cups granulated sugar
- 1 beaten egg
- 2 teaspoons of vanilla
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 and 1/2 cups of flour
- 5 three-ounce chocolate bars (I used Lindt ultra-thin dark chocolate squares)
- another 1/4 cup of granulated sugar

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Prepare a 9 by 13 inch cake pan by lining it with a piece of tinfoil large enough to flap over the sides. Spray the foil-lined pan with a non-stick cooking spray. Stir the butter and (3/4 cup) sugar together in a bowl until light and creamy. Add the egg and stir it in thoroughly along with the vanilla and salt. Add the flour in 1/2 cup increments, mixing well after each addition. You will end up with a "ball" of dough, like piecrust. Pat half of the dough into the bottom of the prepared pan. Unwrap the candy bars and spread then evenly across the top of the dough. Pat the remaining dough as evenly as possible on top of the chocolate. Use the back of the tines of a fork to make cross-hatch marks on the top of the dough, then sprinkle with the remaining 1/4 cup of sugar. Bake for 25 minutes ; the bars are done when slightly brown around the edges but still quite light in the middle. When the pan is cool enough to work with, grasp the edges of the tinfoil and carefully lift the bars out of the pan. Cut them into (reasonable) serving sizes while still slightly warm.