Buttery, nutty bars filled with sweet-tart cherry preserves
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Keyword Bar Cookies
Prep Time 15 minutesminutes
Cook Time 30 minutesminutes
Total Time 45 minutesminutes
Servings 16bars
Author Elizabeth at thewildolive.org
Ingredients
½cupbutterroom temperature
½cuppacked light-brown sugar
¼cupsugar
1egg
¼tsp.salt
¼tsp.baking powder
1 ½cupsall-purpose flour
¾cuptoasted sliced almonds
¾cupCherry Preserves
¼tsp.allspice
¼tsp.almond extract
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 8” square metal baking pan.
In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugars on medium until light and fluffy; beat in egg. Add flour, salt and baking powder. Stir on lowest setting till almost combined. Add almonds and continue mixing on lowest setting till combined. In a small bowl, stir allspice and extract into preserves.
Gently press half of dough into bottom of baking pan. Your best tool here are your clean hands - the dough will stick to a spatula or offset spreader, but not to your hands! Spread preserves mixture over dough leaving a ½ inch clear border all around (do not spread filling to edges of pan). Drop remaining dough in small hunks evenly over the filling. Gently press to slightly flatten the topping – you are not trying to make a solid top layer.
Bake until top is golden, 25 to 30 minutes; cool completely in pan.
Notes
Variations: I think these bars would also be delicious with apricot preserves (omit spices but keep almond extract). Or you could sub in chopped peanuts for the almonds and use strawberry or grape jam (no spices or extract) for a PBJ bar.Tip: As long as you're toasting some sliced almonds for this recipe, why not toast several cups so you have plenty on hand to top yogurt, salads, smoothie bowls, etc.?