Blackberry Bars

Summer is in full swing and so are all the summer get-togethers! I needed to throw together a dessert and this is a great one since you probably have everything in your pantry!

These fruit bars are also known as struesel bars or linzer torte bars (depending on what fruit you use). You can use ANY fruit jam, preserve, or even mash up some fresh fruit with a fork (maybe run it through a sieve to get the seeds out though...)

You can also use any kind of nut you have on hand. I used a combination of almonds and walnuts because that's what was hanging out in my freezer.

AND this is a super simple recipe...so simple that I've memorized it!

Start with 1 cup of flour, 1 cup of powdered sugar, and 1 stick of softened butter.


Use the butter wrapper to grease your pan!


Mix in 1 cup of finely chopped nuts (you can use ground nuts if you'd like, but I like it chopped) and 1/2 tsp of cinnamon...it'll be course and crumbly like this:


Press 2/3 of this mixture in the bottom of a pan (9X9 or something close to that).


Bake it for 10 minutes at 375 degrees, until slightly golden. Spread 2/3 to 1 cup of preserves on there...depending on how fruity you like it. I used sugar-free blackberry preserves here.


Throw the rest of your crumbly mixture on top of the fruit layer.


Bake for 15 minutes, until it's golden and the preserves are bubbly.


Let it cool completely before you cut it into squares.


Enjoy!


Tips:

Lightly toast the nuts and cool them before adding them to the crumble mixture. You'll get a better flavor.

Walnuts are really recommended for this, but you could use almonds, pecans, hazelnuts, or macadamia nuts...I wouldn't recommend peanuts or cashews though.

Use jam or preserves, not jelly. The jelly would just melt...and I don't think there's any real fruit in jelly...

Seriously...any fruit jam or preserve...strawberry, raspberry, orange marmelade, apricot...anything!

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