Fruit Streusel Bars

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Streusel Fruit Bars

Author: Sarah Truesdell

Recipe adapted from Cook's Illustrated Raspberry Streusel Bars

Ingredients

• 170g (1 1/4 cups) all-purpose flour
• 67 g (1/3 cup) granulated sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon table salt
• 4.5 oz (9 tbsp) unsalted butter, cut into 9 pieces and softened to room temperature
• 1/4 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
• 1/4 cup pecans, toasted and chopped fine (optional)
• 25 g (2 tbsp) packed brown sugar
• 6 tbsp jam
• 50 g (1/3 cup) juicy type fruit that works with jam*
• 1/2 tablespoon lemon juice

Instructions

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 375 degrees. Make foil sling for 8x8-inch baking pan by folding 2 long sheets of aluminum foil; Lay sheets of foil in pan perpendicular to each other, with extra foil hanging over edges of pan. Push foil into corners and up sides of pan, smoothing foil flush to pan. Grease foil.
2. Whisk flour, granulated sugar, and salt together in bowl of stand mixer. Fit mixer with paddle and beat in 8 tablespoons butter, 1 piece at a time, on medium-low speed until mixture resembles damp sand, 1 to 1½ minutes. Set aside 2/3 cups of the mixture in bowl for topping.
3. Sprinkle remaining flour mixture into prepared pan and press firmly into even layer. Bake until edges of crust begin to brown, 14 to 18 minutes, rotating pan halfway through baking. (Crust must still be hot when filling is added.)
4. Meanwhile, stir oats, pecans, and brown sugar into reserved topping mixture. Add remaining 1 tablespoon of butter and pinch mixture between your fingers into clumps of streusel. Using fork, mash jam, raspberries, and lemon juice in small bowl until few berry pieces remain.
5. Spread berry mixture evenly over hot crust, then sprinkle with streusel. Bake until filling is bubbling and topping is deep golden brown, 22 to 25 minutes, rotating pan halfway through baking.
6. Let bars cool completely in pan on wire rack, about 2 hours. Using foil overhang, remove bars from pan. Cut before serving. (Uncut bars can be frozen for up to 1 month; let wrapped bars thaw at room temperature for 4 hours before serving.)

Notes

For the jam/fruit pairings, you can use the same fruit as jam (raspberry jam with raspberries, strawberry jam with strawberries, etc), or mix and match (peach jam with strawberries, strawberry jam with rhubarb). Feel free to get creative. Drier fruits like applies will not work here unless you precook an apple filling.

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