Apricot oat bars & lessons in jam making.

I thought I would keep you up to date on things I have been doing in between my new side project, which i promise to tell you all about next week :) .....  On to jam making. One thing I have learned is that if  your jam looks runny in the pot, it will still be runny in the jar. When in doubt reduce, reduce, and reduce some more until it is thick enough. Can you tell it did not successfully turn into jam? If this happens to you, fret not. You have just made one delicious sauce. In our case we have apricot sauce and have been using it like crazy!

Using it over cheese, in curries, a sauce for pan seared chicken, mixed with greek yogurt to make quick pops in the Zoku (if you don't have one, you need it) and in one of my favorite summer anytime recipes. Apricot oat bars. These bars are super easy, delicious, and a perfect desert to bring along to a picnic. I'll tell you how after you gaze at this sweet little face....

What a cutie huh?...

Ingredients

2 sticks butter, softened, plus more for the pan

2 1/4 cups flour

1/2 cup sugar, plus a tablespoon for sprinkling over top

1/2 cup light brown sugar

1 cup oats

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1 egg, beaten (or in our house we use an egg replacer)

1 3/4 cup Apricot jam (or sauce!)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter a half baking sheet or an 8-inch square baking pan and line with parchment. Add the flour, both sugars, oats and salt to a bowl in your stand mixer. Add in the butter and egg and beat at low speed. Stop the machine and scrape the bowl down a couple of times. Keep processing until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Keep about 2 cups crumb mixture aside.

Press the remaining crumb mixture on the bottom the prepared pan. Spread the apricot over top, leaving 1/2-inch border. Crumble the rest of the oat mixture over the preserves. Bake until lightly browned, 40 to 50 minutes. Cool completely before cutting into bars. If you are impatient like me pop them in the freezer after 10 minutes to speed the cooling process.

I hope you all enjoyed a long and relaxing weekend!

xoxo
d