I have made this recipe twice over the past week, and I am in love with it! It is an excellent substitute for store-bought granola bars, and it comes together quickly. It is also filling enough that just a small square will satisfy.
A few notes:
- The recipe calls for 10 to 12 ounces of preserves, which is an odd number to pick if you opt for 10 ounces. Canning jars come in 8, 12, and 16 ounces, so I am using a pint and a half jar or three quarters of a standard pint to make the recipe.
- Depending on the difference between your jam and your preserves, your final product will be more or less sweet. I tend to fish the whole fruit out for the filling when I use my preserves (which are just fruit and sugar); if I use my jam, the bars turn out sweeter.
- Obviously, you don't have to restrict yourself to strawberry on these. I plan to work through my backlog of cherry jam and preserves as well, and I certainly can hit my stash of blackberry, blueberry, and raspberry.
- This is a very prep-friendly recipe because the butter is the only item that is not shelf stable at room temperature.
- Speaking of butter, be aware that the bars will be very jiggly when you take them out of the oven. Give the butter and the jam/preserves time to set back up before you eat them.
The Analysis
Fast: The recipe truly comes together in 10 minutes, with 30 minutes of baking time, which is ideal for my morning baking sessions.
Cheap: The ingredients are few and inexpensive, especially if you can your own preserves. Spend some of your savings on local, hormone-free pasture butter.
Good: Although a bit more crumbly than the name "bars" would suggest, this is an excellent breakfast, snack, or dessert.
how long can these bars hold for on the shef?
ReplyDeleteI have had a pan of them sitting on the counter for as long as a week with no problems. (They've never lasted longer than that...) They are not intended to be particularly "shelf stable," but they don't really require refrigeration.
DeleteI too am a lover of Rae Drummond,'Pioneer Womens' recipe and make these bars in all different variations all the time. I found this blog by Google-ing for how long I can keep these bars& proper storage
ReplyDeleteThere usually polished off but I stored then in a Tupper wear air-tight sealed wax paper lined 9x12 container, same day as baking in bottom of cold refrigerator, while I ended up away from home.I should of just given them to the neighbors kids who love them for packed lunches but forgot Now that I am home can they go from1 week in Refrigerator to Freezer for another occasion, like taking a couple out of freezer at a time to eat? What do you think and Thank you.
PS These are awesome with cold cubed butter using a pastry cutter and working in cinnamon to mixture as well I have also added graham and granola! Peanut Butter Organic makes a wonderful Energy Bar and Fig and Dates is a wonderful Christmas bar and great for digestion Peace Happy Baking
Oh I wanna hold on to mine longer ..I did not get to use em up so put them in refrigerator so how long do you think Ican freeze them after a week in refrigerator? I made these last Sunday, they have been in refrigerator, since cool down. Peace and Thank you
ReplyDeleteMosaicMaria:
DeleteI would guess you could freeze them with relatively little problem at this point, although I don't know if I would wait much longer. All of the ingredients are pretty stable in the fridge on their own, so I would guess they would be fine for quite a while in there mixed. Let us know how the freeze-thaw thing works out!