American
Jammy Pie Bars
- Prep time 1 hour 10 minutes
- Cook time 50 minutes
- makes One 9x13-inch/23x33-centimeter pan (about 16 bars)
Author Notes
When the summer fruit I love to bake pies with is out of season, I turn to the stores of jam in my pantry. I love to use the jams I scored at farmer’s markets, farmstands, or even made myself in those bountiful summer months in the winter for a taste of brightness. These sliceable bars do just that, serving as the juicy fruit filling for these bar cookies. These bars look (and taste!) quite a bit like pie, but skip a lot of the more complicated parts of the process. The base is a simple press-in struesel, which forms a delicious “crust” for the jam filling. Then, it’s finished with a layer of pie crust, which I like to weave into a lattice to give the bars a classic pie look. After baking, these pie bars are sliceable, portable, and oh-so-cute! —Erin Jeanne McDowell
Ingredients
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2 cups
(160 grams) old-fashioned oats
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2 cups
(240 grams) all-purpose flour
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3/4 cup
(160 grams) light or dark brown sugar
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1/2 teaspoon
baking powder
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1/2 teaspoon
fine sea salt
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1/2 teaspoon
ground cinnamon
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12 tablespoons
(170 grams) unsalted butter, melted
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24 ounces
(680 grams) jam or preserves (two 12-ounce jars)
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2
single crust pie dough recipes (or one double crust pie dough recipe), prepared and chilled
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Egg wash, as needed for finishing
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Turbinado sugar, as needed for finishing
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Whipped cream, for serving (optional)
Directions
- Lightly grease a 9x13 in/23x33 cm pan with nonstick spray. Line the pan with parchment paper, leaving excess on the two shorter sides to make it easier to unmold the bars later.
- In a medium bowl, mix the oats, flour, brown sugar, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon to combine. Drizzle the melted butter evenly over the mixture, then mix well until the mixture forms moist clumps.
- Press the streusel mixture into the base of the prepared pan in an even layer. Pour the jam or preserves on top of the crust and spread into an even layer. Transfer to the refrigerator while you prepare the pie crust strips.
- On a lightly floured surface, roll out the pie dough to ¼ in/6 mm thick. Cut the dough into 1 in/2.5 cm wide strips. Use these strips to weave a tightly woven lattice on the surface of the bars.
- Remove the pan from the fridge. Lay half of the strips horizontally across the pan, laying each strip right next to the one next to it. Gently lift up every other strip, and lay another strip vertically across the pan. Repeat this process, pulling back every other strip and adding a vertical strip, until the entire pan is latticed.
- Use a paring knife to trim the excess dough around the outside edges so it’s flush with the pan. Transfer to the refrigerator to chill for at least 30 minutes, and preferably 1 hour.
- Towards the end of rise time, preheat the oven to 400°F/205°C with the oven rack in the center. Egg wash the surface of the crust and sprinkle with turbinado sugar.
- Transfer the bars to the oven and bake until the crust is deeply golden brown and the jam bubbles up through the lattice, 40 to 50 minutes.
- Cool completely inside the pan, then use the excess parchment paper to help unmold the bars. Slice the bars into 16 even pieces. Serve with whipped cream, if desired.
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