Thursday, May 16, 2013

Strawberry Pistachio Breakfast Bars

The Gourmandise School Logo
 The Gourmandise School  
of
 Sweets and Savories
    

strawberrypistachiobars
So a strawberry walks into a bar... 
The strawberries have been coming into their own the last few weeks; our favorite varieties are all in it together.  We've been canning with Seascapes and Chandlers and baking with Albions, trolling the farmers market and tasting the samples from Gloria's, Harry's Berries.

We're just *slightly* obsessed with cookbooks and food blogs here, and one of our very favorites issmittenkitchen.com.  The recipes work fabulously well and photos entice our testers (and tasters).  We saw this on Pinterest and followed it back to the blog, tweaking it until is what worthy of our three pack of berries.  

Strawberry Pistachio Breakfast Bars
Adapted from Smittenkitchen.com

Bottom and top layers:
1-1/2 cups flour
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup oatmeal
1/4 cup finely chopped pistachios (optional)
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
6 ounces (1-1/2 sticks) cold butter, a little colder than room temp. and cut into small pieces

1. In a large bowl, stir your dry ingredients together.
2. Using a pastry cutter or fork, cut in the cold butter until solid crumbs form.  You can also do this in the food processor.  You'll know this mixture is ready when it clumps some in your hands.
3.  Set aside a little over a cup of the mixture.  Press into a 13x9 pan, or two 8x8" pans lined with parchment paper.  I like to press it down with the bottom of a measuring cup.
4. Bake at 365 until lightly golden (about 15 minutes).

Filling:
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp lemon zest
2 Tbsps flour
2 Tbsps melted butter
1-1/2 lbs. fresh strawberries, chopped in quarters
3 Tbsps fresh lemon juice 

1. Mix the brown sugar, lemon zest and flour in a medium bowl.
2. Add your strawberries, lemon juice and melted butter.  Toss together.
3. Spread onto baked crust.  Sprinkle remaining crust over the fruit.
4. Bake at 350 for another 30-40 minutes.

No comments: