I really enjoy baking with fruit, but of course it can be slim pickings in the winter. And while I never get tired of apple desserts, I was happy to see that Shauna Sever has a recipe for "Jammy Winter Fruit and Browned Butter Bars" in Midwest Made that uses equal parts pears and apples. The bars have a crust and a topping made from the cinnamon-oat mixture, surrounding a layer of homemade pear-apple jam.
To make the jam, you bring a mixture of chopped apples and pears (I used her recommended varieties of Honeycrisp and D'Anjou), orange juice, and sugar to a boil; cover and cook until the fruit is tender; mash the fruit with a fork; and cook until the liquid has evaporated. While the recipe says you should cook the fruit on medium heat while it's covered, I had a boilover, so I had to reduce the heat to medium-low. You finish off the jam with a little vanilla and set the jam aside to cool.
You make the crust and topping by hand. You whisk together flour, old-fashioned oats, brown sugar, chopped walnuts, cinnamon, salt, and cinnamon; add cooled browned butter, an egg, and vanilla; and mix until you get a crumbly dough. You press half of the crumble mixture into a parchment-lined pan to form the crust; spread on the fruit jam; drop on the remaining dough; sprinkle on coarse sugar; and bake. Even though I had cooked off the liquid from the jam, I noticed water pooling in the bowl as it cooled, so I put it in a sieve to make sure it wasn't too watery. I barely had enough jam to cover the crust.
When the bars were baked, the jam was completely hidden, and even after slicing them, the jam layer was thin and the color blended in so much that it was barely visible. These are wonderful, chewy, cinnamon-spiced oat bars -- like an oatmeal cookie, but much more satisfying. I didn't mind the fact that I couldn't taste the walnuts (I had blitzed them in the food processor, so they were chopped quite fine), but I was disappointed that I could barely make out the jam. Shauna provides weight ranges for the amount of pears and apples you should use in the jam, and I used the maximum amount for both. But still, I think I could have easily used twice as much jam.
Shauna says that these bars are like a Dutch apple pie in slab form, but I don't think they read anything like a pie. Still, so long as they're tasty, I don't think it matters what you call them!
Recipe: "Jammy Winter Fruit and Browned Butter Bars" from Midwest Made by Shauna Sever, recipe available here at The Splendid Table.
To make the jam, you bring a mixture of chopped apples and pears (I used her recommended varieties of Honeycrisp and D'Anjou), orange juice, and sugar to a boil; cover and cook until the fruit is tender; mash the fruit with a fork; and cook until the liquid has evaporated. While the recipe says you should cook the fruit on medium heat while it's covered, I had a boilover, so I had to reduce the heat to medium-low. You finish off the jam with a little vanilla and set the jam aside to cool.
You make the crust and topping by hand. You whisk together flour, old-fashioned oats, brown sugar, chopped walnuts, cinnamon, salt, and cinnamon; add cooled browned butter, an egg, and vanilla; and mix until you get a crumbly dough. You press half of the crumble mixture into a parchment-lined pan to form the crust; spread on the fruit jam; drop on the remaining dough; sprinkle on coarse sugar; and bake. Even though I had cooked off the liquid from the jam, I noticed water pooling in the bowl as it cooled, so I put it in a sieve to make sure it wasn't too watery. I barely had enough jam to cover the crust.
Shauna says that these bars are like a Dutch apple pie in slab form, but I don't think they read anything like a pie. Still, so long as they're tasty, I don't think it matters what you call them!
Recipe: "Jammy Winter Fruit and Browned Butter Bars" from Midwest Made by Shauna Sever, recipe available here at The Splendid Table.
Comments