RECIPE FOUND...Kelly's Jam Bars

Through the past year, I've made a few different jam bars, each time mentioning I wish I could find the recipe that Kelly made.  On Christmas, I unwrapped the most wonderful gift from my daughter Erin.  She had "My Mother's Apron Strings" bound into a book for me.  As I was looking back to the beginning of the blog, I came across a post I did on August 18, 2009, about Raspberry Bars from Tate's Bakery and Kelly had made a comment that she had always made "this" recipe.  I couldn't believe my eyes; there it was, the recipe she made, when I visited in June and helped her with a bake sale for God's Pantry.

You may not believe in miracles or twists of fate, but this recipe has been on my mind this past year, wondering where she could have kept it, and with Erin's surprise gift, I now have it.  She got the recipe from Real Simple magazine and with just a few ingredients, she easily made these up whenever she wanted to give something special to people.  The only change I made was that I used my homemade raspberry jam, but a good quality jam works too.

Kelly's Jam Bars

1 3/4 cup All-purpose flour
1 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking soda
3/4 cup (1 1 /2 sticks) unsalted cold butter
1 1/2 oats (the recipe called for Quick, but both Kelly and I use Old-Fashioned)
2 T lemon zest (since I put lemon zest in my raspberry jam, I omitted this)
1 1/2 cups raspberry jam


Preheat oven 350F-degrees.  Lightly butter a 9" x 13" baking pan and set aside.
In a large bowl, mix the flour, brown sugar, salt and baking soda and whisk to combine.  Cut the butter into 1/2-inch cubes and use a pastry cutter to incorporate into the dry ingredients.  (I used the food processor to mix the butter and dry ingredients, then put them back into the large bowl to continue.

Add the oatmeal to the bowl and stir to combine.

Measure the jam.  I didn't add the lemon zest since I use some lemon in my jam when I preserve it.

Spoon about two-thirds of the crumble mixture into the prepared pan.  Press down lightly.  Add the jam and use an off-set spatula to spread over the surface.  If you're using the lemon zest, sprinkle it on top of the jam.

Sprinkle the remaining one-third of the mixture on top of the jam layer.  Place in the preheated oven and bake 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.
Let the bars cool in the pan about 30 minutes.  For ease in removing the bars, I run a straight spatula around the rim when I first take them out of the oven.

My 9" x 13" pan is a spring form, so after 30 minutes, I can remove the sides for easy cutting.

This recipe is a wonderful way to start off the New Year and I've made some resolutions. One of them is to get the "Give-Away" up on the 1st day of the month.  The fabric I chose is white poinsettias with a snowflake companion fabric and I thought it fit, not only the season, but the weather : )  Just leave a comment on the posts for the month of January and this apron could be yours.  Enjoy!