Strawberry Rhubarb Jam Bars

It’s that time of year when the strawberries and the rhubarb are ripe! Our weather has been extra rainy lately, so it seems like a lot of our produce is taking a little longer this year. I don’t mind that too much as I am hopeful for a summer that is more moderate. Perhaps that is too much to ask these days. One of my husband’s colleagues gave him some strawberry rhubarb jam, and while we wanted to have some to eat on toast, we both figured it would make for a tasty bar cookie.

That very week, this recipe popped up in my social media feed, and my husband wanted to make them right away. This recipe uses 1 cup of jam, for a 9” x 13” pan, which would use all the jam we had. I opted to make a half recipe in an 8” square pan, so that we would still have jam left. That made for a slightly thinner bar, which was ok.

I got these bars prepped, and then went to make the topping. I looked through all of my baking items and I was completely out of sliced almonds. I do use them a lot, so I suppose I understand, but that was very frustrating. I thought about topping the bars with some freeze-dried strawberries, but I figured those would burn. The thinner bar baked faster, which wasn’t surprising, but I could have taken them out of the oven about two minutes earlier and that would have been better. I could have also added more jam, as more jam is never wrong!

Strawberry Rhubarb Jam Bars
¾ cup butter, room temperature
2/3 cup sugar
½ cup almond flour
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups flour
1 cup strawberry rhubarb jam

3 tablespoons flour
3 tablespoons sugar
Pinch of salt
2 tablespoons butter, cold
¼ cup sliced almonds

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9” x 13” pan with foil and spray with nonstick cooking spray.

In a large mixer bowl, combine the butter and sugar and mix on medium until light. Add the almond flour and vanilla and mix to incorporate. Add the salt and flour and mix on low until the mixture becomes crumbly. Press the mixture evenly into the prepared pan.

Top the dough with the strawberry rhubarb jam.

In a small bowl, combine the flour, sugar, salt, 2 tablespoons butter, and sliced almonds. Use your fingers to work the mixture into crumbs and sprinkle over the jam.

Bake for about 50 minutes, until the dough is baked through.

Allow the cookies to cool completely before cutting into bars.

Recipe from Sweet Recipeas