Saturday, March 26, 2011

Blueberries and Blogging

To blog, or not to blog, that is the question.


Well, I caved. So voilĂ ! Here is the first post of 'Bring Me Sugar,' hopefully to be followed by many more...but I make no promises! I was one of those kids who would have a diary and write in it religiously for a week or two, and then the entries become a bit spottier...a week goes by, a month, several years...you know how it goes. But alas! I'll stop rambling about my diary entries (most of which centered around whichever boy was the object of my affection that day) and get on to the food.


A friend requested that I bake her something sans chocolate, peanut butter, and coconut, as she is not a particular fan of those flavors. I wasn't really up for a trip to the grocery store so I poked around in the pantry to see what I could whip up and came up with these ridiculously simple but delicious Blueberry Streusel Bars.




They taste the best after they are completely cool, similar to a grown-up version of a Nutri-Grain Bar. Feel free to swap out the blueberry jam for any other flavor, or use a different cookie mix as the base! I've done sugar cookie with raspberry, oatmeal chocolate chip cookie with blackberry, and double chocolate cookie with raspberry so far. Enjoy :)




Blueberry Streusel Bars


Ingredients
1 pouch (approx. 1 lb.) Betty Crocker oatmeal cookie mix
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1 large egg
1 Tbsp water
1/2 tsp maple or almond extract
3/4 - 1 cup blueberry jam (depending upon how "jammy" you want your bars)


1 Tbsp brown sugar (optional)
1/2 tsp cinnamon (optional)


Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350°. Line an 8x8" pan with parchment paper and spray lightly with cooking spray.
2. In a bowl, combine the cookie mix, butter, egg, water, and extract and stir until a dough forms (quite a workout!). Divide your dough in half and press half of the cookie dough into the bottom of the pan. Bake the cookie base for 15 minutes.
3. Spread blueberry jam evenly over the cookie base. Add brown sugar and cinnamon to remaining dough (this is optional) and stir to combine; crumble dough over top of the jam. Bake for an additional 20-25 minutes or until light golden brown.
4. Cool completely (trust me) before cutting into small bars and serving.



3 comments:

  1. Beautiful bars and photos! I'm looking forward to many more posts from you. Keep on bloggin'.

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  2. Welcome to the Blog World :) Good Luck.
    I will have a try at these tomorrow, Thanks for sharing.

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  3. Hi, I am writing a story about TasteSpotting for the L.A. Times, and I would love to use the image that was just posted on that site. If that is agreeable to you, can you please send me a jpeg, and let me know precisely how you would like the credit to read? I am rene.lynch@latimes.com

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