Strawberry Jam Crumble Bars

Strawberry season … It’s a cracking time of the year. Day by day, we unfreeze little by little, and the smell of juicy strawberries at the grocery store is undeniably Spring. I love it! In the last few weeks, I’ve baked all the strawberry recipes. Crumbles, jams, and even the odd cobbler, full of these sweet, ripe berries. These Strawberry crumble bars are a bit of a culmination of making too much homemade strawberry jam and needing an easy lunchbox treat one Sunday afternoon. We’re talking a light, buttery shortbread base, a layer of strawberry jam and topped with a streusel crumb topping. Monday morning tea heaven right there!

Why you are going to love about this easy strawberry crumble bars recipe…

This is such a super quick recipe. All the prep work is done in your food processor in under 5 minutes. Seriously, the hardest part is waiting for it to cool before eating!

It has morning tea written ALL OVER IT. No joke, I have taken this to work so many times and it always disappears.

While this strawberry bars recipe is morning (or afternoon) tea heaven, it also lends itself to an easy summer dessert. Just top each bar with a scoop of ice cream for a bit of a different take on strawberry shortcake. Voila!

What you need to get started

• Baking Essentials – white sugar, all purpose flour
  
  
  
• Straight from the fridge, cold Unsalted Butter
  
  
  
• A little salt to help deepen the flavor.
  
  
  
• Strawberry Jam. I used a cup of homemade jam, however, I’ve also used Bon Maman’s Strawberry Conserve before and it was equally delicious. Fruit conserves tend to be runnier than jams so just factor that in when… You could also substitute the strawberry layer with your favorite jam. Blueberry Jam, raspberry jam, cherry jam. So many variations… go forth and experiment!
  
  
  
• Vanilla extract.

Here’s how to make jam shortbread bars

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celcius
   
   
   
2. Grease and line a 34cm x 20cm slice pan with parchment paper
   
   
   
3. Place all the ingredients except the jam into a food processor and pulse until the dough resembles fine crumbs.
   
   
   
4. Place 2/3 of the crumble mixture in the slice pan and press down to make an even layer. Spread the strawberry jam evenly over the base and top with the remaining crumble topping.
   
   
   
5. Pop into the preheated oven and bake for 30 minutes.
   
   
   
   
6. Remove from the oven and leave to cool.
   
   
   
7. Cut into bars and serve

Equipment you’ll need

The quickest way to make shortbread is in a food processor. The multipurpose blade cuts the cold butter through the dry ingredients in a flash. It does depend on the size of your food processor with how long it will take. Mine is quite large – It’s a Magimix 5200XL and a total beast! It takes under a minute to make the shortbread dough. A smaller food processor might just take an extra 30 seconds to mix everything thoroughly, as it’s quite a big slice.

Don’t have a food processor? You could also make this by hand by rubbing the butter and the dry ingredients between your fingers until you have a crumbly, breadcrumb-like mixture.

How to store these strawberry crumb bars

After cooling, slice and pop them in a single layer in an airtight container in the fridge. They will happily last in the fridge for up to 5 days.

Have a sweet tooth? Here are some more sweets for you to try…

• Apple and Blackberry Crumble
• Easy Irish Buttermilk Scones
• Spiced Dulce de Leche Thumbprints
• Chocolate Chip Banana Brownies
• A Mid-Summer Raspberry Eton Mess
• Mars Bar Slice

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