Blueberry Bonanza Bars

This was a process! These cookies took longer to make than most 3 course meals. It was a 3 step ordeal for a 3 layer cookie bar. Don't let me scare you, although it was time consuming, the recipe is pretty fool proof, I don't think there's much chance that you can really mess this one up.

The most interesting part of the instructions for me was the first step- which included processing my own almond paste from slivered almonds. I think adding almond paste may have been a little less laborious. Hopefully this procedure gives the crust some of it's crumbly-ness, otherwise, it's probably not worth it.

I know I said I was going to halv these for portion control, but as it turns out, a lot of people enjoy tasting cookies- including co-workers and family members, who knew :) I made a full batch of these.

The Crust

The rest of the dry ingredients required no sifting of any kind. That's always nice. And once all the dry are incorporated, you just add in eggs and cold diced butter and poof- you have instant pie crust. This is the easiest way to make crust I've come across. So I'm not much of a baker, and probably should have figured this out a while back, but I'm not complaining. I'll certainly be using this technique in my future backing escapades.

The Second Layer- Blueberry Bonanza I used Trader Joe's Blueberry Preserves for this recipe and I couldn't have been more pleased with the outcome. The amount of whole blueberries that came out of that jar was unbelievable. After pressing the crust into the baking pan, blind baking and cooling, I commence layering in the preserves.

Numero Tres- Granola Topping

To rewind for a second. I made the granola before I "preservified" the crust, the granola requires baking itself, so you're in the oven for about 1.5 hours total. Crust, Granola, then Crust, Blueberry and Granola. Keep that in mind to make time management more effective.

The rest of the slivered almond and coconut go into the granola along with some other filler and sweetener. Here's where I say the recipe goes a little nuts- literally. The amount of granola produced would cover this bad boy about 3 times. You can certainly store it for another use, but you could cut the granola production in half or even to 1/3 and your bars would come out full crunchy with no future snacking offenses with which to concern yourself- if you concern yourself with those types of things. My leftovers are in the pantry for yogurt topping.

They're very texture rich. I like the contrast of the crust and crunch of granola. I have to say that with both the crust and topping being sort of thick, I probably would have opted for more filling, but who ever knows- extra filling means extra slippage. They're pretty moist and actually pretty light in the mouth although I know they look like they'd weigh you down like a ton of bricks. Certainly worth it if you've got 2 hours to make cookies. If you want a quick sugar fix stay tuned for macaroons- next week.

Cheers!

*Photos by Scott Homa