Description
This homemade jam bar recipe is from the “Vintage Camper Trailer Cookbook” by Paul Lacitinola and Caroline Lacitinola. Enjoy the assortment of vintage camper images and adverts, and camper-kitchen friendly recipes that are perfectly at home wherever you roam.
Note: These aren’t a delicate bar. Although you could use a separate bowl to combine the flour, baking powder, and the salt and gradually add it to the creamed mixture, I stop the mixer, add in the dry ingredients, and give them a little swirl with a spoon to briefly combine them. Don’t dig too deep; it’s a quick mixing of the dry ingredients. Then you’re switching the mixer back on to combine the wet ingredients and the dry ingredients. It’s a convenient way to go from messing up two bowls to one.
Ingredients
- Jam Bar Ingredients
- 3/4 cup Butter, Softened
- 1 cup Granulated Sugar
- 1 Large Egg, Room Temperature
- 1/2 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- 2 cups All-Purpose Flour
- 1/4 teaspoon Baking Powder
- 1/2 teaspoon Salt
- 1 1/3 cups Sweetened Shredded Coconut
- 1/2 cup Walnuts, Chopped (Optional)
- 1 (10-12 ounce) Jar Strawberry Preserves
Instructions
- 350* oven.
- Spray a 13 x 9 baking pan with Pam for Baking with Flour or Baker’s Joy and set aside.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream together the softened butter and white sugar for 5 minutes or until light, fluffy, and combined.
- Beat in the egg and vanilla extract.
- In a small separate mixing bowl, combine the all-purpose flour, salt, and baking powder. Give them a stir, using a whisk if the flour is a little lumpy.
- Add the dry ingredients to the creamed ingredients and mix, but not all the way. Stop the mixer when a few streaks of flour remain, then add the coconut and walnuts, if using. Do not overmix.
- Press 2/3 of the crumbly mixture into the bottom of the prepared 13 x 9 pan. This is the base of your bars.
- Using a spoon, gently spread the preserves in the fruit flavor of your choice over the top.
- With your hands, kind of flatten out portions of the remaining 1/3 of the dough, and lay it gently over the top of the fruit preserves.
- Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until the top is golden brown. Cool completely on a wire rack away from the heat source.
- Note: They suggest topping with a little powdered sugar before serving (after it is completely cooled, or the confectioner’s sugar will melt), but I didn’t find the need for extra sweetness.