Apricot Ginger Crumble Bars

My regular readers know that I am constantly lamenting over how I suck at baking.  One day my son told me that I was terrible at baking because I just can’t follow any rules. I guess the teenager in him meant it in a pejorative way but somehow the idea appealed to me – I have always taken such pride in being a rebel! For a while this worked for me but then my daughter came back from college this summer and said to me “your no-baking excuse is just a cop-out! How come you tell us to try harder to improve at anything but just give up when it comes to yourself?” Ooops, I guess I have met my match!!! And now I am being forced to expand my baking repertoire.
Two days ago very gingerly (pun intended!) I made these Apricot Ginger Crumble Bars and was surprised by how well they came out! I guess I can bake now 🙂

I love the combination of fresh fruit with fresh ginger and since Apricots are in season these days I added fresh ginger and Ginger Liqueur to them.  Most recipes for crumble bars use shortening but I used butter in these crumble bars and they came out really well. A cup of good coffee and a crumble bar this morning took me straight to heaven!

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Ingredients:
1.    3 cups of all-purpose flour
2.    1 and 1/2 cup of sugar
3.    1 teaspoon of Baking Powder
4.    8 oz of unsalted butter (softened and at room temperature)
5.    2 teaspoons of Vanilla extract
6.    ½ teaspoon of grated fresh ginger
7.    2 tablespoons of Ginger Liqueur ( I used Domaine de Canton) but if you don’t drink alcohol, you can do without this ingredient too!
8.     1 egg
9.    ¼ teaspoon of salt
10.    3 tablespoons of cornstarch
11.    About 20 ripe fresh apricots

Direction:

1.    Preheat the oven at 375 Fahrenheit.

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2.    Combine the 3 cups of all-purpose flour, 1 cup of sugar and one teaspoon of baking powder in the food processor and pulse all the dry ingredients together.

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3.    Take tablespoon of melted butter and using a small piece of a paper towel spread it on the bottom and sides of a large baking dish (I used a 9”X13” Pyrex dish).

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4.    Place the remaining amount of butter, one egg and a tablespoon of Ginger Liqueur and a teaspoon of Vanilla extract in the food processor and pulse the contents gently for 30 second or so to make crumbly dough.

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5.    Using a sharp knife cut the apricots into small pieces (discard the stones) and place all the chopped pieces in a large bowl.

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6.    Add the grated ginger to the chopped apricot pieces.

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7.    Add the second tablespoon of ginger liqueur to the apricot pieces. If you don’t use alcohol, you can completely omit this step!

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8.    Also add ½ cup of sugar and 3 tablespoons of cornstarch to the apricots and gently mix everything together ( be careful not to mash up all the pieces of the apricot flesh)

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9.    Spread about half of the dough (a little more than half is okay as well) at the bottom of the buttered baking dish and pat it down to make an even layer.

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10.    Add a layer of the chopped apricot pieces on top of the patted down dough.

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11.    At the very end spread out a layer of the remaining amount of dough on top of the apricots. Do not pat this dough down too much – preferably keep this layer lightly crumble on top.
12.    Place the dish in the heated oven for 45 minutes or so – or until the top layer looks golden brown.

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13.    Take the dish out of the oven and let it cool down completely before cutting them with a sharp knife.
14.    Serve with some vanilla ice cream to make a yummy dessert or just the bar by itself (along with coffee or tea) for a yummy snack!
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comments

  1. Permalink Submitted by Adora's Box on Mon, 03/06/2013 - 17:46

    This really looks so good, Shabnam. I like the high ratio of fruit to crumble. Perfect for the summer.

    • Permalink Submitted by Shabnam on Sat, 08/06/2013 - 03:48

      thanks Adora! My kids love these bars and so now I make them with various kinds of fresh fruit – whatever is in season!

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