The Baking Girl: Apple Butter Oatmeal Bars

I finally got down to the task of lesson planning.  Can I tell you how intimidating seventh grade is?! The work load is more than we've ever done and I was crazy enough to insert another year of Latin in there. After perusing through ten subjects (including Latin), the oldest and I decided P.E. will be our favorite subject this year LOL.

The Baking Girl knew exactly how to calm our nerves from the encumbrance of lesson planning by baking a yummy treat- The Pioneer Woman's Strawberry Oatmeal Bars. I would suggest using a sugar-free preserve as this tends to get very sweet otherwise cut the sugars in half. As it happens we also had a jar of apple butter so we thought it would be good to make another batch replacing the strawberry preserve with the apple butter. I have to say I like the apple butter better!

Here is the recipe per the Food Network, the only thing different is the use of sugar-free apple butter:

Ingredients:
1 3/4 sticks salted butter, cut into pieces, plus more for greasing pan
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cup oats
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
8 oz. apple butter
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter a 9-by-13-inch rectangular pan.
Mix together the butter, flour, oats, brown sugar, baking powder and salt. Press half the oat mixture into the prepared pan. Spread with the strawberry preserves. Sprinkle the other half of the oat mixture over the top and pat lightly. Bake until light brown, 30 to 40 minutes. Let cool completely, and then cut into squares.

Pictures to share:

on a recent trip to Velvet ice cream factory we stopped at the nearby orchard to get some goodies including this apple butter

The Baking Girl with her latest creation - note the big gouge on the pan, I just had to have a piece before taking this picture.  It's best cut into squares and cooled in the fridge.

lesson plan in pencil, the final plan will be in sparkly ink ;-)