Peach Bars

I really love the collection of vegan cookbooks I have going on. The 100 Best Vegan Baking Recipes has some really great recipes in it and so far I have loved everything that I have made! I took the recipe for Apricot Bars and adapted it to Peach Bars. I think the peach jam I used definitely was sweeter than intended for the recipe, but I liked it a lot. When treats are very sweet it almost makes you more satisfied with one instead of wanting to go back for more. That's not necessarily a bad thing!

Peach Bars

1 earth balance baking stick, softened [1/2 cup]

1/2 cup sugar

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

Topping:

1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon flour

1/4 cup sugar

3 tablespoons earth balance, cut into small cubes and chilled in the fridge

1 1/2 cups (more or less) peach jam

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 8x8 pan.

In a medium bowl, cream together earth balance and sugar. In a small bowl, mix flour and salt. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients in batches to make a stiff dough. Spread in the bottom of the pan and poke with a fork several times. Bake for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, mix together flour and sugar for topping. Add in the chilled earth balance with a pastry cutter until mixture is coarse and crumbly. Keep topping in fridge until using.

After base has baked, spread jam across the top and sprinkle the topping on. [I found that at least 1 1/2 cups was necessary for the jam layer to cover the top - use more or less as you prefer.]

Bake 20-25 minutes, until topping is browned. Let cool on a rack for 30 mins before cutting.