Strawberry Pie Sour Cream Crumb Bars

 Strawberry Pie Sour Cream Crumb Bars

 I have been scouring Pinterest and the world wide web for some oh so yummy dessert bars. I have found a couple that were good, but just not unbelievable delicious like I was looking for......until today. I found such a yummy, creamy and crumbly dessert that I hope everyone makes for themselves, because they are DELICIOUS. They are Strawberry Pie Sour Cream Crumb Bars. I found the recipe on The Recipe Critic 's blog. I have also included it down below. Enjoy, because I know I am as I am eating one as we speak. Yum Yum!!!

 

Strawberry Pie Sour Cream Crumb Bars

Step 1: Mix together the brown sugar, flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Add in butter until incorporated. (I forgot to take a picture before I put most of it in the pan, so there should be about 3 times as much as this)

 

Step 2: Press all but about a cup of the crust onto the bottom of a greased and floured 8x8 pan. (I also forgot to take a picture of just the crust pressed in by itself)

Step3: Mix together the sour cream, sugar, flour, egg and vanilla. Spread evenly over crust.

Step 4: Spoon the strawberry pie filling over the sour cream filling and gently swirl. 

Step 5: Sprinkle remaining crust over the strawberry swirl. Bake at 375 degrees for 25-28 minutes or until golden brown. Cool completely and cut into squares.

Strawberry Pie Sour Cream Crumb Bars

Crust:

• 1/2 c butter, melted and cooled to room temperature
• 1/2 c light brown sugar
• 1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt

Filling:

• 1 c strawberry pie filling (or any kind you would like)
• 1/2 c sour cream
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 Tbsp all purpose flour
• 1 egg
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1.  Preheat oven to 375 and prepare an 8x8 square pan by lining with parchment paper and spraying with cooking spray.

2.  Make the crust by whisking together in a medium bowl the flour, brown sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt.  Add the melted butter.  The dough will be crumbly but make sure all of the butter is incorporated.

3.  Reserve 3/4 cup of the crust and press the remaining into the bottom of your 8x8 prepared baking pan.

4.  For the sour cream filling, mix together in a large bowl the sour cream, sugar, 1 Tbsp flour, egg, and vanilla.  Pour over the crust in your 8x8 pan.

5.  Spoon your pie filling over the sour cream and gently swirl with the sour cream filling with a spoon.

6.  Sprinkle your reserved 3/4 cup crust over the top and bake for 25-28 minutes or until golden brown.  Cool completely and serve into squares.  Store in the refrigerator up to 3 days. :)

Original recipe from The Recipe Critic

By gosh, I think I have finally figured it out

A few months ago, I decided that I wanted to grow a homemade sourdough starter. I started it with just pineapple juice, flour and water. 

After the first 6 days, I was starting to get discouraged because NOTHING was happening. And if any of you have ever made a sourdough starter, you know how much work and babying it is to get one going. Well, I was about to throw P.J (that's it's name :)  ) down the drain, but I decided to stick it out another day so I could say I gave it a full week.

Well on the morning of the 7th day, P.J, finally started growing. From there, it was even more hard work keeping PJ fed and happy until he was finally ready to be either baked with, or put in the fridge so he can go dormant until I was ready to bake with him.

I tried several recipes for bread and none of them were right. They never rose like they were supposed to and they turned out gray on the top instead of crispy golden brown. When they baked, they spread out instead of up. When we ate them, they weren't your normal bread texture. It was way more dense since there wasn't enough rise in it.

So I gave up on bread for a while.....until yesterday. I was ambicious and tried 2 different recipes. They called for longer rise times and I was very impressed with the result.

Look at these beauties. Just look at their golden crisp crust. Yum Yum.


The loaf on the right probably was the winner in taste and texture of the bread. It had more holes in the bread, which is what I think of when I think of sourdough bread. It was bit tangier in flavor than the other and it didnt have any commercial yeast in it at all. The one on the left called for just 1/8 of a tsp just to give it a little more oomph, but I don't think it needed that push. PJ seemed to pull through on his own just fine.

I got the original recipe from Simply So Good Blog. It is super simple. But since I am using my sourdough starter, I made a couple changes.

3 cups all purpose flour (original recipe called for unbleached, but all I had was bleached all-purpose flour so that's what I used)

1 3/4 teaspoons salt

1 cup starter (my starter is a bit thicker than I would have liked so I added a touch more water)

1 1/2 cups water

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, salt and starter.  Add water and mix until a shaggy mixture forms.  Cover bowl with plastic wrap and set aside for 12 - 18 hours.  Overnight works great.  Heat oven to 450 degrees.  When the oven has reached 450 degrees place a cast iron pot with a lid in the oven and heat the pot for 30 minutes.  Meanwhile, pour dough onto a heavily floured surface and shape into a ball.  Cover with plastic wrap and let set while the pot is heating.  Remove hot pot from the oven and drop in the dough.  Cover and return to oven for 30 minutes.  After 30 minutes remove the lid and bake an additional 15 minutes.  Remove bread from oven and place on a cooling rack to cool.  

 

In her recipe, she mentions using a cast iron pot with lid like a Le Creuset, but I don't have one of those so I decided to try it in my Rachel Ray covered casserole dishes. 

 

The loaves turned out beautiful so I believe as long as you have a dish that can withstand 450 degrees and has a lid to create the steam effect, you should be good.  Happy Baking!!

New Year....new goals....let's hope, anyways

Wow, so I thought that starting this blog would get me to actually write in it. Apparently it didn't. BUT....I'm going to do something about that this year. One of my goals this year is to keep up with the blog. At least a few times a week.

I also have a couple other goals this year that I plan to stick with.

Goal #1: Keep up with the blog. Write at least 3 posts per week
Goal #2: Lose 30 pounds by the end of the year
Goal #3: Start exercising at least twice a week, even if I have met goal #2 already
Goal #4: Be more organized


Well, I started working on goal #2 on Monday. I have lost 4 lbs already and am actually enjoying making all sorts of new healthy recipes. Recipes will be posted later.

Goal #3 will be started on Monday of next week. I was not ready to get my butt to the gym yet, especially since I was starting "The Diet" this week as well. I need to do things one thing at a time and get used to each one until I start a new one. Sooooo....on Monday, I will be starting to go to the gym.

Happy New Year everyone (even if I am 10 days late.)