Apricot-Oat Squares

Every other Christmas my family travels to Colorado to spend the holidays skiing and each year the group tends to get bigger and bigger as the younger ones become engaged, marry, and have children.  Since there were going to be 17 of us, my mom came up with the idea to do a Dirty Santa gift exchange one night.  As a result, Nathan, my fiance, received a five-pack of Knott's preserves which have been sitting in our pantry, untouched for almost three months. 

Now don't get me wrong.  I definitely like jam, but we just never really get the urge to eat a PB&J (despite the fact that we have five jars of opened peanut butter-- creamy, crunchy, extra crunchy, honeynut crunch, and natural if you must know.  we like a variety).  But anyway, we just never really eat much jam. 

I came across this recipe a couple of weeks ago and bookmarked it.  Not only did it sound good but it was going to use up a jar of jam!  They took no time at all to whip up and were delicious as well; different then anything I've had before- almost like a crumble in bar form.  If you're not an apricot fan, spread on your favorite preserves, but you definitely will want to eat this over a napkin, or even the kitchen sink as they are very crumbly!

Apricot-Oat Squares

Makes one 8x8-inch pan

1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cups regular oats
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
6 tablespoons chilled butter, cut into small pieces
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
3/4 cup apricot preserves

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Combine flours, oats, sugar, butter, and nutmeg in a food processor; pulse 5 times or until mixture resembles coarse meal.

Press two-thirds of oat mixture into bottom of an 8-inch square baking pan coated with cooking spray. Bake for 10 minutes. Spread preserves over warm crust. Sprinkle with remaining oat mixture, and press gently. Bake for an additional 25 minutes or until lightly browned and bubbly. Cool completely in pan on a wire rack.

Adapted from Cooking Light.