Award Winning Apricot Bars

Okay, as coached by Co-Worker Tanya, I will begin with the recipe. But please remember what we always/now say here at Bustle and Vim: "Come for the recipe; stay for the story

Ingredients:

1 1/2 sticks butter, softened

1 cup sugar

1 egg, room temperature

1/2 tsp vanilla

2 cups flour

1/4 tsp baking powder

1 1/3 cups sweetened shredded coconut

1/2 cup chopped pecans

1 jar Apricot preserves (I like Bon Maman)

1/4 cup dried apricots, chopped

Preheat the oven to 350. In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar until thoroughly mixed and fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla.

In a separate bowl, whisk flour and baking powder. Then add gradually to butter mixture. Finally, add coconut and pecans.

Lay a sheet of foil in a 9x13 pan and spray with cooking spray.

Press 2/3 of dough onto the bottom of the foiled and greased pan. Spread with preserves. Sprinkle chopped dried apricots on top. Crumble remaining dough over preserves. Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until golden brown.

Cool completely and then lift foil up and out. Slice in bars.

Do you want to know that each bar has about 200 calories?

So, I love most things apricot - jam, bath gel, face scrub, those Pepperidge Farm short bread cookies with the raspberry apricot jelly. The only apricot item I'm not in love with are actual apricots. Go figure.

This recipe is the yummiest shortbread + apricot + yummly crumble. I love crumble - it's the whole reason for eating cobbler. Which is why these bars are so good - they're like cobbler, but without so much hot fruit, just a little/right amount, and a lot of pastry!

This photo is supposed to be a close up of Apricot Bar Deliciousness, but really, I think, it's more a close up of my very cute plate. I don't know when I became a fan of the Bicycle Motif, but Pier 1 is right there with me. I was wandering around that very shop today with a $10 gift card burning a hole in my pocket when Younger Son called to me, "Mom, there's something here you would like." Um, Son, this entire enterprise seems to be built around what I would like.

Anyway, this particular plate is no longer available, but here is something awfully close and perhaps even cuter.

But back to the Apricot Bars...

The recipe I found and fiddled around with was called Award Winning. To be completely precise, I haven't won an award for these bars. Yet. But other people have. So, there's that. Also, my boys loved them, so BOOM! All the award one needs.