Peach Pie Bars

I rarely remake recipes. Even more unheard of is if I were to make a recipe twice within one week. That’s exactly what I did with these bars. This is the THIRD time I’ve made them, and second time within a week.

After taking these blueberry bars to some friends house the other day, I found myself with half of a bushel of peaches in the house. They were ripening fast and I needed to use them up as soon as possible. I decided to make these bars but with chopped peaches.

When I looked in the fridge, I didn’t have any plain yogurt, but I had some vanilla yogurt that I package up for us to take for breakfast at work every day. Since the vanilla yogurt has sugar in it already, I cut down the amount of sugar in the recipe. It worked like a charm and these bars were not too sweet.

I left the skin on the peaches for two reason. For one, it makes the recipe a whole lot easier. Second, the skin provides a subtle tartness that you lose when you peel peaches. I baked these on a Thursday night, cut them up and put them in a tupperware container to take to work. Then, wouldn’t you know it, I left the container on the counter. So my coworkers didn’t get to try them. These bars are a great way to highlight any fruit that you have in season.

One Year Ago: Peach, Bacon, and Avocado Sandwich
Two Years Ago: Blueberry Cinnamon Rolls
Three Years Ago: Black Bean Burgers and California Turkey Burgers
Four Years Ago: Caramel Almond Chocolate Cupcakes and Strawberry Peach Basil Cupcakes

Peach Pie Bars

Yield: 16 bars

Ingredients:

Crust and Topping
1 1/2 cups flour
3/4 cup sugar
pinch salt
12 Tbsp unsalted butter, chilled

Fruit Filling
2 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt
6 Tbsp flour
pinch salt
1/2 tsp vanilla
~3.5 cups fresh peaches, chopped (~4 peaches)

Directions:

To make the crust and topping, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 8x8 inch baking pan.

Combine the flour, sugar, and salt in a bowl. Cut the butter into 1/2-inch cubes, and add to the flour mixture. Use a pastry cutter to cut the butter into the flour mixture until the butter is evenly distributed but the mixture is still crumbly.

Reserve 3/4 cup of the mixture to use as the topping. Press the remaining mixture into the bottom of the pan, and bake 12-15 minutes. Cool for at least 10 minutes.

To make the filling, whisk the egg in a large bowl, then add the sugar, yogurt, flour, salt, and vanilla. Gently fold in the peaches and spoon the mixture over the crust. Sprinkle the remaining flour mixture evenly over the filling, and bake 60-75 minutes until the top is starting to brown.

Cool at least 1 hour before cutting into bars, or scoop out of the pan to serve cobbler-style.

Recipe adapted from The Pastry Queen