Cherry Graham Crumble Bars

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Cherry Graham Crumble Bars

My daughter Olivia was in mind when I decided to turn a family favorite dessert crumble into a cookie bar recipe. Our entire family loves cherries and Liv in particular loves anything with graham wafer crumbs in it. Here the sweet ripe cherry compote pairs very well with the buttery crumble in these very delicious cookie bars. They also freeze pretty well to save some for lunchbox treats. We sometimes individually wrap and freeze these sorts of cookies to pop into packed lunches. Just throw them in frozen and they will be thawed and ready for lunch; makes a great Holiday freezer treat too.

Cherry Compote Filling

In a small saucepan combine:

3/4 cup sugar
3 1/2 cups pitted, quarter cut cherries

Simmer very slowly for about 20 minutes or until the juice from the cherries is reduced by half. Thicken the compote by stirring in a cornstarch slurry made from dissolving 3 rounded teaspoons of corn starch in an ounce or so of water. Continue to cook for one minute stirring constantly before removing from the heat and cooling almost to room temperature.

Crumble

In a large bowl toss together:

2 tsp baking powder
1 2/3 cups graham cracker crumbs ( digestive biscuit crumbs work well too)
2 cups flour
1 cup brown sugar

Using your hands, rub thoroughly through the dry ingredients:

1 ½ cups butter, cut in small cubes.

When the butter is fully incorporated press half of the crumble mixture into the bottom of a lightly greased and parchment lined 9x13 inch pan. Spread the cherry compote evenly over the base layer.

Press the rest of the crumble mixture together in handfuls so that it holds together and break off chunks of crumble all over the top of the prepared cherry filling. Press down very lightly and bake for about 40-45 minutes at 350 degrees or until the top is golden brown. Cool completely in the pan before cutting into squares or bars. This is a freezer friendly cookie bar recipe too.