good bye summer

i don't think these peaches were all that great to begin with so the only thing to save them was paula deening it with some butter and sugar. although i did manage to restrain myself (only due to the fact that i was working with a minimal amount of butter)

the bars could have lived with more butter (especially for the top, or get that drizzle in to make it get that crusty topping), but man the peaches were tasty.

Peach & Pecan Oat Crumble Bars (adapted from here)

(9 x 9 pan)

Base Dough

6 T unsalted butter, softened at room temperature for 1 hour

~1/4 c maple syrup

3/4 c flour

dash of salt

dash of cinnamon

Peach filling

~1 lb peaches, unpeeled (I used 4 medium/large peaches)

1 T cinnamon/sugar mix (I had leftover premixed stuff)

Pecan Oat Topping

2 T unsalted butter, softened at room temperature

1/2 c instant oats

1/4 c flour

1/2 c pecans, chopped

dash cinnamon

dash salt

Preheat oven to 350 F and lightly grease a 9 x 9 baking dish.

Roughly chop the peaches into 1/2 inch pieces and toss in sugar and cinnamon and set aside. I did this step while waiting for the butter to soften so it soaked for a couple hours.

In a bowl cream butter with maple syrup. Add flour, salt and cinnamon until the dough is soft and pulled together. Press the dough firmly into the bottom of the pan and refrigerate.

Wipe out the mixing bowl and mix the butter, oats, flour, pecans, cinnamon and salt until soft and crumbly.

Spread the chopped peaches over the base. Crumble the pecan topping over the peaches and bake for about  30-35 minutes or until the topping is lightly browned. The topping won't stick together completely because of the small amount of butter.

Let cool for at least an hour before slicing and serving.