I love peaches and grew up eating lots of peaches. We lived not too far from Campbell, MO, which grows some the absolute best peaches you ever tasted. During peach season we would make the trek over there and buy 3-4 bushels of over ripes. I think the variety was Elbertas. They were big, dead ripe, juicy freestones. They would be canned (my dad loved home canned peaches), frozen and Grandma Casey still dried some. And there would be lots of home made peach cobblers too. So we all grew up eating and loving peaches in any form. We all still do. In the past couple of years I have rekindled a love affair with dried peaches. I love to simmer until tender, using water and a couple tbsp. of cider vinegar. Then mash with a potato masher, as some cinnamon, not too much, just enough for a bit of fragrance, some brown sugar and some white sugar, tasting so they aren't too sweet. Then allow to simmer uncovered until thickened. It is a good substitute for peach butter on toast, used as a pie or cobbler filling or in this case, used in peach bars.
I have a liking for peach bars, but too many of them are most just sweet than having any real peach flavor. The shortbread also tends to be a bit bland and boring. I decided I wanted some thing that was neither bland nor boring. Also having a good peach flavor. I decided to try using my cooked dried peaches for the filling and they were perfect, peachy, but not too sweet. For the shortbread, I decided to kick things up a bit using browned butter, a bit of almond extract and some almond flour. It was a hit! If you don't have almond flour or choose not to use it, just use an extra cup of all purpose flour.
Crust:
2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup almond flour
1/2 cup softened butter
1/2 cup browned butter, cooled
1 cup white sugar
1 egg
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract
Crumb topping:
1/2 cup browned buttter
3/4 cup flour
1/2 cup almond flour (or another 1/2 cup of all purpose)
1 1/2 cup sugar
2 cups of cooked dried peaches as above, or a can of peach pie filling or a jar of peach jam
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9x13 inch cake pan. Make the crust by mixing all of the crust ingredients until well blended and no lumps. Press evenly over the bottom of the cake pan and about half way up the sides. Spread the peaches evenly over the crust. Mix together all the crumb topping ingredients until they are crumbly. Sprinkle the crumbs evenly over the top of the peaches, then bake at 350 degrees about 40 minutes, until the bottom and the crumb topping are both golden brown. Cook completely before cutting into serving sized pieces.
No reason you can't use other types of fruits for the topping. They just need to be cooked and not too runny or two sweet. You could also add some chopped nuts to the crumb topping as well.
