FRUIT-FILLED OATMEAL SQUARES

 Last Friday was the first day that we had temperatures above freezing since the first week of February. It was only 34 degrees F, but the sun was bright and it was a beautiful day. After lunch we went for a ride just to get out. (Check out the view of the Missouri River we saw.) I told Wayne as we were leaving our neighborhood that the two weeks + of extreme cold had not been as unbearable for us as it could have been because of the coronavirus and staying in and avoiding people.

Before I heated up the last of our Chicken-Tortellini Soup for lunch, I made this Amish recipe from The Amish Cook's Baking Book cookbook by Lovina Eicher with Kevin Williams for Fruit-Filled Oatmeal Squares. (Kevin is an internet friend from https://www.amish365.com/ ) Lovina said you could experiment with different fruit fillings so I think that is why it is called Fruit-Filled and doesn't name a fruit. 

She likes to use homemade pie filling for the recipe, but said you could use store-bought too. Her recipe used apple pie-filling but since I had a "no-sugar-added" cherry pie filling and wanted to reduce the amount of sugar in the dish, I made it using cherry-pie filling. That also allowed me to add a scoop of Butter-Pecan ice cream without feeling too guilty. The name implies a little more form that it had by calling it squares, but as long as you know that, it is fine.

FRUIT-FILLED OATMEAL SQUARES

1/2     cup (1 stick) butter, softened

1/4     cup flour

1        cup packed brown sugar

1-1/2  cups quick-cooking rolled oats

1        (21-ounce) can fruit pie filling, your choice

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

In a large bowl, combine the butter, flour, brown sugar, and oats until mixed evenly and the texture resembles coarse crumbs.

(I combined the dry ingredients first and then the butter and mixed with a fork to form crumbs.)

Press two-thirds of the mixture into an ungreased 9 - inch square pan.

Spread the pie filling over the crumbs in the pan evenly.

Then sprinkle the remaining crumbs

on top.

Bake until the oatmeal topping begins to turn golden brown, about 25 minutes. Cool completely and cut into squares. 

Store leftovers in a sealed contained or cake safe.

Great served over a scoop of ice cream if you like...

It is not uncommon in the winter to have chunks of ice floating down the Missouri River and we can drive to a small town that Kansas City has grown around and walk by the river. Today we didn't walk but just stayed in our car at a boat landing. This of course is a still picture but the river was flowing quickly as usual.