Gluten-Free Strawberry Almond Bars

A breakfast of champions doesn’t have to be something elaborate and can very well be these hearty gluten-free strawberry almond bars. When you have a busy workweek schedule like I do you want to have breakfast, quickly, and something fit for a king. Let’s face it if you work during the week you don’t have time to make yourself a heavy breakfast and you either skip out on breakfast or pick something up that is not healthy for you at all. Our schedule simply doesn’t allot for what we would like so we opted for making breakfast ahead of time.

Prep-Ahead

Sundays are our weekly prep days for all of our upcoming weekly meals. We go ahead and bake something for breakfast to last us a whole week. From banana nut bread, yogurt-fruit and oat parfait jars, coffee cakes and bars we try to vary up breakfast weekly so as to not get bored too easily from the same meal over and over. We try to couple all of the breakfast items with a protein shake and or hard-boiled eggs to sustain us through the day. Of course we go all out on the weekends with an assortment of pancakes, scrambled eggs, bacon, scones…essentially anything that tickles are fancy.

Try It Out

Whatever the desire, this prepping-ahead helps us to stay healthy and fed on our busy work/school days and also helps us to avoid the temptations of resorting to fast food or plain skipping the most important meal of the day. If you’re struggling with making breakfast, start with these bars and enjoy! 

Gluten-Free Strawberry Almond Bars

Ingredients

3/4 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup almond paste
1 teaspoon vanilla extract or almond extract or 2 drops bitter almond oil
1 bag King Arthur Gluten-Free Cookie Mix
1 large egg
1 8-ounce jar jam (raspberry is especially delicious; apricot and cherry are great, too)
1 cup sliced blanched almonds
2 to 3 tablespoons coarse white sparkling sugar, optional

Prepare

1. Preheat your oven to 375°F. Lightly grease a 9″ x 13″ pan.
2. Beat the butter and almond paste until smooth. Add the extract and blend in the cookie mix; the dough will be crumbly. Remove 1 1/2 cups of crumbs to reserve for streusel topping.
3. Add the egg to the remaining mix and blend until smooth. Spread the dough in an even layer in the bottom of your prepared pan.
4. Warm the jam and spread it over the dough. Lightly mix the almonds with the reserved crumbs, and sprinkle evenly over the jam. Top with sparkling sugar, if desired.
5. Bake the bars for 26 to 28 minutes, until they’re golden brown and the jam is bubbly. Remove from the oven, cool for 30 minutes, then cut into squares while still warm. Cool completely before serving.