Blue Ribbon-prize winning Apricot Bars recipe

Award-winning food items writer and photographer Liza Gershman’s latest guide taps into a deep very well of affectionate nostalgia for modest towns and county fairs. With 80 recipes representing all 50 states, “County Reasonable: Nostalgic Blue Ribbon Recipes from America’s Modest Towns” (Photos Publishing, $45), features a good deal of sweet bites — and savory types, much too.

The e book involves pickles and relishes, as well as award-successful-recipes for pies, cakes and cookies, like these apricot bars, which acquired Jill Moritz a blue ribbon at the Los Angeles County Honest, one particular of the premier county fairs in the region. Some 89 million people today have attended the fair considering that its inception 100 several years in the past.

Apricot Bars

Ingredients

2 cups all-objective flour

¼ teaspoon baking powder

¾ cup butter (1½ sticks)

1 cup sugar

1 egg

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

12-ounce jar apricot preserves

Instructions

Warmth oven to 350 degrees. In a compact bowl, whisk collectively flour and baking powder set aside.

In a huge bowl, using a hand mixer or stand mixer, cream butter and sugar until finally fluffy, 5 to 7 minutes. Beat in egg and vanilla. Slowly include flour and baking powder to creamed mixture, mixing well. Reserve one particular-third of dough and set apart.

Push two-thirds of dough onto the base of a greased 13- by 9-inch baking pan. Unfold with apricot preserves and crumble remaining dough over this layer. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or right up until golden brown. Cool completely in pan on a wire rack. Slash into bars.