Food Friday: Recipe for Chocolate-Drizzled Cherry Bars

Kelsey found this recipe on Taste of Home's online site this week, and we served them at my "Mom Thing" (encouraging young moms and mentoring group, click on the link to read the amazing things Bonnie shared with us to do with your little children in my post, "Children's Work is Only Begun: Learning to Play, Playing to Learn").  I'll be posting more of her great ideas in the next few Timely Tips on Tuesday posts!

As to these bars, my husband really loved this recipe!  So funny:  he rarely if ever takes seconds of anything!  Wednesday or Thursday, when these were a day or two old already, he took the pan, put 2 bars on his plate, and then began eating the crumbs out of the pan!  Ok, we know this is a recipe to definitely keep and make again for him.  I hope you'll enjoy it, too!

Chocolate-Drizzled Cherry Bars

Serves 36 servings

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 cups quick-cooking oats

1-1/2 cups sugar

1-1/4 cups butter, softened

1 can (21 ounces) cherry pie filling (we made two 8inch square pans, and did one cherry and one raspberry pie filling, because we had some of each to use up)

1 tsp almond extract

1/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips

3/4 tsp shortening

Directions:

• In a bowl, conbine flour, oats, sugar and butter until crumbly.  Set aside 1-1/2 cups for topping.  Press remaining crumb mixture into an ungreased 9x13 inch baking dish.  Bake at 350 degrees for 15-18 minutes or until edges begin to brown.
• In a bowl, combine pie filling and extract; carefully spread over crust.  Sprinkle with reserved crumb mixture.
• Bake 20-25 minutes longer or until edges and topping are lightly browned.  In a microwave or  heavy saucepan, melt chocolate chips and shortening; stir until smooth.  Drizzle over warm bars.  Cool completely on a wire rack.

Nutrition Facts:  1 serving (1 each) equals 156 calories, 7 g fat (4 g saturated fat), 17 mg cholesterol, 68 mg sodium, 22 g carbohydrate, 1 g fiber, 2 g protein.

Oh, man! Do these smell good when they come out of your oven!!

Enjoy!