Cherry Macadamia Crumble Bars

I know. I'm officially a blogging slacker. If it wasn't for Tuesdays with Dorie and leftover Christmas recipes, it'd be even worse, I am sorry to say. But, I still have a couple of things I've made in the past month or so that I still need to blog. So, at least I've got some reserves...

The thing is... I'm trying to eat healthy. I'm running my 5th marathon in April and I'm determined to kick this marathon's ass... which means... less of the ole... get home from a stressful day at work and bake a batch of cookies to devour and more... get home from a stressful day at work and eat two bowls of honey nut cheerios or a bag of 100 calorie popcorn or a handful of hershey kisses (or all three simultaneously). It doesn't mean I'm cutting out sugar or fat... it just means I'm only baking when I can share things with other people so that I don't get stuck with eating it all. And to semi-satisfy my sweet tooth I eat handfuls of m&ms or hershey kisses.

Anyway... enough about me and more about cherries and macadamia nuts and butter. Is that a trio or what?

I've sung Jennifer at Bake or Break's praises many times, but she continually makes and blogs the desserts that appeal to me the most. And the pictures... well... if her pictures don't make you lick your computer screen then you need to get your eyes checked. They are amazing. I have oh about 15 zillion of her recipes bookmarked to make and this is a recipe I've had printed out forever.

When she made them they were Raspberry Hazelnut Crumble Bars. I had cherry preserves and macadamia nuts on hand, so I changed that out in the recipe. I made these for the "healthy" dessert at my family's Christmas Dinner. And yes... by "healthy" I mean... these have some sort of sugared fruit product in them, therefore they are healthy. These bars a loaded with butter... so, be sure to make these when you can share them.

I think using cherry preserves was a mistake. Cherry preserves are less substantial than other jams and jellies and therefore I should have used like 4 jars of the stuff to make a good layer of cherry. I definitely wanted more cherry flavor and by the time these finished baking, the cherry flavor was definitely very minimal.

They are delicious bars though and I think with strawberry jam or raspberry they would be amazing! Or maybe a boatload more cherry preserves and some dried cherries thrown in, too... that might work. I think I'll have to try them again... in the name of experimentation of course. :)

Here's the recipe directly from Jennifer's site... Raspberry Hazelnut Crumble Bars