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Apricot Walnut Bars

These buttery fruit-and-nut bars taste like rugelach but are much easier to make.

Recipe information

  • Total Time

    1 hr

  • Yield

    Makes 32 bars

Ingredients

1

1/3 cups all-purpose flour

2

/3 cup sugar

1

/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1

/2 teaspoon salt

1

1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) cold unsalted butter, cut into tablespoon pieces

2

large egg yolks

1

teaspoon vanilla

1

/2 cup apricot preserves

3

/4 cup chopped walnuts (3 oz)

Need to make a substitution?

Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 425°F. Butter a 9-inch square baking pan and line with 1 sheet of foil, leaving a 2-inch overhang on 2 opposite sides, then butter foil.

    Step 2

    Pulse flour, sugar, cinnamon, and salt in a food processor until combined. Add butter and pulse until mixture resembles coarse meal with some roughly pea-size butter lumps. Add yolks and vanilla and pulse just until clumps of dough form, about 30 seconds.

    Step 3

    Press three fourths of dough evenly onto bottom of pan, then spread with apricot preserves. Crumble remaining dough over preserves and sprinkle evenly with walnuts.

    Step 4

    Bake until top is golden brown and preserves are bubbling, 20 to 25 minutes. Cool in pan on a rack. Lift from pan by grasping both ends of foil. Cut into 32 bars and lift bars off foil with a spatula.