peach streusel shortbread bars

Hey! Welcome back to our weekly recipe series. If you're new here, you can discover more of my culinary creations on social media @alliesbananabread.

Okay, this might be one of my favorite desserts I've made yet. It started because I had some ripe peaches but then... I ate them all? I couldn't resist. They were staring at me and I was craving.

But I couldn't get the idea of a peach dessert out of my head, and I didn't want to wait for more peaches to ripen, so I just grabbed some frozen sliced ones from the store.

Initially, I was going to make a peach crisp, but I wanted something a little more substantial. Sometimes I feel like crisps are just a topping for ice cream, you know? I wanted something that would be amazing with ice cream but could totally stand on its own too.

I'm a HUGE shortbread girl, and I remembered how delicious those blueberry lemon shortbread bars I shared with you guys were. So I tried that same concept with this peach recipe and it came out goooorgeeouuusssss.

The peach and streusel layer is still super soft and crumbly like a traditional crisp, but it's sitting on top of this buttery shortbread base that just makes everything better. It's the perfect combo—you get all that peachy gooeyness with the rich shortbread underneath.

As always, I'm open to your suggestions for future recipes—feel free to reach out via email, Instagram DM, or however works best for you.

love u all!! -Allie.

Ingredients:

• 9x9 pan

• flaky sea salt (topping)

• powdered sugar (topping)

shortbread crust:

• 1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks)

• 1/2 cup sugar

• 1 1/2 cups flour

• 1/2 tsp salt

peach filling:

• 1/4 tsp salt

• 1/2 tsp cinnamon

• 3 tbsp light brown sugar

• 1 tsp lemon juice

• 1/2 tsp vanilla

• 2 cups frozen sliced peaches (or fresh)

• 1 tbsp cornstarch

• 1 tbsp water

streusel:

• ⅔ cup light brown sugar

• ½ tbsp cinnamon

• ¾ cup all purpose flour

• 6 tbsp butter (cold)

Instructions:

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Make shortbread crust by mixing all the ingredients together. It should look like a crumble mixture.

3. Spray pan with non-stick spray and pour shortbread mixture in and press down/mush together until it becomes flat.

4. Bake for about 20 minutes or until sides are looking somewhat golden.

5. While this is in the oven, prepare the peach mixture by mixing all the ingredients (except water & cornstarch) on medium heat.

6. Once mixture starts bubbling, mix the 1 tbsp of cornstarch & 1 tbsp of water (this is called a slurry) and add it to the pan to thicken up the mixture.

7. Cook on low for about 6 minutes and then take it off the heat.

8. For the crumble, mix all the dry ingredients together, and then cut up your butter into a few pieces and add it.

9. Mix until crumbly.

10. When the shortbread crust is done par-baking, add the filling and then the crumble on top of that.

11. Bake for about 30-40 minutes/until the top is golden brown.

12. Once cool, sprinkle some flaky sea salt on top and powdered sugar.